Greek Tzatziki

Our family recipe from Chania with love

By Elina Vogiatzaki

The old Greek classic dip with yogurt, garlic, and cucumber. Yummmm!!!! This is what most people think when they hear the word “Tzatziki”, but this food is much more than that. This is why I chose to share this recipe with you.

Although you can find different variations all over the internet, below you will find our family recipe.

Tzatziki contains more than what you can see and these ingredients are so good for your health. Eating tzatziki can help you maintain a strong immune system, fight microbes and add a variety of healthy nutrients to your daily diet.

You can use it as a dip for your bread or vegetables, add it as a sauce to your wraps or combine it with your potatoes and fatty meals to help your heart.

If you are suffering from high blood pressure or high cholesterol, make tzatziki your friend. Finally, if you are trying to reduce weight, tzatziki and beetroot salad are a great solution for a quick dinner low in calories.

I often interchange the beetroot salad with tzatziki in our fridge. I usually prepare the beetroot salad in the winter, that it’s the season of beetroots, whereas tzatziki is our favorite in the summer, that it’s the season of fresh and tasty cucumbers. For in-between choices, there is hummus or other kinds of lentil dips that I will share with you soon.

ENJOY and let us know in the comments if you tried it!

Preparation: 10min
Cooking time: –
Difficulty: Easy

Recipe

Ingredients for 4 cups

500g plain Greek yoghurt
1 cucumber
2-3 garlic cloves
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. red grape vinegar
60g fresh mint or 1 tsp. dried dill
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

Make the garlic into paste (I usually chop it in very small pieces add the salt and smash it in a mortar).
Grate the cucumber
Chop the mint
Add everything (yoghurt, garlic paste, beetroot cubes, olive oil and vinegar) in a bowl, mix well and put it in the fridge.

Tips

It is better to prepare tzatziki at least 4-5h before serving it, so as the ingredients are well-blended together.
You can keep it at least for 1 week in the fridge. The more it stays in the fridge the tastier it gets.
Variation: If you are not a friend of cucumber, or if you simply want to try something different, you can replace the cucumber with grated carrot. You can find this variation sometimes in the Cretan taverns (traditional restaurants) and I like it because it gives me the flexibility to prepare tzatziki even in the winter that it’s not the season of cucumbers.