Easy Homemade Tzatziki Sauce

Creamy, tangy tzatziki sauce. Perfect with just about any Greek meat dish. For years I tried making a tzaziki sauce that rivaled my favorites from restaurants, but they always came up short. Too runny, too bland, too garlicky, not garlicky enough – how could such a simple sauce be so difficult to make?

Fortunately, tzatziki is not actually difficult. The trick is to use the correct ingredients with the right proportions. Yes, you can take regular yogurt, put it in a strainer lined with cheesecloth, and let it drip and drain over night to thicken – but this yielded less than reliable results when it came to a making a thick, creamy sauce, and relied on a big time investment for what should be a super fast and easy accompaniment. Greek yogurt is key. High quality brands are gorgeously thick and make this sauce take less than 5 minutes to put together.

As to the garlic, fresh is the way to go. I like just one small clove for 7 oz of yogurt. The trick is to mash it into a paste using kosher salt and the side of your knife. This gets that garlic flavor all throughout the sauce and keeps you from biting into any bits of raw garlic. While we’re taking about garlic, don’t forget the herbs. I go for dill and parsley, and use quite a lot of each.

Lastly, you want to use a good amount of cucumber, shredded, skins and all, with the largest holes of a box grater. Just pick up the shreds, squeeze out the  excess water, and add it to the mix. I prefer english cucumbers, but regular style works just as well.

Ready to make crazy delicious tzatziki sauce? My recipe is below.

Ingredients
1 7-oz tub Fage 2% greek yogurt
1/2 large or 1 medium cucumber, shredded
zest of half a lemon
1 small clove of garlic, mashed with a pinch of salt into a past
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh dill
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
salt/pepper to taste
1 tsp of extra virgin olive oil

Mix all of the ingredients together and try not to consume it all in one sitting. It does taste better if given 30 minutes to an hour in the fridge to let the flavors meld, but I seldom have the patience.