How to make the BEST Tzatziki Sauce! An Easy Authentic Greek Cucumber-Yogurt Sauce to use in mezze platters, wraps, gyros, or as a simple dip for pita bread, or as a delicious side to Mediterranean dishes. This EASY healthy authentic recipe can be made in 15 minutes!
Summer has filled her veins with light and her heart is washed with noon. ~C. Day Lewis
Holy cucumbers! They are in the peak of their season right now and I couldn’t be more thrilled! So cooling and refreshing, right in the middle of summer, right when we need them most. Mother nature times her gifts so perfectly, don’t you think?
One of my favorite things to make in summer is Tzatziki Sauce because this is when cucumbers are aplenty. Plus, tzatziki is just so handy! And tasty!
We use it like we do hummus, or baba ganoush as a quick snack or dip, along with cherry tomatoes, olives, and homemade pita bread, or lathered into wraps. At dinner, it becomes an easy topping for grilled salmon or kabobs. I love how versatile it is! Plus it is just yummy.
Expert Tips to making the BEST Tzatziki Sauce:
- Grate the cucumber.
- Salt the cucumber (so it releases its water).
- USE thick full-fat yogurt. Some would go even further and strain the yogurt to thicken (or use labneh), and some would go even a little further and use half creme fraiche or half sour cream to thicken. Just sayin’.
Some people prefer dill, some people prefer mint. I like both! Depending on your tastes, all of these options are just fine. No rules here, it is all about preference. Do what makes your taste buds happy. 😉
Tzatziki Ingredients:
- English Cucumber (or 3-4 Turkish cucumbers)
- salt
- Thick Greek yogurt or strained yogurt.
- 1 fat garlic clove
- Fresh dill and fresh mint (a combo of both is nice). You can use dry dill in a pinch.
- a squeeze of lemon to taste
So here is the basic Tzatziki recipe to use as a foundation, then, please, embellish to your heart’s desire.
Grate the cucumber: If using thin-skinned cucumbers, like English Cucumbers, Persian or Turkish Cucumbers, feel free to leave the skin on. ( I find these the easiest to use). If using a waxy, thick-skinned cucumber, make sure to peel, and you may also need to seed it if it is very large.
You’ll need two cups of grated cucumber which translates to about one medium English cucumber, or 3-4 Turkish cucumbers.
Grate by hand, which is really quick and easy, or use a food processor with the grater attachment, which I find is more trouble than it is worth unless you are making large quantities like we used to while catering.
Salt the cucumber to help it release its liquid.
Let this stand 10 minutes, while you whip up the remaining ingredients.
In a medium bowl, add 1 cup, whole milk, thick yogurt. Here I’m using full fat, extra-thick Greek yogurt. If you don’t have thick yogurt, options are to strain the yogurt through a kitchen towel to thicken or use part sour cream or creme fraiche. Or use part labneh!
I haven’t tried vegan yogurt yet, but if you do please leave notes in the comments below, noting the brand.
Stir in fresh chopped dill or fresh mint, or a combination of both.
Add one fat garlic clove, that has been finely minced or grated. You can always add more to taste. I like to start with one.
By now the cucumber will have released its beautiful liquid.
The two cups of cucumber we started off with, will now only amount to one cup!
Crazy how much water they hold!
Feel free to keep this beautiful salted cucumber water and add to dressings or fermentations! Delicious!
Place in a strainer and rinse out the salt.
Press the remaining liquid out with your fingers.
If you don’t have a strainer you could rinse out the salt and place the grated cucumber in a clean thin linen kitchen towel and wring it out.
As I said, you will now have 1 cup of cucumber. Gently fold this into the yogurt mixture.
At this point taste and season with salt and pepper and lemon juice.
*Because yogurt has such varying degrees of tang and sourness, I don’t like to dictate how much lemon juice to use. Sometimes I’ll use just a little squeeze, like a teaspoon or two, sometimes more, sometimes none at all. So taste and determine.
Season with salt and pepper.
I find somewhere between 1/4 – 1/2 teaspoon of salt is perfect, but again, taste and adjust.
Give this delicious, cooling Tzatziki Sauce a try this week and be sure to let us know what you think! It brings me back to some of my favorite Greek restaurants in the beautiful islands of Greece.
Serve Tzatziki With:
- Zucchini Fritters
- Classic Greek Salad
- Homemade Pita Bread!
- Falafel Bowls
- Grilled Salmon Tzatziki Bowls
- Falafel Pitas
- Greek Lamb Tacos
- Hummus
- Tabouli
- Baba Ganoush
Share any adaptions you make!
xoxo
RELATED: 35 Must-try Farmers Market Recipes, Authentic Baba Ganoush, Homemade Pita Bread!
Tzatziki Sauce Recipe!
- Prep Time: 20
- Total Time: 20
- Yield: 2 cups
- Category: appetizers, sauces
- Method: Stirred
- Cuisine: Greek
- Diet: Vegetarian
Description
How to make the BEST Tzatziki Sauce! An easy, healthy, Greek cucumber-yogurt sauce to use in mezze platters, wraps, gyros, or as a simple dip for pita, or as a delightful side to Mediterranean dishes. This SIMPLE recipe can be made in 15 minutes!
Ingredients
- 1 English Cucumber ( or 3–4 Turkish cucumbers) grated- two cups! ( see notes)
- 1 teaspoon salt ( this will get rinsed out)
- ————
- 1 cup greek yogurt ( thick whole milk, full fat)
- 1 fat garlic clove, finely minced ( use a garlic press)
- 3 tablespoons chopped fresh dill or mint (or a combo of both)
- 1/4 –1/2 teaspoon salt and pepper to taste
- a squeeze of lemon to taste
Instructions
Grate cucumbers and place in a bowl with the salt and toss well (this will help it release moisture). Let sit 10 minutes while you prep the remaining ingredients.
In a medium bowl, whisk yogurt, garlic, fresh herbs, salt, pepper and lemon juice.
Place the salted cucumber in a strainer, rinse well under the kitchen faucet, drain well, pressing out any excess liquid through the strainer, pressing down with your fingers. You will end up with one cup of cucumber.
Fold the strained cucumber into yogurt mixture, taste and adjust salt and lemon juice to taste.
Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.
This will keep 4 days in the fridge.
Garnish with fresh dill or mint sprigs and an optional drizzle of olive oil for extra richness.
Notes
If using thick-skinned, waxy cucumbers, make sure to peel. Sometimes waxy cucumbers also have large seeds, feel free to remove.
If using thin skinned cucumbers like English, Persian or Turkish, feel free to leave the skin on. I like the skin for texture. You can also peel off the skin in “stripes”, to only use part of the skin.
If using non-fat or low-fat yogurt stir in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. I don’t recommend non-fat yogurt here.
***I believe this would work with vegan yogurt– but haven’t personally tried it. Please leave recipe notes if you do – noting the yogurt brand- thanks!
In a pinch, dry dill or dry mint will work- not quite as good, but better than nothing!
Keywords: Tzatziki, Tzatziki recipe, Best Tzatziki, Best tzatziki sauce, Easy tzatziki, Keto tzatziki, Tzatziki sauce recipe, best tzatziki recipe, authentic tzatziki, authentic tzatziki recipe
So delicious and easy to prepare!!! I probably used extra garlic as we are Italian and lots of garlic goes on everything!!
★★★★★
Love it Lisa!
All your Vegan/ Vegi recipies are excellent tasty and look very colorful.I was glad to get your suggestions . Will try them over the Summer. Thanks. Have a very Sunny Sumer and keep up the good work
Thanks so much- have a great summer Rajnikant!
Love this! I made my own vegan yogurt with coconut cream- turned out great!
★★★★★
Love that Donna!
I made this last night using Silk brand plain almond yogurt and dill. It is yummy! Thank you Sylvia!
★★★★★
I use pickle juice and Nancy’s plain oat milk yogurt in sauce.
love it!
So good! I used Alpro vegan greek style yogurt (plain). It worked great!
Im in Ireland, I’m not sure where else they have it.
★★★★★
This is so easy and so very good! I may have to keep a fresh batch going at all times.
★★★★★
I made a vegan version with English cuke, and Forager organic cashew milk yogurt (doesn’t strain well so used it straight – which was great because I prefer a looser tzatziki). Served it with your Moroccan roasted eggplant dish, to which I added some potato and zucchini because my produce market ran out of aubergines!)
★★★★★
I made a vegan version with English cuke, and Forager organic cashew milk yogurt (doesn’t strain well so used it straight – which was great because I prefer a looser tzatziki). Secured it with your Moroccan roasted eggplant dish, to which I added some potato and zucchini because my produce market ran out of aubergines!)
★★★★★
Perfect Lanita! Thanks!
Can this be frozen?
Made more than I had planned for. Really like to use again instead of throwing out.
★★★★★
I’m not sure how well Tzatziki would freeze? I guess you could give it a try?
I have made this with both plain cashew yogurt and almond yogurt. It’s delicious!
★★★★★
Awesome and great to hear! Glad you liked this. 🙌
I used kite hill plain unsweetened almond milk Greek style yogurt and-wow- it was amazing! It was a rush of happy emotion finding a good recipe for a food that’s been off-limits to my dairy intolerance. Thank you so much for publishing!
★★★★★
Great to hear- thanks for the tip Erin!
I veganized this recipe with Tofutti sour cream instead of yogurt and it was perfect! I attempted plain vegan yogurt at first but it was too sweet.
★★★★★
Great to hear, thanks!
Instead of yogurt, I use the vegan substitute of tofutti sour cream doctored up with vinegar, salt and lemon juice. I can’t find a nondairy yogurt without a sweetener.
★★★★★
Love it, thanks for the tip!
Made a vegan version using Forager’s Plain cashew milk yogurt. Turned out great!
★★★★★
Great to hear!
Me, too!
Awesome!
I haven’t made this because I find I always hate Tzatziki, despite desperately wanting to love it. I feel like I am missing something and I love your recipes and trust your insights. Why does this sauce taste like thrush every time?
Maybe you dont like yogurt? You could try sour cream?
This is the best tzatziki recipe out there. Nice ratio of herbs/cukes to yogurt. Like that you suggest reuse of the drained-off cucumber juice; it always kills me to discard it. I, like another reviewer, added a splash of ww vinegar but otherwise made as written. Love love. Thank you.
★★★★★
Thanks and happy you enjoyed it!
I have made several homemade tzatziki recipes and although the ingredients are all somewhat similar give or take, this one is hands down the best. I originally made it on a night that I made a Greek dish and everyone raved about it. The next night night I made a chicken dish and my son asked me to put a big scoop on his plate to dip his chicken in.
I didn’t know whether to use the larger or smaller side of my box grater, but I used the large side. I didn’t use the salt method. I just let the cucumbers sit and then replaced the paper towels that I was letting them drain in a couple of times – and squeezed and squeezed to get as much liquid out as I could. I didn’t think my English cucumber yielded quite 2 cups so I added probably 3/4 cup of yogurt (a mix between 2% and 0% Fage Greek yogurt, which is very thick). Used the same amount of dill, salt and pepper that the recipe calls for. Increased the garlic to at least 3-4 cloves and squeezed more than a “splash” of lemon juice into it. The only thing that I added that wasn’t in the ingredients was a splash of white wine vinegar.
Thank you for helping me to finally find the perfect Tzatziki recipe!!
★★★★★
Yay!!!! Glad you liked this~!
My favorite Tzatziki Recipe!
★★★★★
This was really wonderful but we watch salt so I just squeezed the liquid out before adding the other ingredients! Put it on pita and go crazy with the stuffing! We did Israeli meatballs !
This is the BEST tzatziki sauce we have ever made. The whole family loved it. I never tried grating the cucumber…so much better! thanks so much Sylvia
★★★★★
Best Tzatziki I’ve ever made. Salting the cucumber was something I’ve not tried before. Thanks, even my husband liked it.
★★★★★