Tzatziki (Greek Yogurt Sauce)
I have a whole menu of Mediterranean food planned for this week so I decided to start with the Tzatziki, since it goes with just about everything. Tzatziki is a delicious sauce made with a Greek Yogurt base, seasoned with garlic, cucumber and dill. This cool, creamy sauce is great for dipping vegetables, bread and dolmas or as a spread for sandwiches. This tzatziki was so easy to make and so good that I couldn’t stop from eating it right off the spoon. The sauce should stay good in your refrigerator for 5-7 days and the flavor will intensify as it refrigerates. For that reason, I used minced garlic from a jar rather than fresh. I find that fresh garlic leaves me with the most unbearable breath for a good 24 hrs… no matter how many times I brush and gargle with mouthwash. Garlic from a jar is more subtle.
Tzatziki (Greek yogurt sauce)
Tzatziki (Greek Yogurt Sauce)
Tzatziki is a Yogurt based Greek sauce with cucumber and garlic. It's great for dipping meat or pita, or using as a sandwich spread.
Ingredients
- 12 oz 1 1/2 cups greek style yogurt $1.80
- 1/2 medium cucumber $0.10
- 1 Tbsp minced garlic $0.25
- 1/4 tsp dill $0.05
- 1/4 tsp salt $0.05
Instructions
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Peel and remove the seeds from half a cucumber (use a spoon to scrape out the seedy center). Using a cheese grater, grate the cucumber into the yogurt. Also add the dill, salt and garlic to the yogurt. Stir well.
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Refrigerate the yogurt sauce for at least 30 minutes to allow the flavors to blend. Serve cold. If liquid separates out from the sauce during refrigeration, simply stir to reincorporate before serving.
Recipe Notes
Be sure to use thick Greek style yogurt for this recipe because the cucumber adds a lot of moisture and will cause regular yogurt to become too thin.
I was pleasantly surprised to find cucumbers on sale 7 for $1 (or $0.20 ea) at our produce market today so that really brought the price of this sauce down. Unfortunately they are only this cheap for a short time during the summer.
Don’t let the rest of the cucumber go to waste. Slice it up for dipping into the Tzatziki, layering on sandwiches and salads or as a garnish!
Made this to go along with your homemade naan recipe (in an attempt to recreate the pillowy, soft pita I had at a Greek restaurant + their delicious tzatziki), and I was actually pretty good! I think this is closer to the thinner sauce I get on gyros rather than the variety I had tasted at that restaurant, but I think they added feta to theirs, so I’ll probably try adding some crumbled feta to this next time. I used dried dill and garlic powder and let it sit in the fridge for a few hours to let the flavors meld, and I put the cucumber in a paper towel and squeezed the water out of it before adding to the yogurt, but otherwise I followed the recipe as written.
I’ve had better luck with the texture of the sauce when I salt the cucumber and let it drain, pressing out the liquid, before adding it to the yogurt. A coffee filter works great if you don’t have cheesecloth and it keeps the finished sauce nice and thick.
Beth I would love the recipe for baba knoush if You can give it to me I would love it. thanks
.
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As always – no fancy ingredients and perfectly delicious.
We love gyros but I’ve never tried my own cucumber sauce before this week. Super easy and tasted great. We put it on our Easy Oven Fajitas. Score another two good recipes for Budget Bytes! You would be amazed how many of your recipes are now weekly staples here. Thank you so much, Beth!
This sauce is super! I love gyros, but my husband has always been turned off by them. I made this and the Oven Roasted Greek Stuffed Pitas for dinner last night. He said they were the best he’s had, but still wasn’t sold. I loved them!
I’ll be trying this tonight! Is it alright to use powdered dill and garlic as substitutes? Also, I like to add in a bit of oregano, especially when serving with gyros.
Yes, that will work, but be sure to refrigerate the sauce for a while to let the flavors permeate.
Squeeze the water out of the grated cucumber and don’t forget to add a little olive oil and vinegar too to get the original taste.
Very good. Made this today with the addition of lemon juice. I also made it in the food processor (including squeezing the extra moisture). While it make the sauce thinner, that’s fine with us because we can stretch it.
40 cents for a cucumber?? I’d love to live where you do! They cost almost $3/each where I live!
All you need to do is let your cucumber sit on a paper towel after slicing to soak up most of the moisture.
http://jaydensmominbc.blogspot.com/2011/08/tzatziki.html
I would press out as much moisture as possible out of those grated cucumbers. and also the addition of olive oil and a little lemon juice really brings out the perfect flavour!
I had no idea it was this easy! Thanks for the recipe. I have both dill and cucumbers growing this year, and would love to use the homegrown stuff this summer!
Or mix the grated cucumber with a bit of yoghurt and the salt, and leave to drain in a sieve, stirring occasionally.
Beth – you should actually drain the yogurt first, because of the added liquid from the cucumbers. Otherwise it can get too watery.