Tzatziki

evelyn/athens's Note:

This well-known Greek 'meze' is good in so many different ways...read on...

• Total Time: 10 mins
• Prep Time: 10 mins
• Cook Time: 0 mins

Ingredients:

Serves: 12

Yield: 1.5 pints

• 1 pint sour cream (or Greek-style super thick yoghurt)
• 1 English cucumber, peeled, grated on a box grater, salted lightly for 5 minutes and squeezed between the hands to remov (the long, thin, almost seedless kind)
• 3 garlic cloves, mashed to a paste
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh dill (optional)
• salt

Directions:

1. Just mix everything up together until it is all blended and the oil has emulsified into the yoghurt/sour cream. Taste for seasoning, and add salt if you think necessary. Put in a resealable container.
2. Allow to 'sit' in the refrigerator for at least 2-3 hours before using to allow the flavors to come out.
3. This wonderful meze (we do not think of it as a sauce here- it is a thick 'salata') is used to counterpoint rich, bbq'd meats (like souvlaki/shish kebab), but can be used in more diverse ways.
4. Place a small plate full on your dinner table for people to scoop up small amounts onto their bread (preferably crisp-baked pita).
5. Fry up some zucchini or eggplant slices (dredge in flour and fried in olive oil) and serve with a dollop of tzatziki on top.
6. Use as a salad dressing.
7. A dip for crudites.
8. Note: If I have time, I often lightly salt the grated cucumber and put in a colander to drain, then squeeze out water as per usual. This eliminates even more water.

Reviews

[FrenchBunny]

I love tzatziki and I love trying new recipes. This one was exceptional with a delicious flavor. I have never added oil or vinegar in any other recipes and maybe that is what made this taste so good. I did cut the recipe in half though and opted out of the dill weed. When we had it I felt it needed a bit of salt and realized I forgot to put it in the mix the night before when I made it. It is amazing how much water is in a cucumber !! Yummy stuff Evelyn, will be making this one again. Made it to go with Dolmas-Grape Leaves Stuffed With Fragrant Rice and Keftedes ( Greek Meatballs) and Greek Antipasto and everything worked out fantastic. Thanks for sharing Evelyn..

[AmandaMcG]

Delicious, and incredibly easy! I reduced the olive oil to 1/4 cup, left out the salt and added the fresh dill. I really enjoyed the flavor from the fresh dill so I'll make sure I add it next time too. I used this as a dipping sauce for flipsides pretzel crackers

[love4culinary]

This was very nice to use with dinner tonight (Di Neal's Shawarma recipe). I decided to do as chia did, and made two very small small batches of this, one using sour cream and one using thick yogurt...and I found that the yogurt was much more to my liking than the sour cream. :-) This was very tasty and I will make it again. I too enjoyed the addition of the vinegar, and I used dry dill, not fresh, as that was all I had on hand. Thanks for the recipe :-)