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Homemade Tzatziki Sauce

January 5, 2021 | This Post Contains Amazon Affiliate Links, designated by an asterisk (*).

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Tzatzi­ki Sauce is cool, creamy, cucum­ber deli­cious­ness with a hint of dill and gar­lic! The creamy ele­ment comes from Greek yogurt, though if you’re dairy-free, I’ll bet coconut yogurt could work. 

Tzatzi­ki is a beau­ti­ful dip for pita chips and fresh veg­gies. It can be used as a meat mari­nade, sand­wich spread, as an ingre­di­ent in appe­tiz­ers and sal­ad dress­ings and as a top­ping on my very favorite Mediter­ranean sand­wich, gyros! 

As a mat­ter of fact, I have a recipe to make your own gyro meat at home on this blog. So, if you love gyros, you’ll have to give it a try and add this yum­my tzatzi­ki sauce.

gyro sandwich with homemade gyro meat
https://glendaembree.com/homemade-gyro-meat

Tzatzi­ki does need to sit in the fridge for at least an hour, before serv­ing, and ide­al­ly it would rest overnight. So you will want to plan ahead to allow all those scrump­tious fla­vors to marry.

This is a sim­ple, recipe and you’re going to find so many deli­cious ways to use tzatzi­ki, I can’t wait for you to try it. 

How to Make Tzatziki

Start by puree­ing the whole Eng­lish cucum­ber with the 1/2 tea­spoon of salt. The salt is impor­tant because it will help draw mois­ture out of the cucum­ber. You can peel it, if you pre­fer, but I leave the peel on this one. 

If you don’t have a *high-speed blender or food proces­sor, you can grate the cucum­ber, try­ing to get it as fine as pos­si­ble. This will change the tex­ture of your tzatzi­ki, though. It just won’t be quite as smooth.

*https://amzn.to/3hMfDsq

*My food proces­sor has a smooth­ie cup attach­ment that I like best for this job. The food proces­sor bowl is almost too large for work­ing with this small amount of puree, so I pre­fer the smooth­ie cup.

The next step is to strain as much liq­uid as pos­si­ble out of the puree. Pour it into a *fine mesh strain­er (or line your larg­er strain­er with a cheese­cloth). Set the strain­er over a bowl and allow the cucum­ber puree to rest there for at least 15 min­utes. You’ll be amazed at the amount of liq­uid that will drain off.

*https://amzn.to/2Lqxclv

Mince up the 1/4 Eng­lish cucum­ber and prep your oth­er ingre­di­ents while you wait.

When the puree has com­plete­ly drained, put it in a bowl with all the rest of the ingre­di­ents and mix them thor­ough­ly. You will end up with a thick creamy sauce. Cov­er the bowl and place it in the fridge for a min­i­mum of one hour. Ide­al­ly, the sauce will rest overnight to allow all the ingre­di­ents to meld and deliv­er max­i­mum deliciousness.

After the wait­ing time, taste the final dip and see if you need any more sea­son­ing. Salt and pep­per to taste. Enjoy, my friend!

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Homemade Tzatziki Sauce


  • Author: Glen­da Embree
  • Prep Time: 10 min­utes
  • Total Time: 10 min­utes
  • Yield: 1 1/2 cups 1x
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Description

Tzatzi­ki is an easy creamy yogurt and cucum­ber sauce with a hint of dill and gar­lic.  This deli­cious condi­ment is often used for Greek, Mediter­ranean or Mid­dle East­ern dish­es. Serve tzatzi­ki on gyros, as a dip with pita chips, as a spread on sand­wich­es, an ingre­di­ent in appe­tiz­ers or even use it as a meat mari­nade or as the base for a sal­ad dressing.


Scale

Ingredients

  • 1 Eng­lish cucum­ber, peeled or unpeeled
  • 1/4 Eng­lish cucum­ber, peeled and minced fine
  • 1/2 tea­spoon salt
  • 1 1/4 cups plain Greek yogurt (For dairy-free try coconut yogurt.  It just needs to be thick.)
  • 2 tea­spoons lemon juice
  • 1 Table­spoon avo­ca­do oil
  • 3/4 tea­spoon dried dill weed
  • 1 tea­spoon minced garlic
  • Salt and pep­per to taste

Instructions

  1. In a food proces­sor or high-speed blender, puree 1 whole Eng­lish cucum­ber and the 1/2 tea­spoon of salt.  I leave the peel on my cucum­ber, but you can peel it if that’s your pref­er­ence.  (My food proces­sor has smooth­ie cup attach­ments that I like to use for this recipe.  My food proces­sor is large, so I feel like it can’t puree the small amount as well as the smooth­ie cup does.  If you don’t have a food proces­sor, you can fine­ly grate the cucum­ber, but the tex­ture of the tzatzi­ki won’t be quite as smooth and creamy.)
  2. Pour the pureed cucum­ber into a fine mesh strain­er and let it stand over a bowl for at least 15 min­utes.  There will be a LOT of liq­uid that drains off from just that one cucumber.
  3. Mince up the the 1/4 Eng­lish cucum­ber and prep your oth­er ingre­di­ents while you wait for the puree to drain.
  4. Stir togeth­er the yogurt, drained cucum­ber puree and all the oth­er ingredients.
  5. Place the tzatzi­ki in a cov­ered con­tain­er in the fridge to allow the fla­vors to meld.  It should rest at least one hour and ide­al­ly overnight.

Notes

The cucum­bers may con­tin­ue to release liq­uid as the tzatzi­ki sits.  Just stir it back into the dip.  If the liq­uid seems to thin the dip, too much, you can add anoth­er spoon­ful of Greek yogurt.

  • Cat­e­go­ry: Dips, Condi­ments, Dress­ings, Marinades
  • Method: Cold Prep
  • Cui­sine: Greek, Mediter­ranean

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @glendaembree on Insta­gram and hash­tag it #glen­daem­breeeats

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Filed Under: Appetizer Recipes, Condiments Dips Gravies and Sauces Recipes, Make Your Own

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glenda embree, owner glenda embree blog glendaembree.com

Welcome! I'm Glenda, the midwest writer and photographer behind this family recipe blog.

I believe that the kitchen and dinner table are where the best memories (and dishes) are made and shared. I believe cooking from scratch doesn't have to be complicated. I believe that YOU can definitely do it! Let me help you make homemade easy. Read more about me.

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