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Home » Recipes » Condiments & Sauces

Published: Jun 26, 2019 · Updated: Jun 11, 2021 by Paula Montenegro
Income from ads and affiliate links42 Comments

Easy Tzatziki Sauce

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Tzatziki is hard to pronounce but so easy to put together! Fresh and delicious, it's one of the best summer sauces to have around. It will upgrade any grilled meat, not to mention tacos, salads or as a dip for your next barbecue or pool party.

Table of Contents show
What is tzatziki?
How to make tzatziki.
What to eat with tzatziki
Greek or natural yogurt
Related recipes you might like:
Easy Tzatziki
Ingredients
Nutrition
Bowl of cucumber yogurt sauce on bowl

What is tzatziki?

It's a Greek word for a sauce or dip (depending on what you use it for) made with yogurt, cucumber, fresh herbs (dill and mint in this case), garlic, and lemon.

It's eaten cold and is very popular in Middle Eastern cuisines and parts of Europe.

Ingredients on wooden table including garlic, herbs, lemon, bowl with yogurt

How to make tzatziki.

The only more elaborate part of this wonderful sauce involves grating and salting the cucumber to rid them of extra liquid (image below, left). They have a large amount of water that needs to be discarded before being mixed with the rest of the ingredients (image below, right).

Otherwise, that liquid would go into the dip and it would become watery and not good at all.

  • Herbs: do use fresh herbs for this recipe, dried ones will not achieve the result we want.
  • Cucumber: I like to grate it with a large hole Microplane grater, but you can also dice it small.
  • Keeping: this sauce/dip keeps for about 2-3 days in the fridge. The cucumber will still release some water, so after a few days, it turns watery and weird. I don't recommend freezing tzatziki, though you technically can. But the cucumbers and herbs won't be the same.
Process shots with grated cucumber on bowl on wooden board, and herbs, yogurt on green bowl

What to eat with tzatziki

Meats: as I mentioned before, this yogurt-based sauce is amazing with grilled meats - lamb and beef are my top choices, but chicken gets a mention too - especially in the form of shawarmas, tacos, gyros, or any type of wrap. I like to use it as a spread in sandwiches with leftover meats.

Salads: if you use a thinner yogurt (dilute store-bought Greek yogurt with some milk), and add more olive oil you have a great salad dressing. I like to adjust the amount of chopped herbs and lemon juice too. You can tailor it to your personal taste.

Dip: use it as a dip and eat it with cucumber and carrot sticks, crackers or pita chips.

Close up of green bowl with yogurt cucumber sauce on wooden table

Greek or natural yogurt

How do you like this yogurt-based cucumber herb dip? I tend to like it firmer. And with a lot of fresh herbs, in addition to the garlic, lemon, and cucumber.

But you can make it thinner if using it as a dressing for example, or a dipping sauce.

The yogurt should be natural, Greek-style. I sometimes let it drain for a day - put a bowl with a colander on top, cover with a clean kitchen towel or cheesecloth and put the yogurt; let it drain covered in the fridge until you have the consistency you want - to have a thicker yogurt.

You can also make your own homemade yogurt. Good sources for this are Serious Eats and Daring Gourmet.

Top view of bowl of yogurt cucumber sauce on wooden tables

Related recipes you might like:

  • Best Chimichurri Sauce (authentic recipe from Argentina)
  • Bourbon Barbecue Sauce (two recipes!)
  • Romesco Sauce
  • Super Easy Cilantro Pesto

Let me know in the comments below if you made this recipe and loved it, and also if you had issues, so we can troubleshoot together. I love to hear what you think, always. Thanks for being here, it's much appreciated.
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tzatziki

Easy Tzatziki

★★★★★ 5 from 11 reviews
  • Author: Paula Montenegro
  • Prep Time: 40
  • Total Time: 40 minutes
  • Yield: 3 cups 1x
  • Category: Sauces, dips
  • Method: Mixing
  • Cuisine: Middle Eastern
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Description

Fresh and delicious, it's one of the best summer sauces to have around. It will upgrade any grilled meat, not to mention tacos, salads or as a dip for your next barbecue or pool party.

 


Ingredients

Units Scale
  • 2 cups greek yogurt
  • 1 cup coarsely grated cucumber (seedless)
  • 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
  • 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
  • 2-3 garlic cloves (split, germ removed and minced)
  • 2 tablespoons minced fresh dill
  • 2 tablespoons minced fresh mint
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

  1. If you have regular yogurt, let it drain for a day to thicken it. Simply put a cloth lined colander over a bowl, and let it sit in the fridge. When ready to use, discard the water that will have collected in the bottom of the bowl.
  2. Grate cucumber, add ½ teaspoon salt and let it sit for 30 minutes. It will loose a lot of water. Drain it well and add it to a bowl together with the yogurt.
  3. Add the rest of the ingredients, mix well, check for seasonings and serve cold.

Notes

Keeping: this sauce/dip keeps for about 2-3 days in the fridge. The cucumber will still release some water, so after a few days, it turns watery and weird. I don't recommend freezing tzatziki, though you technically can. But the cucumbers and herbs won't be the same.

Herbs: do use fresh herbs for this recipe, dried ones will not achieve the result we want.

Cucumber: I like to grate it with a large hole Microplane grater, but you can also dice it small.

The yogurt should be natural, Greek-style. I sometimes let it drain for a day - put a bowl with a colander on top, cover with a clean kitchen towel or cheesecloth and put the yogurt; let it drain covered in the fridge until you have the consistency you want - to have a thicker yogurt.

You can also make your own homemade yogurt. Good sources for this are Serious Eats and Daring Gourmet.

Nutrition

  • Serving Size: ⅛
  • Calories: 89
  • Sugar: 3.2 g
  • Sodium: 316.6 mg
  • Fat: 5.4 g
  • Carbohydrates: 4 g
  • Protein: 6.6 g
  • Cholesterol: 9.3 mg

Keywords: tzatziki, cucumber yogurt sauce

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @vintagekitchenblog on Instagram and hashtag it #vintagekitchenblog

from Around My French Table, by Dorie Greenspan

« Best Chimichurri Sauce (authentic recipe from Argentina)
Apple Berry Crumble »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Tatiana says

    August 19, 2019 at 5:34 am

    Tzatziki is my favorite condiment! I’ve never made it before but now I want to try. Thanks! Pinned!

    ★★★★★

    Reply
  2. Karyl Henry says

    August 18, 2019 at 8:04 pm

    I love a good tzatziki sauce! It has so much wonderful flavor from just a few ingredients. I put it on all kinds of dishes, and use it as a dip all the time

    ★★★★★

    Reply
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