Tzatziki
A seriously simple condiment that will have you standing at the counter eating it with some pita and calling it dinner.
Adapted from one of my favorite “what-the-hell-do-I-do-with-this-vegetable?” books: Vegetable Love.
- Yield: 4 Cups 1x
- Category: Condiment
- Cuisine: Greek
Ingredients
Scale
- 3 cups plain yogurt
- 3 (large) – 5 (medium) cucumbers; about 2-1/2 lbs
- 1 Tablespoon kosher salt
- 5–7 garlic cloves
- 1/4 cup packed mint
- black pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Line a meshed strainer with cheesecloth and pour in the yogurt. Let drain for 30-45 minutes. Do not drain all the liquid out; just enough to thicken the yogurt a bit, but still leave it “saucy”. Remove from the cheesecloth (keep that handy) and set aside in a large bowl.
- Trim the ends of the cucumbers, slice down the middle, and de-seed. Then slice into smaller 2” chunks, shred or finally chop [This is where a food processor will come in super handy!] and put in a bowl.
- Mix in the salt. Let sit for 1-1/2 hours.
- After the cucumber has released its liquid, strain through the cheesecloth lined strainer I told you to keep handy (I told you so). Pickup the corners of the cheesecloth and give it a good squeeze, then add the drained cucumber to the yogurt.
- Mince the garlic and mint and add to the yogurt-cucumber mixture.
- Add black pepper to taste and mix everything well.
- Ideally you’ll let this sit for at least an hour before serving, though you’re probably going to want to slather some on a pita or cracker immediately. I won’t tell, but your garlic-breath might.
Notes
I like my Tzatziki to be positively crammed full of cucumbers (see picture), if you prefer a little more “sauce” then reduce the amount of cucumbers. Alternately, you could add more yogurt, but that’s a whole lot of Tzatziki… Though who complains about that?
This keeps for about 4 days (Ha! Right!)