Tzatziki Sauce

Tzatziki Sauce is a multi purpose sauce for Greek dishes with cucumber, garlic, lemon, fresh dill and Greek yogurt. I love the combination of fresh ingredients and creamy base that makes this sauce a must have recipe!

There is a great little Farmer’s Market here in downtown Cincinnati that has the most addicting gyros. We drive downtown, pay for parking and deal with large crowds just for these gyros. I crave them constantly. This recipe was inspired by their tzatziki sauce with the cool cucumber flavor and fresh taste.

The sauce is really simple to make. All you need is a food processor, cutting board, knife and measuring cups. Blend your sliced cucumber with some salt before adding the other ingredients so the cucumber flavor is consistent. Salt has a way of thinning out sauces so it is important to add it in to start with the cucumber. Once you add the Greek yogurt and other ingredients, it makes a nice creamy sauce that is ready to go in just a few minutes.

This particular tzatziki sauce is on the thinner side as far as sauce goes. What do you do if you want a really thick sauce? There are some options. You can finely chop your cucumber and squeeze the excess water from it and opt out of the food processor to just whisk the ingredients together. I don’t like this way personally because you have chunks of cucumber, instead of having the flavor all through the sauce. Still tastes amazing this way though! You can also strain your yogurt. For starters, use the Greek yogurt over other types of yogurt because it is already thicker. You will then strain the yogurt using a coffee filter to get out the moisture. This can take some time and overnight straining is ideal.  A third option for thicker sauce is some sort of thickening agent, such as a gelatin.

How long does tzatziki sauce stay good for? Go with the date of expiration of your yogurt but is best consumed immediately because the longer it sits, the thinner it will become. If you use a thickening method, you are safe to eat until yogurt expiration. However, this sauce really tastes best when consumed immediately after making.

Try the Lamb and Feta Nacho recipe for your tzatziki sauce.

Tzatziki Sauce

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• 3 cups Greek plain yogurt
• 1 tablespoon freshly chopped dill
• 2 teaspoon salt
• 1 large cucumber
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 large garlic clove, minced

1. Grab ingredients, food processor, garlic press, knife, cutting board, measuring cups and storage container for sauce.
2. Slice your cucumber and put into the food processor. Ad 1 teaspoon salt. Blend for one minute.
3. Add 1 tablespoons fresh chopped dill, 1 more tablespoon salt, 1 tablespoon pepper, 3 tablespoons lemon juice, 3 cups Greek yogurt and mince 1 garlic clove. Blend 30 seconds.
4. Pour into a storage container. Expires at yogurt expiration date.
5. Put on your gyros, greek nachos, salads, use as a dip, on burgers or whatever else you can think of.

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