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All-purpose goodness

12 Comments

Take:

16 ounces of plain, thick Greek yogurt
3 cloves of garlic
1 cucumber
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 teaspoons lemon juice

Make sure you have the thick Greek yogurt — it should be about the consistency of sour cream. If you can’t get thick yogurt, line a strainer with coffee filters, dump in the yogurt and suspend over a bowl in your ‘fridge overnight.

Peel and seed your cucumber, then run it over a cheese grater. You want a little more than half-a-cup of shredded cuke and some tiny little chunks.

In a bowl, mix your olive oil and your lemon juice, finely chop your garlic and bung it in there, too. Throw in the cucumber and then fold the yogurt in.

Do this by hand — if you use a mixer, the yogurt will separate, and no one wants that. If desired, you can sprinkle in a pinch of dill and a pinch of mint — it’s up to you.

Mix well, and put it into the ‘fridge to contemplate for a couple of hours.

Voila! Tzatziki.

Spoon it over sandwiches, use it as vegetable or chip dip, or as a side condiment for grilled meats.

LawDog

In Case of Emergency
Pear-shaped

12 thoughts on “All-purpose goodness”

  1. I never knew what that was called, but a local pizza place serves it as a side for their gyro pizza. It’s fantastic!

  2. You suck.

    I could eat this stuff by the bowlful.

    I’m gonna need to break out the Emergency Pants if I want to keep carrying IWB.

  3. If you can’t find the Greek Yogurt just use the sour cream. It works fine.

  5. This sauce is a wonderful compliment to one of my all-time Mediterranean favorites: kebbeh. Gorgeous food.

  6. You can also take 1/2 gallon of whole milk and make it yogurt easily.

    Reserve ~1/2 cup of the milk.

    Heat up the rest of the whole milk until just boiling.

    Pour it into a glass (or ceramic) container. Let it cool to 115F.
    (Don’t dsturb the skin!)

    Take 1/2 cup yogurt (greek, with ACTIVE CULTURE) and mix it with the 1/2 cup milk that you reserved.

    Gently (so as not to disturb the skin!) pour it into the container.

    Wrap it up in a towl and put in a warm oven for 8 hours. If you don’t have a towel, an electric blanket on low is great.

    Come back and you have Greek yogurt.

    Troubleshooting: If you leave it for longer it tends to gets more sour. Not bad, but potent! I wouldn’t leave it longer than 12 hours…

    If it is too soupy, you can strain in a muslin bag. (We save the water for our cats and dogs…)

  7. Now I’m hungry and craving a lamb shawarma from the local shop. This also works in a pinch for Chevapi.

  8. My yiayia’s recipe includes quite a bit more dill than yours. I’ve also seen it (sadly) served sans cucumber. But your point about the overall goodness of the stuff is correct. Mmmmmm.

  10. First recipe I’ve seen for tziki that made sense. Thanks. I’m going to make me some! It goes great with fries.

  12. In Greece we dipped flat brad(pita bread) into it and put it on our gyros and souvlkis.UUMMMMMMMM
    I’m sure it wuld taste good on cardboard too! 🙂

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