How to Make Homemade Tzatziki Sauce with Greek yogurt, cucumber, fresh dill and yogurt. This fresh and delicious creamy sauce is marvelous for your gyros, wraps, burgers, and pitas!
Back when I was an undergrad in college and ate all the glutens, I lived off of burritos, gyros, and pitas.
Basically, all things that could be swaddled in a tortilla or flatbread and wrapped up all cozy-like for portable convenience were my consumables.
Lamb gyros with tzatziki sauce from a local sando shop became my every Thursday lunch before heading to class.
I held tzatziki sauce in such high regard that I assumed the process of making it at home was a majorly complicated feat and would require that I venture through an enchanted goblin-inhabited labyrinth and outsmart David Bowie in order to crack the sauce’s mystical code.
But it’s not complicated, there is no tzatziki labyrinth, no goblins to be reckoned with, and much to my dismay, David Bowie’s not involved at all.
It’s easy.
Really the only preparatory step, short of mixing everything together in a bowl, is allowing the chopped cucumber to sit and drain for about 30 minutes.
We do this so that the sauce doesn’t get watery when it’s in the refrigerator. Other than the wait time, the sauce takes seconds to make. And eat. It’s fabulous like that.
What is Tzatziki Sauce?
So what is the dillio with tzatziki (get it? dill….io…?) other than the fact that it needs to get et on all your consumables?
Tzatziki is a yogurt-based sauce popular in Greece and Turkey, typically served as a dip or condiment for meat.
The basic ingredients in tzatziki are yogurt, cucumber, dill, garlic, vinegar (or lemon juice), and salt.
You can also add mint, thyme, and/or parsley to make the sauce more herby. I adapted this sauce from a recipe I found on the Cooking Light website for Tzatziki.
I was instantly taken back to my gyro Thursdays and was thrilled by how flavorful the sauce turns out while being so easy to make.
So let’s learn how to do that.
How to Make Tzatziki Sauce:
It all starts with chopping up some cucumber into small bits (Note: if you’d like, you can slice the cucumber lengthwise, and scoop out the seeds before chopping, but you don’t have to).
Place the chopped cucumber into a colander, sprinkle with a little salt, and allow it to sit and drain in the sink for 30 minutes. This ensures your tzatziki sauce doesn’t get watery from the cucumber.
Place all of the sauce ingredients in a big mixing bowl.
Give everything a stir.
Et viola! Homemade tzatziki sauce for your pitas, wraps, salads, and anything else that could use some spunk.
Use this sauce on my Chicken Tzatziki Lettuce Wraps or on my Lamb Burgers with Mint Pesto.
Get on with your bad self.
How to Make Tzatziki Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 cup plain whole milk yogurt
- 1 cup cucumber peeled and chopped into small bits
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1 tablespoon heaping fresh dill chopped
- 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
- ¼ teaspoon salt or to taste
Instructions
- Chop cucumber and place in a colander. Sprinkle with a little bit of salt, toss, and place colander in the sink and allow cucumber to drain for 30 minutes.
- Place all ingredients in a bowl and stir together well.
- Serve on your favorite gyro, pita, or in wraps and on salads.
This tzatziki looks amazing, I’m excited to try it out using cucumbers from my first-ever garden! Now I’m craving a falafel pita.
Everything about your post made me feel compelled to share this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4gABvUhhkg
Also, I eat this stuff spoon to mouth 🙂
I love tzatziki and have been wanting to make it for a long time – I’ll have to try your recipe!