Tzatziki Sauce Harder to Say than Make

You know I love Mediterranean and Middle Eastern foods. The garlic, the tahini, and all that dipping and saucing makes it one of my most craved cuisines.

But pronouncing it, well, that’s a tough one for me. My Midwestern accent means there’s nothing sexy about me saying tzatziki.

Pronounced tsah-ZEE-kee, it is a cold sauce and can be eaten as a dip, too. For example, a little tzatiki on pita bread will satisfy the hungriest dip lover. I enjoy tzatiki most as a sauce over my gyro breakfast or atop a green salad.

How to Make Tzatziki Sauce

Ingredients for tzatziki sauce

*1, 8 oz container plain yogurt

*1 cucumber, shredded

*1 tbsp olive oil

*1/4 lemon, juiced

*salt and pepper to taste

*2 cloves garlic, minced

Directions for making tzatiki sauce: Start off by straining the yogurt for two to three hours. The first photo shows that even after 30 minutes quite a bit of moisture seeps out. Who knew? Peel the cucumber and shred. Combine all ingredients and blend with your immersion blender until smooth. Refrigerate for at least an hour (preferably several hours) before serving.

I read several tzatziki recipes before trying my variation, which turned out to be ridiculously easy. Seriously, something that tastes this good should be more complicated. Few things to keep in mind:

• Many recipes call for Greek yogurt, but I went for plain Brown Cow vanilla. If you choose Greek yogurt, then you might not need to strain the yogurt for as long.
• To add a little color to my tzatziki I did not peel all the green off the cucumber, but no recipe I found mentioned this.
• If you don’t want runny tzatziki, then remove the seeds from the cucumber before shredding. I didn’t because I like it runny.
• I used my hand blender to blend. This is an easy mix, so a food processor won’t be necessary.
• Many tzatziki recipes call for dill and/or mint, which I didn’t use. This wasn’t for any particular reason; I just didn’t have any on hand.

Download the tzatziki sauce recipe here.