This creamy and cool sauce or dip is a favorite healthy side in our house. Not only is it great with fresh pita bread, but it's outstanding as a veggie dip, with some Mediterranean grilled meat or some fritters. You've probably had some store bought tzatziki sauce, but never thought to try making it on your own. It's so easy and such a treat if you've never made it yourself.
Great way to use those Cukes!
We've had quite the thriving cucumber plants this year and they've been growing at such a rapid speed that I've been needing to get extra busy making other dishes besides pickling cucumbers to keep up with our harvest. I found that making some tzatziki sauce is a great way to use some up fast.
Herb it Up!
If you want your homemade tzatziki to taste like some of the store bought tzatziki sauce you've enjoyed you really need to use both dill and mint. If you only use dill, I really think you're missing that extra pow factor in the flavor. I actually always thought just dill made the dip until I realized mint was missing. The mint addition finally gave it that perfect tzatziki taste. Now, don't get me wrong, I have not traveled to Greece and tried authentic tzatziki sauce(I really hope to some day), but comparing it to the sauces I've tried in great Mediterranean restaurants, it seems the taste is pretty darn good for a copy cat.
Real Tzatziki Zing
To give your tzatziki that extra zing, that extra deliciousness, make sure you use real ingredients. Use good full fat Greek yogurt! Don't ruin this fantastic sauce with a fat free or lowfat yogurt. Please....for the sake of your taste buds and your body, use the real deal. It's already been proven that lowfat food, especially dairy is worse for us. Saturated fat is not what's making us fat! It's the low fat/fat free "diet" food that's highly processed and screwing with our bodies. It's been all over health news in recent years. Low fat dairy means they have to take out the good stuff and replace it with bad stuff, like sweeteners or chemicals to give it better flavor. We've made the switch to full fat dairy and haven't gained a pound, if anything we're in better health than before, plus our food tastes better.
Regarding the texture of this tzatziki sauce or dip, we personally prefer the chunky version as this one is. Some tzatzikis are smooth and blended, but we prefer this sauce to have a bite to it with the creamy chunkiness. If you prefer it without chunks, just blend up the final product.
Give this awesome sauce or dip a try let me know how it turns out for you!
Try some of our other Mediterranean Recipes!
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Tzatziki Sauce or Dip
- Prep Time: 15
- Total Time: 15
- Yield: 6-8 1x
- Cuisine: Mediterranean
- Diet: Vegetarian
Ingredients
- 1 cup full-fat Greek Yogurt
- 1 full English cucumber or 3 small organic cucumbers (about ¾ lb.), seeded, peeled and diced as small as you like the chunks to be. I cut and seed them first and let them drain in a colander or dry off real good with paper towels.
- Juice & Zest of 1 lemon
- 2 garlic cloves, squeezed or minced
- ½ tsp sea salt (you can add more if you like)
- 1 Tbsp fresh dill, chopped (or 1 tsp dried)
- *Optional*- 1 tablespoon fresh mint, chopped
- fresh ground pepper to taste
Instructions
- In a small mixing bowl add cucumbers, yogurt, garlic, dill and mint
- Stir to combine
- Taste and adjust salt and pepper if necessary.
- Chill in fridge for at least an hour if you have the time. It tastes better once all of the ingredients have had time to meld together.
Equipment
Notes
Serve with pita bread, as sauce for meats, veggies, wrap spread or a dip for veggies or pita chips. Enjoy within 5 days of making.
Keywords: Tzatziki, Gyro Sauce, Vegetarian dip, yogurt dip
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