Tzatziki is a delicious Mediterranean mezze that complements a variety of dishes. It’s a fragrant and luscious dip… or condiment… or sauce, depending on how you use it. I usually serve it with lighter meatless meals, or as an accompaniment to fish. Tzatziki is a delicious accompaniment to freshly baked flatbread, pita bread, falafel, grilled veggies, stuffed grape leaves, or grilled fish. It’s very healthy, too!
Tzatziki is often served with a soupy, runny texture, but that’s not the way I like it. I crave a tzatziki with teeth… something so thick and rich that you can eat it with a fork. The secret is strained yogurt. I usually start the process with Greek yogurt, since it takes less time to strain than regular yogurt. If you’ve got the time, feel free to use plain yogurt, but you’ll need to strain it for 14-15 hours to get it really nice and thick.
Be sure to use fresh herbs and lemon juice. I like using Persian cucumbers (the small, thin ones) in this dish. You may substitute English cucumbers—those are the long thin ones wrapped tightly in plastic. Avoid using regular fat cucumbers, they are coated with wax and prone to bitterness. Nobody wants a bitter tzatziki.
If you’re a garlic fiend, feel free to add more than the recipe calls for. I’m sensitive to raw garlic, so I don’t add very much, but this dip could easily include two more cloves if you’re feeling frisky.
This dish is vegetarian, gluten free, heart healthy, high protein, low carb, lowfat, and delicious. Enjoy!
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Tzatziki
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups plain lowfat Greek yogurt
- 1 pound Persian or English cucumbers, peeled and seeded
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon fresh chopped mint or dill
- 1 clove garlic, crushed (or more to taste)
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice (or more to taste)
- 1/4 teaspoon salt (or more to taste)
- Fresh mint sprig for garnish (optional)
NOTES
Instructions
- Strain the Greek yogurt for 2-3 hours in the refrigerator. If you'd prefer to use plain yogurt and not Greek, you'll need to strain it for 14-15 hours to get the right consistency. If you don't know how to strain yogurt, you can find instructions here: How to Strain Yogurt
- Pulse the cucumbers in the food processor or hand chop to desired texture. I like them chopped small, but not minced. Bigger chunks will result in chunkier tzatziki. It’s a matter of preference. You can also grate them, if you prefer.
- Cut out an 18-inch rectangle of cheesecloth and fold into two layers. Place chopped cucumbers in the center of the double-layered cloth. Gather up the cheesecloth and twist at the top to form a bundle. Squeeze the bundle several times over the sink, twisting the bundle tightly to get rid of as much liquid as possible. If you don't have cheesecloth, use a thin dishtowel instead.
- Place strained yogurt in a medium mixing bowl.
- Add the drained cucumber pieces from the cheesecloth to the bowl along with the olive oil, chopped fresh mint or dill, crushed garlic, lemon juice, and salt.
- Use a fork or whisk to blend the ingredients together. Taste the tzatziki; add more garlic, lemon juice, or salt to taste if desired. Serve cold. Store in the refrigerator.
Nutrition
Hi Tori,
I like to use Labne for my Tzatziki and find that it yields a more robust flavor. Shlomit
Nice recipe, Torrey.
I peel the cucumbers and then cut them in half lengthwise. I use a teaspoon to scrape out the seedbed. Once scraped, I coarsely chop the cucumber and let the food processor do its work.
No need to strain the cucumber in a cheesecloth if you use this method.
Great tip, Stan!
I haven’t made it yet, but I love Tzatziki, especially on gyros. Here’s my question: How long will this stay fresh in the fridge? Thanks. Pinky
Three weeks in my fridge.
What can be used in place of the Garlic and Lemon for those allergic to Alliums and Citrus?
You can make it without both, it will have less depth to it but it will still be tasty. Make sure you use a good quality, flavorful olive oil. There really is no good substitute for garlic. For the lemon juice you could try 1-2 tsp of apple cider vinegar for a bit of tartness, but again it won’t be quite the same.
Made this last night and it was fantastic!
You don’t have to get special cucumbers to avoid the bitterness. Here is how my great-grandmother taught me to prep cucumbers when I was a little girl (her family had been subsistence farmers from just north of Italy). Cut a piece big enough to hold (about three-quarters inch) off the stem end off the whole unpeeled cucumber. Rub the two pieces together in a quick circular motion, like scrubbing. Around the cut you will see cucumber juice, then cucumber mush — and then a rather firm bit of foam will form. “See, Rose: that’s the bitter,” my Baba told me and rinsed it away.
I did taste it once: she was right! Horribly bitter! Never again! So I’ve always prepped my cukes that way, even though Mom had let the technique go and didn’t bother.
As I’ve grown up, it’s become more and more common to not get that firm foam from a cuke: I suspect those are the burpless cucumbers. So if it hasn’t formed after fifteen seconds, you just didn’t have a bitter cucumber! Slice it up and enjoy!
That’s a neat tip Rose, never heard that one before 🙂
I make Tzatzizi all the time. I make Vegan Yogurt with Cashews, and soy milk, and I ferment it into Greek Style yogurt. The recipe can be made very vegan by simply opting to use Non Dairy Greek Yogurt instead of using Dairy Based yogurt. I just thought You might be interested in knowing a vegan innovation to a great recipe.
Thanks for sharing!
after a lengthy search, this recipe was the best, imho. i have plain yogurt and coffee filters, and there is only one of me, so i’ll be making falafel, Greek salad, a roasted veggie sandwich on toasted ciabatta with kalamata olives and vinaigrette, and pan-roasted chicken with harissa chickpeas –all of which i can eat with this wonderful tzatziki! and i’m using fresh mint instead of dill.
Responding to Craig – In Greece, grills don’t usually have lamb gyros in the menu. If you go to a souvlaki grill in Greece and ask for a pita-gyros sandwich, most common choices are pork and chicken gyros. If you go to a more hip/gourmet souvlaki place, you’ll probably find gyros from lamb, beef, buffalo or even wild boar sometimes.
Regarding the recipe, I’ve used it as a base to reconstruct the one I used to help my mom make. I used wine vinegar in place of lemon and spearmint instead of mint (it can be omitted btw, most taverns or grills do).
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Excellent recipe, and thanks for the tips of using muslin and fresh lemon. We made home-made gyros from Serious Eats (Greek-American Lamb Gyros), and they’re actually perfect. Coming from Chicago, we’re very picky. But the sauce he recommends isn’t tzatziki sauce. THIS fixed it all. That gyros recipe is here (but it uses pork lardons or bacon or pork fat so may not be appropriate for this blog):
http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2010/06/greek-american-lamb-gyros-recipe.html