Typically served with Mediterranean style dishes, tzatziki adds a cool creamy compliment to foods that are packed with flavorful spice blends and rich olive oil. This easy recipe for Tzatziki sauce comes together in minutes and is so versatile.
What is Tzatziki Sauce?
Tzatziki sauce is an easy and refreshing sauce that goes well with so many things. Made with yogurt, garlic, herbs, lemon, and cucumber as the main flavors. Original versions are said to be more heavily herbed than modern recipes. Some recipes call for additional or multiple types of dairy, but traditionally tzatziki is made with yogurt.
Where Does Tzatziki Come From?
Tzatziki can be traced to the Ottoman Empire, geographically modern-day Turkey, placing it firmly in the Mediterranean as its origin and becoming heavily associated with Greek cuisine in modern times.
In Greece tzatziki is served as a condiment with bread. In the U.S. tzatziki is often used as a sauce, dressing, or dip. Often served with Mediterranean style food, tzatziki is delicious on Gyros, fries, Chicken Shawarma, and as a dip for vegetables and bread.
How to Make Easy Tzatziki Sauce
Tzatziki is a super simple sauce that can easily be made from scratch. No need to pay a premium for a pre-packaged version, you probably already have most of the ingredients on hand. Delicious, simple ingredients make tzatziki quick and easy to prepare.
Simple Ingredients for Tzatziki Sauce:
- Cucumber
- Yogurt
- Lemon
- Garlic
- Fresh herbs: Dill, parsley, chives, mint
- Salt and pepper
You’ll need 1 medium cucumber. English style cucumbers have a thinner skin which is more pleasant to eat without peeling. But any variety of cucumber works well for this recipe. Especially if you have cucumber in your garden. Tzatziki is a wonderful preparation for homegrown cucumbers in the summer months. But you don’t have to wait until summer to make this easy sauce, I’ve had success using frozen and thawed cucumbers for tzatziki!
Wash the cucumber. The peel can be removed if you like. Grate the cucumber on the large holes of a box grater or pass it through the shredding blade of a food processor to make quick work of grating.
This step is optional but will help keep the sauce from being watered down. Place the grated cucumber into a clean tea towel and squeeze out the excess liquid.
This liquid can be repurposed. Add it to your drinking water or to water your plants if you don’t want to throw it out.
Add the grated, strained (or unstrained) cucumber to a medium sized bowl.
Wash a lemon and use a micro-plane grater, or the small holes of a box grater to gently grate the lemon zest being careful not to get too much of the white pith. The pith of a lemon can be very so take one or swipes on the microplane and turn to a new spot on the lemon.
After the lemon has been zested, slice the lemon in half and juice 1 half of it. Reserve the remaining half for another recipes or to squeeze into your drinks or onto your food.
Mince 1-2 cloves of garlic. You can adjust the amount of garlic in the recipe to your liking. If you have trouble with raw garlic, meaning it makes you burp, you can boil peeled whole garlic cloves for 3-5 minutes prior to mincing, or use roasted garlic. Cooking the garlic will mellow it out making it less spicy and help with the burps.
If you are a garlic lover, by all means add more garlic!
Oxo Garlic Press
Grab a generous handful of herbs. Fresh herbs from the garden work so well in tzatziki. Dill and mint are traditional and you can also try parsley, chervil, and chives. Try a few different combinations until you find your favorite.
If you don’t have fresh herbs on hand dried will work too. When using dried herbs be sure to let the tzatziki sit in the fridge for a little while for herbs to rehydrate. You need about 2-3 tablespoons of chopped herbs (or 1-1.5 teaspoons of dried herbs). When using dried herbs, start with a lesser amount and add more to your liking. Dried herbs can be stronger than fresh and their true flavor may not be revealed until they have been hydrated in the sauce for a while.
Reserve a couple pinches of the chopped herbs for garnish.
Add the lemon, garlic, and herbs to the cucumber in the bowl along with a generous pinch of salt and pepper.
Many recipe call for Greek style yogurt, which works well because of its thick texture and this thickness will determine the texture of your tzatziki. Greek yogurt is strained when it’s made creating a thicker texture while plain yogurt, being unstrained, may be thinner. The flavor won’t be affected by the yogurt you choose, just the texture.
You can also use homemade plain yogurt if like. The yogurt you choose should be free of sweeteners or flavoring. The type of yogurt is really up to your personal preference and what you have on hand. Experiment with some different types to find one that you prefer.
Add the yogurt to the bowl and mix the ingredients until fully combined. Transfer the mixture to a serving dish and drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with the reserved chopped herbs.
How to Serve and Store Tzatziki
Tzatziki is wonderful with Mediterranean and middle eastern style meals, but it doesn’t have to be limited to those types of cuisine. It’s wonderful as a dip with fresh bread and vegetables. Dollop it into roasted veggies and grilled meat or fish. Try it with chicken shawarma and homemade hummus. You can also use tzatziki as a salad dressing.
Store tzatziki in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Eat the Tzatziki within 1 week.
Easy Recipe for Tzatziki Sauce
Equipment
- Medium Mixing Bowl
- Measuring Spoons
- Measuring Cups
- Mixing spoon
- Garlic Press
- Box Grater
- Tea Towel or paper towel
- Rubber Spatula
- Serving Dish
Ingredients
- 1 Medium Cucumber – 4"-5" long.
- Zest of 1 Lemon
- Juice of half of a lemon
- 1-2 Cloves Garlic – Minced
- 2 cup Plain, unsweetened Greek Style Yogurt – or homemade plain, unsweetened yogurt
- 2-3 tbsp Fresh chopped herbs: Dill, mint, parsley, chives – or 1.5 tsp dried herbs
- Salt and pepper – to taste
Instructions
- Mince the garlic. Set aside.
- Chop the herbs. Reserve a couple pinches for garnish. Set aside.
- Wash cucumber. Peel can be removed if you wish, as well as the seeds if they are very large. Grate the cucumber on the large holes of a box grater. Place the grated cucumber in a clean tea towel and squeeze out any excess liquid. Transfer the grated, strained cucumber to a medium sized mixing bowl.
- Using a micro plane grater, zest 1 lemon and add the zest to the cucumber. Squeeze in juice of half the lemon.
- Add the remaining ingredients; the garlic, herbs, yogurt, salt and pepper, to the bowl and thoroughly combine.
- Transfer the mixture to a serving dish and drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with the reserved chopped herbs.
- Serve cold.
Notes
- For a chunkier sauce dice the cucumbers into ¼ inch dice.
- Add more garlic if you prefer.
- Go easy on the dill to start, especially if you’re using dried. It can become overpowering quickly. You can always add more if you like.
- Serve with fresh bread
- This sauce is lovely as a veggie dip or with fish or chicken.
- Try it as a sandwich spread for a change from mayo.
- Tzatziki is a lovely compliment to spicy or rich tasting meats like gyro meat or shawarma.
- Store in an airtight container in the fridge.
- Consume within 1 week.
