I was once on a trip with some friends in Crete, Greece. I was the only person on this trip who was strapped for cash, and they obviously wanted to enjoy their vacation and eat out as much as possible, and so we did, and luckily for me I LOVE Tzatziki, since it is usually the cheapest thing on the menu in Greece, so all I basically ate the entire trip was Tzatziki and flatbread and I enjoyed it to the fullest.
But you can’t say you love a dish this much, and then not know how to make it to perfection (or at least to your own perfection)
Tzatziki is an amazingly simple side dish, that you can’t help but love, the ingredients are very simple, but there are multiple different ways to make it, so you can easily experiment for yourself and find out how you like it the most.
How to use Tzatziki?
- Use it as a dip for bread – flatbread
- Use as a cool contrast to a stew – Cauliflower stew W/ Garlic rice & Tzatziki
- Serve it with curries
Ingredients
- 1 whole cucumber – roughly shredded (or cut into cubes)
- 2 cloves Garlic finely minced
- 3 Cups Greek yogurt
- 1 tbsp Olive oil
- 2-3 tsp Lemon Juice
- 1 tsp Cumin (optional)
Instructions
- Roughly grate a cucumber, salt the shredded cucumber in a strainer, squeeze the remaining liquid out of the cucumber, the salt will help drain the liquid
- Put the drained, shredded cucumber in a bowl mix the Greek yogurt, olive oil, lemon juice and minced garlic together
- Salt, pepper and lemon juice to taste
Tips for making Tzatziki
- You can either shred the cucumber or cut it into cubes, depends on what the tzatziki is for, if you’re making it as a dip to dip bread etc. into then the shredded option is usually the way to go, but in a curry or stew, the bite sized chunks of cucumber are really nice, it’s all about preference
- I like to add a little bit of cumin to my tzatziki which may not be traditional, but adds a nice Mediterranean flair
- Please experiment with different ways of making tzatziki and different uses for it
