This homemade Tzatziki Sauce recipe is easy to make with just a few ingredients. Cucumbers, garlic, lemon juice, and herbs add the perfect flavor to creamy Greek yogurt for a sauce that is perfect for dipping, topping, or spreading on all your favorite dishes!
Greek food has my heart, it really is my favorite!
And of all the Greek food I've made at home over the years, this recipe for homemade Tzatziki Sauce is the recipe I use the most. If you aren't familiar with
What is Tzatziki Sauce Made With?
There are only a few simple ingredients in authentic Greek tzaziki and nothing hard to find, you might even already have them in your kitchen!
You'll need:
- plain Greek yogurt
- cucumber
- garlic
- lemon juice
- dill
- salt and pepper
Don't fall for Tzatziki sauce recipes made with sour cream, authentic Tzatziki is made with full-fat Greek yogurt! Sour Cream will not have the same final flavor as full-fat Greek yogurt.
Step by step
This is a very easy recipe!
- Grate the cucumber.
- Use cheesecloth or paper towels to squeeze the excess water from the shredded cucumber. This helps you get the cucumber flavor without ending up with a runny sauce.
- Combine the cucumber with garlic and lemon juice in a food processor and pulse until combined.
- Stir in the yogurt and season with salt and pepper to taste.
This dip is best if it can sit in the refrigerator a few hours before serving. Try to refrigerate at least 3 hours to let the flavors combine.
Tips for Making Tzatziki
- Do not skip draining the cucumbers of excess water or you will have
a watery tzatziki, that is a very important step! - Depending on how much you love dill (I'm not the biggest fan) you can reduce the amount and/or add it just before serving to temper the flavor a bit.
- Do not use regular yogurt, Greek yogurt is thicker so it will not provide the same consistency.
- Feel free to use regular cucumbers if you cannot find English cucumbers however, this will not dramatically affect the final taste.
FAQs
It is possible to freeze this sauce but I don't recommend it if there is an option not to. The texture of the cucumber bits will change when frozen and thawed. Make it fresh for the best results.
This dip will keep in the refrigerator for 3-4 days but there will be liquid on the top you can either drain off or stir into the dip before serving.
This is a personal preference, you can leave the peel on or remove it before pulsing in the food processor. I do recommend removing any larger seeds if your cucumber has them.
Serving suggestions
For some reason the combination of yogurt and cucumbers makes almost everything taste better! I like Greek Tzatziki for putting on gyro meat in pita bread at home.
It is also wonderful for other uses like dipping veggies or pita chips, topping burgers, almost anything is better with Tzatziki on it! I even duip fries in it! Try serving it with kabobs or add a dollop to your Baked Chicken to add flavor.
If you like this recipe, you'll like these other Greek-inspired recipes:
If you’ve tried this recipe please comment and rate it below, I love hearing from you!
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Homemade Tzatziki Sauce
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 3 hours 10 minutes
- Yield: 12 1x
- Category: appetizer
- Method: none
- Cuisine: Greek
Description
Mouth-watering homemade Tzatziki Sauce is a classic Greek dip recipe. Tangy yogurt combines with cucumber and dill for a sauce perfect for dipping vegetables or adding to gyros or burgers.
Ingredients
- 3 cups plain full-fat Greek yogurt
- juice of half a lemon
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 large English cucumber
- 1 tablespoon fresh dill, finely chopped
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Grate cucumber into a bowl.
- Wrap in a cheesecloth (improvise with a few layers of paper towel if you don't have cheesecloth) and squeeze or press through a sieve to remove as much moisture as possible.
- In a food processor combine cucumber, garlic, and lemon juice. Pulse until combined. (For a smoother texture pulse more, for a chunkier dip pulse less.)
- Stir mixture into yogurt until uniform, add dill if desired or wait until just before serving.
- Season to taste with salt and pepper.
- Refrigerate for at least 3 hours before serving. Top with a dollop of olive oil if desired before serving.
Keywords: tzatziki sauce
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That Sassy Life coach says
YUM YUM YUM 🙂 XX
★★★★★
Emma Young says
Tzatziki sauce is my favorite. I tried to do it by myself few weeks ago, but in some cases I failed. I'll try to follow your recipe and hope it will be delicious. Thank you for this easy and tasty recipe.
★★★★★
Melissa says
you're very welcome Emma!
Chrissy says
Tried this last night and loved it!!!
★★★★★
Giulia | YourMurano says
This recipe is wonderful! I absolutely LOVE tzatziki sauce! I also think it would look very nice on a Murano glass plate! Thanks for the tips you gave in this article: I'll follow them next time I prepare this sauce!
★★★★★
A Brundin says
There is absolutley NO DILL in tzatsiki. Zero. Nill. Not one bit.
★
Melissa says
That's not true. Tzatziki can include a variety of herbs such as dill, mint, parsley and thyme depending on the recipe. Google it. I choose to make mine with just a touch of dill. I find it odd that you would give a recipe a one star rating when you haven't tried it rather than just leaving the comment.
★★★★★