Tzatziki recipe
Tzatziki recipe
Greek tzatziki recipe
Tzatziki dip is undoubtedly Greece's most famous appetiser. It is a very versatile dip and can be served with crusty bread or warm pita, with chargrilled seafood, barbecued meats and is particularly delicious with lamb.
Ingredients
- 1/2 kilo thick Greek yoghurt
- 3-4 large cloves of garlic
- 1 level tsp salt
- 1 tbs vinegar
- 1 large cucumber
- 3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
Method
- Peel the cloves of garlic cut them in half, and remove the green sprout that you will find in the heart of the cloves.
- Crush the cloves and place the pulp in a mortar.
- Add the salt and mash with the pestle until you get a nice paste.
- DO NOT peel the cucumber. Cut lengthwise in half, and then each half again lengthwise.
- Using a spoon, scrape off the seeds of each quarter. You will be left with 4 "boats". Grate them, let them strain, and squeeze any excess juice out.
- Combine the yoghurt and strained cucumber in a large bowl, mix well..
- Add the rest of the ingredients, and stir well. The tzatziki is ready! Taste and add more salt if necessary.
Additional Tips
- The cucumber's secret: The reason we do not peel the cucumber is that all the nutrients are contained in the skin, as well as adding beautiful colour to the dip.
- We remove the seeds and grate just the flesh with the peel. In this way, we make sure that the tzatziki will not be too watery.
- The garlic's secret: By removing the green sprout from the garlic clove, you avoid bad breath. Crush the garlic cloves finely so that you get a better distribution of flavour in every spoonful of tzatziki.
