Glad to welcome everyone again! Dear readers, today I want to offer you a recipe for making the original Greek tzatziki sauce. This cold sauce is very popular in its homeland and has gained popularity around the world.
Its unique taste will add a touch of piquant freshness to your dishes, and cooking will take you a minimum of time! A classic recipe for tzatziki sauce with yogurt, photos will help you prepare an excellent dipping sauce at home.
What do you eat it with? Tzatziki can be served as a complement to dishes of fresh vegetables, meat or fish dishes.
What's good about this sauce? Firstly, many are attracted by the availability of its main ingredients and ease of preparation. Secondly, such a simple sauce goes perfectly with many dishes; it is impossible to imagine gyros or souvlaki without it. Thirdly, tzatziki (sometimes called tzatziki or dzhadzhik) can be presented to your guests as a separate dish.
Believe me, sometimes it can be quite difficult to tear yourself away from a cracker or breadsticks paired with this Greek appetizer dip. You can talk a lot, but it’s better for you to see my words for yourself. Let's put on our aprons and head to the kitchen!
Ingredients:
1. Fresh cucumber – 100 gr.
2. Thick Greek yogurt (sour cream) – 250 gr.
3. Garlic – 1 clove
4. Fresh herbs (mint, parsley) – 20 gr.
5. Lemon – 50 gr.
6. Salt, ground black pepper
Cooking method:
1. Squeeze a clove of garlic into a deep container and add lemon juice. This mixture needs to stand aside for a bit so that the lemon and garlic can be well fed with each other.
2. Now let's get to the cucumber! I can offer you two ways to chop it: the classic Greek version on a coarse grater or a sophisticated version with cutting with a knife (2*2 mm cube). Please pay your attention to the quality of fresh cucumber.
It sometimes has a rough texture and is not well suited for making tzatziki. A young cucumber with soft skin is ideal. But if you come across a hard vegetable, you will have to remove the rough skin from it and remove the seeds from the core with a spoon.
3. Chop the greens using a kitchen knife. I prefer to buy all my greens at the market, since similar products from the supermarket do not have such a pronounced aroma, taste and beneficial properties. What greens do you get and where?
I have to buy it in stores only in winter, being content with the “greenhouse” substitute. And with the onset of the warm season, the choice definitely falls on real greens, which are sold on the market.
4. It's time to mix it all up! Pour thick Greek yogurt into a deep container with garlic and lemon (sour cream tzatziki will also taste impeccable).
5. Then add greens
7. Salt the resulting sauce and mix thoroughly. Congratulations, our tzatziki is ready!
Try it and you will feel all the tenderness and freshness of Greece! An excellent option would be if you let the prepared appetizer sauce sit for 1-2 hours in the refrigerator.
This will significantly enhance its taste and aroma. You can play with the main ingredients: replace parsley with dill, use kefir instead of yogurt.
These experiments may help you get the most suitable taste! Bon appetit!
Dear readers! Your opinion about all the dishes that I offer you is very important to me! Did you like this recipe? Have you made a sauce like this before? Or do you have your own proven method for making tzatziki?
Feel free to post your comments at the end of the article. Perhaps you have some questions about this recipe? I will be happy to answer all your questions. I look forward to your comments! See you soon!
For those who are familiar with Greek cuisine, the proposed recipes for tzatziki sauce will not be a novelty. Indeed, on Greek soil this sauce is extremely popular and is a constant dish on any menu.
Tzatziki is made from natural Greek thick yogurt with the addition of garlic and fresh cucumbers. But its variations are also possible, in which some components are replaced by others. We will talk about this and much more in our material further.
How to Make Greek Tzatziki Sauce – Classic Yogurt Recipe
Ingredients:
- – 495 g;
- sour cream – 60 g;
- garlic cloves – 2 pcs.;
- large fresh cucumber – 1 pc.;
- dried dill and parsley – 10 g each;
- lemon juice – 15 ml;
- sea salt - to taste.
Preparation
To obtain a thicker, less watery texture from natural yogurt, strain off excess liquid before using it to make the sauce. To do this, cover the sieve with a piece of gauze or cotton cloth folded in several layers. Now lower it into a pan of boiling water for thirty seconds. Then we remove it, put the yogurt in it and leave it at room conditions over a bowl for twelve hours.
Let's also prepare the cucumber properly. We’ll rinse it and if the skins are tough, we’ll get rid of them. After this, cut the fruit in half, clean out the middle with the seeds, and grind the remaining pulp on a medium or coarse grater, add some salt to the chips, mix and leave for three hours.
Now squeeze the cucumber mass from the juice, transfer the hard component to thick yogurt, add sour cream, peeled and pressed garlic cloves, dried dill and parsley, pour in lemon juice. Add some salt to the sauce, stir and let sit for a couple of hours.
Some sauce recipes are enhanced with extra virgin olive oil and call for more garlic. If you wish, you can experiment with the taste of the sauce by changing the proportions and adding other ingredients.
Greek tzatziki sauce - recipe with sour cream and pickles
Ingredients:
- sour cream 15% fat – 260 g;
- medium-sized garlic cloves – 2 pcs.;
- pickled or pickled cucumbers – 190 g;
- dill and parsley – 20 g each;
- freshly ground black pepper - to taste;
- sea salt - to taste.
Preparation
If you don’t have time to wait for the yogurt to strain and the fresh cucumbers to release their juice, you can make tzatziki sauce from sour cream and replace the fresh cucumbers with pickled ones. In addition, this option is most suitable for cooking in the autumn-winter period, when fresh vegetables are not in season. Parsley and dill will add freshness to the sauce.
To prepare tzatziki, grate the pickled cucumbers and squeeze out excess moisture from the shavings. Add the grated and squeezed cucumber mixture to the sour cream. Add peeled garlic cloves pressed through a press and finely chopped fresh herbs. Season the mixture to taste with salt and pepper, preferably freshly ground, mix thoroughly and place in the refrigerator for several hours to infuse.
What do you eat with Greek tzatziki sauce?
In Greece, not a single feast is complete without tzatziki sauce. It is mainly presented as a dip sauce, in which you can dip just a slice of fresh bread, as well as pieces of vegetables, meat, fish and seafood. It is very tasty to season boiled or boiled sauce with this sauce, as well as to complement any other dish based on it. Tzatziki will add color to the taste of any dish, make it express itself in a new way and allow the taster to truly enjoy the meal.
The popular Greek sauce Tzatziki is called in many different ways – “tzatziki”, “tzatziki”, and “tzatziki” - that’s not the point. But if you have tried this snack at least once, it has probably become one of your favorites. You can simply spread it on bread and it will turn out very satisfying. And serve with meat, fish, vegetables. And, since it is usually refrigerated before serving, this Greek sauce is perfectly refreshing in the summer heat.
Adapted recipe for Greek Tzatziki sauce
Ingredients:
- cucumbers – 2 pcs.;
- sour cream (fat content at least 20%) – 200 g;
- cottage cheese – 100 g;
- garlic – 4 cloves;
- olive oil – 2 tbsp. spoons;
- lemon juice – 1/2 tbsp. spoons;
- salt - to taste.
Preparation
Real Greek yogurt - very thick and fatty (usually made from goat or sheep's milk) - unfortunately, is not sold in our stores. All that remains is to find an adequate replacement for it. This can be a mixture of fat sour cream and cottage cheese. Sour cream can also be replaced with regular unsweetened yogurt, which we place in gauze folded several times and hung for several hours to remove excess liquid. If you don’t want to bother like that, just buy ready-made curd “Activia”. As you can see, there are plenty of options.
We will mix cottage cheese and sour cream into a homogeneous mass and add garlic, olive oil and lemon juice passed through a press. Peel the cucumbers from rough skin, grate them and squeeze lightly through cheesecloth. By the way, we don’t throw away the released juice, but use it for cosmetic purposes. You can freeze it and wipe your face with these cubes - it perfectly tones the skin!
Combine the cucumbers with the main mass, salt to taste. Place the prepared sauce in a salad bowl. It can be decorated with a sprig of oregano or mint leaves, olives and black olives.
Recipe for Greek Tzatziki sauce made from yogurt and cucumbers
Ingredients:
- cucumber – 1 pc.;
- Greek yogurt – 400 g;
- garlic – 2 cloves;
- grape vinegar – 1 tbsp. spoon;
- olive oil – 4 tbsp. spoons;
- dill – 1 bunch;
- salt, ground white pepper - to taste.
Preparation
Peel the cucumber, remove the seeds and grate it on a fine grater. Salt and leave for 10 minutes, then drain the excess liquid and mix with yogurt. Add the pressed garlic, olive oil, vinegar, chopped herbs and pepper. Mix everything well and refrigerate. After 2 hours, real Greek sauce can be served.
Tzatziki sauce is one of the most famous traditional dishes in Greek cuisine. It has several other names, including tzatziki and tzatziki. The base of the classic cold dressing is thick Greek yogurt made from goat's or sheep's milk. There are many other varieties of tzatziki, slightly different from the original in the composition of ingredients, but in no way inferior to it in taste.
The calorie content of the product is very low - 85 kcal per 100 g, so it can be consumed without worrying about your figure. Let's look at several options for how to prepare tzatziki sauce step by step so that even avid gourmets will like it.
- Unsweetened, curd "Activia" serves as an excellent replacement for sour cream;
- Cucumber juice can be frozen. It is perfect for facial skin care.
Original recipe for tzatziki sauce
In addition to the main ingredients, classic tzatziki sauce may contain herbs, olives, and black pepper. It has a very pleasant and fresh taste, perfect for spicy dishes. It is also served with fish, meat and even bread and vegetables.
Product composition:
- Garlic clove;
- 140 g Greek yogurt;
- A small spoon of olive oil;
- One small cucumber;
- A pinch of salt.
Home cooking plan:
- Peel the cucumber and grate it on a medium grater;
- Now it needs to be squeezed out. To do this, we will use a sieve and a spoon, with which we press on the cucumber. This way the juice will be squeezed out;
- Add some salt to the green fruit, stir, and leave for a minute. The salt will draw out any remaining liquid;
- Mix the squeezed grated cucumber with three large spoons of the yogurt product, which should be slightly larger in proportion than the green vegetable, mix;
- Add garlic, pressed through a press, and olive oil to this mass. Stir, taste, add salt to taste.
Place in a gravy boat and serve.
The second variation of the classic Greek dressing recipe
You will need:
- 2 garlic cloves;
- 0.5 kg of natural yogurt;
- 10 g each of dried parsley and dill;
- 60 g sour cream;
- 15 ml lemon juice;
- Large fresh cucumber;
- Sea salt - to taste.
Cooking instructions:
- The yoghurt product must be strained from unnecessary liquid to obtain a dense and less watery state. We take gauze folded in several layers or cotton cloth and line a sieve;
- Next, lower the sieve into a container of boiling water for half a minute;
- We take it out, place the fermented milk product in it, and leave it at the temperature of the living room above the plate for 12 hours. It will turn out almost;
- We will also prepare a green vegetable. If it has a hard peel, get rid of it, cut the fruit in half, and clean out the middle with the seeds. Grate the rest of the pulp on a grater with medium or large holes, add salt, stir, and leave for three hours;
- Squeeze the cucumber shavings from the juice, add to thick yogurt, add sour cream, garlic cloves pressed through a press, dried herbs, mix in lemon juice;
- Add some salt to the dressing as desired, stir well, and let it sit for two hours.
Some variations of the sauce contain cold-pressed olive oil and a large amount of garlic. You can experiment with cooking yourself, add different ingredients, change the proportions.
Tzatziki recipe with pickles and sour cream
List of components:
- 2 garlic cloves;
- 20 g each of parsley and dill;
- 260 g sour cream (fat content – 15%);
- 200 g pickled or pickled cucumbers;
- Freshly ground black pepper, sea salt - to taste.
In the classic recipe, the yogurt should be strained and the fresh cucumbers should be given their juice. Nowadays, few people have extra time, so Greek tzatziki sauce at home can be made from sour cream, and fresh vegetables can be replaced with salted ones.
This method will be in great demand in autumn and winter, when fresh fruits do not grow and are expensive in retail outlets. Greens will add freshness to the dressing.
Manufacturing process:
- Grate the pickled cucumbers, squeeze out excess moisture from them and add to sour cream;
- Pass the garlic cloves through a press, finely chop the greens, add them to the sour cream mixture, add salt and pepper, mix thoroughly;
- Place the mixture in the refrigerator for several hours so that all the ingredients are saturated with each other.
Tzatziki option without yogurt
The aromatic seasoning is prepared on the basis of sour cream and cottage cheese. Served with bread and vegetables as an independent dish, or as an appetizer for the first and second courses.
Required ingredients:
- 2 fresh cucumbers;
- Dill greens;
- 200 ml sour cream;
- 3 garlic cloves;
- 100 g cottage cheese;
- Salt, ground black pepper;
- A teaspoon of lemon juice;
- A tablespoon of olive oil.
Stages of work:
- It is advisable to take homemade cottage cheese and sour cream, or store-bought products with a high percentage of fat content. To avoid excess liquid in the dressing, use gauze folded in several layers and use it to thoroughly squeeze the dairy products;
- Next, mix them thoroughly until smooth, but do not beat;
- Remove the seeds from the peeled vegetable and grate on a fine grater. Lightly strain the mixture so that the tzatziki turns out thick, not watery;
- Grate the garlic on a grater with small holes, chop the washed greens, combine all the ingredients in one bowl;
- Add freshly squeezed lemon juice, olive oil, spices to taste, mix.
Place in the refrigerator for at least two hours.
Tzatziki with cheese and pepper
Components:
- Cheese cheese – 100 g;
- Garlic – 3 cloves;
- Sour cream or yogurt – 200 g;
- Paprika pepper – 1/2 part;
- Olive oil, salt;
- Fresh cucumber.
Homemade Tzatziki Sauce Recipe:
- Grate the peeled cucumber on a fine grater and squeeze. Yogurt and sour cream can be taken in equal proportions, add grated vegetables;
- Cut the pepper into small cubes, chop the garlic cloves in a garlic press, grate the cheese on a fine grater and add all this to the milk-vegetable mixture;
- Finely chop the greens, add them to the total mass, add salt and pepper, add a teaspoon of olive oil, and stir thoroughly.
You can spread this delicious seasoning on rye bread, they will turn out appetizing and tender.
Recipe for sour milk with vinegar
Required products:
- Fresh cucumber;
- Sour milk (10% fat) – 0.5 l;
- Salt, vinegar - to taste;
- Young garlic – 7-8 cloves;
- Olive oil – large spoon;
- Black olives.
Cooking diagram with photo:
- Grate the garlic cloves on a fine grater and mix with olive oil;
- Combine this mass with sour milk, put it in the refrigerator for several hours to soak the milk;
- Before serving, grate the green vegetable on a grater with small holes and squeeze;
- Mix it with cold milk and the rest of the ingredients;
- Decorate with olives on top.
What do you eat tzatziki with?
Not a single holiday in Greece is complete without tzatziki sauce, which is rightfully considered universal and is eaten with a wide variety of foods.
It mainly serves as a dip sauce into which pieces of fish (both sea and river), various vegetables, meat (especially grilled), seafood and simply slices of baguette and homemade bread are dipped. When cooking, tzatziki is indispensable. This dressing is perfect for fried or boiled potatoes and will add its original notes to any dish that will take on a completely different taste.
Video: Homemade Tzatziki Sauce Recipe
Of course, Greek dishes, known for their natural ingredients, are good on their own. But as in the case of Russian porridge, oil (that is, sauces) will not spoil the deliciousness. The Greeks know a lot about sauces that can delicately highlight the taste of a dish without interrupting its natural aroma. How does this work?
First of all, no complicated recipes. Out of curiosity, find out the recipe for the main red sauce in Russia - an experienced chef will spend at least 5 hours preparing it! The Greeks are generally not fans of everything confusing and overly sophisticated. Only natural and simple products, a minimum of heat treatment and fuss with cooking. And as a bonus - maximum benefit! And an obligatory point: the ingredients of any sauce must be perfectly combined with typical Greek dishes - vegetables, sea fish and cheese. Can you imagine a hearty Mediterranean meal without the freshest olive oil, thick yogurt, refreshing lemon juice and fragrant garlic? Exactly. That is why almost no sauce can do without these components.
Varieties of Greek sauces
Despite the fact that Greece was under Turkish rule for a long time, this had virtually no effect on the culinary traditions of the local residents. Fortunately, the olive paradise did not succumb to the invasion of shawarma - this is what the main sauce for meat dishes is called in Turkey.
The simplest sauces
The most popular Greek sauce- this is tzatziki. Actually, it refers to sauces rather formally, since in fact it is a salad, which is a mixture of garlic, salt and fresh cucumbers dressed with thick unsweetened yogurt. Tzatziki is most often eaten with bread, but some Greeks prefer to dip pieces of vegetables, fish or grilled meat into it.
A real classic is avgolemono sauce, ideal for stewed meats, fried vegetables, and also indispensable for making soups. This sauce is prepared in a matter of minutes, as it only requires diluting a mixture of beaten eggs and lemon juice with broth. By varying the ratio of ingredients you can achieve the ideal thickness and consistency of the sauce. A rather unusual mixture in practice perfectly complements the taste of familiar dishes, giving them a piquant sourness. The main secret is that you cannot bring the sauce to a boil, otherwise the whites will curdle and all the Greek culinary romance will disappear.
Shrimp go especially well with a sauce made from mustard, olive oil, dried herbs and lemon juice. Sometimes a little honey is added to this mixture, thanks to which the sauce acquires an incredibly delicate texture and amazing taste. Sometimes this recipe is simplified to the minimum: only butter and lemon are left. This lemon-butter sauce goes well with fish and is suitable for dressing vegetable salads. A perfect example of how the best is the simplest.
With a twist
Fried meat or zucchini is served with a thick and incredibly fragrant mixture of garlic, ground almonds and olive oil, called scorthalia. Sometimes this sauce is made with the addition of potatoes and bread crumbs - a very satisfying option, more like a full-fledged snack. If the garlic is pre-baked on the grill or in the oven, the sauce turns out more tender and less “vigorous”.
No worries!
It’s easy to assume that such an abundance of garlic could scare off many Russians, and this primarily applies to women. Well, which of the ladies at the resort would voluntarily agree to emit unpleasant fumes after eating? But don't worry about this.
Greek garlic, unlike Russian garlic, does not have such a nuclear “recoil”. The nature of Greece simply could not forgive itself for such an omission...
Do you like unusual things?
Quite non-standard for a Russian is a sauce called fava. It's actually a thick puree of beans or lentils, flavored with olive oil, lemon juice, yogurt and parsley. With fresh bread, the crunch of the crust making you salivate uncontrollably, this sauce is incredibly good.
The sauce tastes even more unusual melizanosalata, consisting of chopped baked eggplant seasoned with lemon juice, garlic and dried herbs. Fresh tomatoes, green onions and yogurt are added to taste. From a nutritional point of view, this sauce is impeccably healthy and good. From a gourmet's point of view, this is amazingly delicious!
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