Tzatziki Sauce Recipe

This delicious tzatziki sauce recipe is simple but full of flavor. It’s the perfect complement to a homemade gyro or grilled lamb.

Our family loves Greek food and the flavors of Mediterranean dishes. We are regulars at CAVA, which is like a Mediterranean version of Chipotle. We also have a Mediterranean-style meal almost every week for dinner. These meals could be something like my Mediterranean Chicken Sheet Pan dinner, grilled kebobs, or marinated chickpeas on pita bread. The perfect compliment to these dinners, aside from a delicious hummus, is tzatziki sauce.

Tzatziki is a yogurt and cucumber-based sauce, or dip, that originated in Greece. Variations of tzatziki are used in food throughout Southeastern Europe and the Middle East. Recipes for tzatziki sauce vary depending on the culture, but the base of yogurt and cucumber is always the same. Some recipes may call for vinegar or herbs like mint and thyme. While you can buy tzatziki sauce pre-made at the grocery store, I prefer to make my own. My recipe for tzatziki sauce is incredibly quick and simple, but it still packs a lot of flavors.

Tzatziki Sauce Recipe

For my homemade tzatziki, I use plain Greek yogurt as the base. I will sometimes use regular plain yogurt if that’s what I have on hand. I prefer Greek yogurt though because it is more tangy and flavorful. Add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice to the yogurt, plus 2 teaspoons of dill and a pinch of salt.  I use about 1/8 cup of diced cucumber. Then put all of the ingredients into a small food processor to blend. We have the Ninja Express Chop, which is small and perfect for making sauces and dips.

Blend the yogurt, cucumber, and spices until the cucumber is finely incorporated into the sauce. Blending the cucumber and dill gives this tzatziki a slightly green color, but I prefer this method because you get a lot of the cucumber flavor. Now, blending the sauce makes it much thinner than traditional tzatziki. I love for the sauce to be thin because it can be easily drizzled onto a pita or the whole dinner. If you prefer a thicker sauce, you could use half of the yogurt initially and then mix in the rest by hand after blending the cucumber and spices.

This tzatziki sauce is the perfect complement to any Mediterranean-style meal and is so easy to make. I also use it as one of the layers in my Layered Greek Dip.

Tzatziki Sauce

Yogurt and cucumber based tzatziki sauce with lemon juice, dill and salt.

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Prep Time 2 minutes mins

Cook Time 5 minutes mins

Total Time 7 minutes mins

Course Appetizer

Cuisine Dips, Mediterranean

Servings 8 people

Ingredients

  

• 1 cup plain Greek yogurt sub plain regular yogurt if you don’t have Greek yogurt on hand
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 2 tsp dill
• 1/8 tsp salt just a pinch
• 1/8 cup diced cucumber

Instructions

 

• Dice 1/8 cup of cucumber and set aside.
• Add 1 cup of plain Greek yogurt (or plain regular yogurt), 1 tbsp lemon juice, 2 tsp dill, a pinch of salt and the diced cucumber to a small food processor.
• Blend until cucumber is finely incorporated into the sauce.
• Serve with gyros or another Mediterranean inspired dish and enjoy!