The tzatziki sauce made with Greek yogurt, cucumbers, and garlic is a fresh, creamy, and tasty preparation perfect to be served as an appetizer with the typical pita bread or with vegetable crudités. The tzatziki sauce also pairs well with main courses of meat and fish and is delicious even with a burger in a bun.
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- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Very economical
- Rest time: 3 Hours
- Preparation time: 10 Minutes
- Portions: 2/3 people
- Cooking methods: No cooking
- Cuisine: Greek
- Seasonality: Summer
Ingredients
- 5.3 oz plain Greek yogurt
- 1 cucumber (small)
- 1/2 clove garlic
- 2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tsp white vinegar
- 1 pinch salt
Tools
- 2 Bowls
- 1 Large Hole Grater
- 1 18cm Strainer
- 1 Knife
- 1 Cutting Board
Steps
Wash the cucumber, cut it, remove the seeds if there are any, and grate it with a large hole grater. The original recipe calls for keeping the cucumber skin. I chose to remove it. Choose as you prefer. Transfer the grated cucumber into a strainer placed over a bowl and let it rest so it loses its vegetable water.
Peel the garlic and chop it as finely as possible, then crush it well with the knife blade to obtain a creamy paste.
Pour the yogurt into a bowl and season it with salt, a teaspoon of oil, and white vinegar. Mix well.
Squeeze the cucumber inside the strainer by pressing it with the back of a spoon to eliminate the vegetable water. Add the cucumber and garlic paste to the yogurt. Mix well and then place in the refrigerator for a couple of hours so the flavors can blend.
When serving, add a drizzle of oil.
Tips
Even though it’s very simple to make, there are precautions to observe to prepare a perfect tzatziki sauce:
Greek yogurt is required as it cannot be substituted with regular yogurt because it is too liquid.
The cucumbers need to be grated with a large-hole grater: it should not be too thin nor too thick.
The cucumbers should be well squeezed after leaving them to drain for an hour because eliminating as much water as possible will make the sauce nice and dense and creamy to the right point.
You can also pair tzatziki sauce with legume meatballs and chickpea burgers.
The sauce keeps for a couple of days in the fridge covered with a drizzle of oil and some food-grade plastic wrap.
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