Tzatziki sauce is the visiting card of the Greek cookbook. Tzatziki sauce is a visiting card of the Greek cookbook Other sauce recipes
Greek sauce "Tzatziki" (tzatziki) is very popular not only in Greece, but also far beyond its borders. It is made very easily and quickly, and its taste is unusually bright and rich, which allows it to be served with many dishes. And its composition is very simple. It will be especially relevant when the first cucumbers from their garden go. There are a huge number of ways to prepare this sauce, I used the recipe, peeped from the famous St. Petersburg chef Ilya Lazerson.
Ingredients
To make the tzatziki sauce you will need:
fresh cucumber - 1 pc.;
natural yogurt - 250 g;
garlic - 1 clove;
salt - to taste;
olive oil - a few drops (optional);
dill - 25 g (optional, optional).
(!) In extreme cases, natural yogurt can be replaced with 15% sour cream.
Cooking steps
Prepare natural yogurt.
Add salt and mix thoroughly so that the garlic is more evenly distributed inside the yogurt. Set aside for a while (while we will deal with cucumbers).
Then squeeze the cucumbers through a napkin. Squeezed cucumbers will be crispy in the sauce, unlike unsqueezed ones. This is exactly how chef Ilya Lazerson advised preparing cucumbers for Tzatziki sauce.
Stir gently, add olive oil, taste, add salt if necessary. You can add finely chopped dill.
Delicious Tzatziki sauce is ready and waiting to be served.
Bon appetit!
Trips to Greece are remembered not only by the beautiful nature, entertainment programs and comfortable rest. A separate conversation about the impressions of the trip is an acquaintance with the local cuisine. Many Greek dishes have become world hits, but you can only feel the sophistication of their taste in local taverns. For example, Tzatziki sauce (tzatziki): at first glance, the simplest recipe, but try to prepare it in such a way that you get a real Greek taste. If you succeed, then only after reading our article. So, the topic of today's material is the Greek appetizer Tzatziki (Tzatziki) and popular recipes for its preparation.
What is tzatziki: a bit of history
The Greek word τζατζίκι (pronounced tzatziki or tzatziki) refers to a cold sauce made from yogurt, cucumbers, garlic and herbs. It is usually served with meat and seafood, but is also used as an independent snack.
The origin of this dish is confusing. According to legend, the prototype of satsiki was the Greek Mittiko, which was served at ancient feasts. The recipe of the two dishes is almost identical, but the continuity has not been officially confirmed. Later, when the Byzantines came to the Greek lands, they changed the recipe for the classic Mittiko. Olives, eggs, cheese and wine were added to the sauce, and the finished dish was called Tzakisto.
In turn, the Byzantine recipe came to the Turks, who also remade it in their own way. The appetizer turned into a sour-milk soup with herbs, which was called Jadzhik (Cacik). And, finally, the Greeks, who fell under the Ottoman dictate, borrowed and remade the Turkish recipe. The sour-milk Ayran was replaced with a traditional Greek yogurt, and the cold Jajik soup turned into a Greek sauce called Tzatziki.
Thus, in Ancient Hellas, the classic Greek sauce was first invented, and in Modern Greece, the seasoning was first loudly called Tzatziki. Today this dish is served as a dip with meat, fish and vegetables, and is also used as an independent light snack with bread. Tzatziki is even seasoned with various salads, and according to gourmets, they are much tastier with Greek dressing than with mayonnaise or sour cream.
In addition, Tzatziki sauce also belongs to a healthy diet. After all, the dish is prepared from natural products that contain many useful substances. What is only one Greek yogurt worth: there is calcium, and magnesium, and phosphorus, and zinc, and a whole galaxy of various minerals and vitamins. Delicious, healthy and easy to prepare - what could be better for a nutritious lunch or dinner?
As you know, everything ingenious is simple. So for cooking Tzatziki at home, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel: the food is prepared quickly, simply and easily.
The only point worth noting is the quality of the original products. If you want to get a real Greek sauce, then you need to cook Satsiki exclusively from natural products. It doesn't matter if you use the ancient Hellenic Sadzyki recipe or want to try modern variations of the dish. Chefs get the rich piquant taste of the famous Greek Tzatziki only from high-quality products.
sauce ingredients
For classic Tzatziki, just four ingredients are enough. This number includes:
- fresh cucumber(1 PC);
- Greek yogurt (300-500 gr);
- olive oil (50-100 ml);
- garlic (3-4 cloves).
Particular attention should be paid to the selection of yogurt. Of course, it is better to purchase a real Greek product made from sheep and goat milk. It is distinguished by a denser consistency and a special preparation recipe, thanks to which the finished product is rich in useful substances and minerals. But if you can’t find original Greek yogurt, then you can replace it with ordinary natural yogurt, for example, Activia. Of course, in the end it will turn out not like in Greece, but it is also very tasty.
Tzatziki sauce is one of the most famous traditional Greek dishes. It has several other names, among which there are tzatziki and tzatziki. The basis of the classic cold dressing is thick Greek yogurt made from goat's or sheep's milk. There are many other varieties of tzatziki, slightly different from the original in terms of the composition of the ingredients, but in no way inferior to it in taste.
The calorie content of the product is very low - 85 kcal per 100 g, so it can be consumed without fear for the figure. Consider several options for how to cook tzatziki sauce step by step so that even avid gourmets will like it.
- Unsweetened, curd "Activia" is an excellent substitute for sour cream;
- Cucumber juice can be frozen. It is great for facial skin care.
The original recipe for tzatziki sauce
The classic tzatziki sauce, in addition to the main components, may contain herbs, olives, black pepper. It has a very pleasant and fresh taste, perfect for spicy dishes. It is also served with fish, meat and even bread and vegetables.
Composition of products:
- garlic clove;
- 140 g Greek yogurt;
- A small spoonful of olive oil;
- One small cucumber;
- A pinch of salt.
Home cooking scheme:
- We peel the cucumber from the skin, rub it on a medium grater;
- Now it needs to be pressed. To do this, use a sieve and a spoon, with which we press on the cucumber. Thus, the juice will be squeezed out;
- Salt the green fruit, stir, remove for a minute. The salt will draw out the remaining liquid;
- Mix the squeezed grated cucumber with three large spoons of the yogurt product, which should be slightly larger in proportion than the green vegetable, mix;
- Add to this mass garlic, passed through a press, and olive oil. Stir, try, add salt to taste.
Transfer to a gravy boat and serve.
The second variation of the classic Greek dressing recipe
You will need:
- 2 garlic cloves;
- 0.5 kg of natural yogurt;
- 10 g of dried parsley and dill;
- 60 g sour cream;
- 15 ml lemon juice;
- Large fresh cucumber;
- Sea salt - to taste.
Cooking instruction:
- The yoghurt product must be drained of excess liquid to obtain a dense and less watery state. We take gauze folded in several layers, or a cotton cloth, line the sieve;
- Next, lower the sieve into a container of boiling water for half a minute;
- We take it out, put a fermented milk product in it, leave it at the temperature of the living room above the plate for 12 hours. Get almost;
- We will also prepare a green vegetable. If it has a hard peel, we get rid of it, cut the fruit in half, clean the middle with seeds. We rub the rest of the pulp on a grater with medium or large holes, add salt, stir, leave for three hours;
- Squeeze cucumber chips from juice, add to thick yogurt, put sour cream, garlic cloves pressed through a press, dried herbs, mix lemon juice;
- Add salt to the dressing at your discretion, stir well, let it infuse for two hours.
In some variations of the sauce, there is extra virgin olive oil and a large amount of garlic. You can experiment with cooking yourself, add different ingredients, change the proportions.
Tzatziki recipe with pickles and sour cream
List of components:
- 2 garlic cloves;
- 20 g of parsley and dill;
- 260 g sour cream (fat content - 15%);
- 200 g pickled or pickled cucumbers;
- Freshly ground black pepper, sea salt - to taste.
In the classic recipe, the yogurt should drain, and the fresh cucumbers should release the juice. Nowadays, few people have extra time, so Greek tzatziki sauce at home can be made from sour cream, and fresh vegetables can be replaced with salted ones.
This method will be in great demand in autumn and winter, when fresh fruits do not grow and are expensive in retail outlets. Greens will add freshness to the dressing.
Manufacturing process:
- Grate pickled cucumbers, squeeze out excess moisture from them and add to sour cream;
- Pass the garlic cloves through a press, finely chop the greens, add to the sour cream, salt, pepper, mix thoroughly;
- We put the mixture in the refrigerator for several hours so that all the ingredients are saturated with each other.
Tzatziki without yogurt
Fragrant seasoning is prepared on the basis of sour cream and cottage cheese. Served with bread and vegetables as an independent dish, or as an appetizer for the first and second courses.
Required Ingredients:
- 2 fresh cucumbers;
- dill greens;
- 200 ml sour cream;
- 3 garlic cloves;
- 100 g of cottage cheese;
- Salt, ground black pepper;
- A teaspoon of lemon juice;
- A tablespoon of olive oil.
Stages of work:
- It is advisable to take homemade cottage cheese and sour cream, or store-bought products with a high percentage of fat content. To avoid excess liquid in the dressing, we use gauze folded in several layers, and with its help we squeeze dairy products well;
- Next, mix them thoroughly until smooth, but do not beat;
- Remove the seeds from the peeled vegetable, rub on a fine grater. Slightly strain the mass so that the tzatziki turns out not to be watery, but thick;
- We rub the garlic on a grater with small holes, chop the washed greens, combine all the components in one bowl;
- Add freshly squeezed lemon juice, olive oil, spices to taste, mix.
Put in the refrigerator for at least two hours.
Tzatziki with cheese and pepper
Components:
- Cheese - 100 g;
- Garlic - 3 cloves;
- Sour cream or yogurt - 200 g;
- paprika pepper - 1/2 part;
- Olive oil, salt;
- Fresh cucumber.
Homemade tzatziki sauce recipe:
- Grate a peeled cucumber on a fine grater, wring it out. Yogurt and sour cream can be taken in the same proportions, add a grated vegetable;
- Cut the pepper into a small cube, chop the garlic cloves on a garlic press, grate the cheese on a fine grater and add all this to the milk-vegetable mixture;
- Finely chop the greens, put in the total mass, salt, pepper, add a teaspoon of olive oil, mix thoroughly.
You can spread this delicious seasoning on rye bread, they will turn out appetizing and tender.
Recipe for sour milk with vinegar
Required products:
- fresh cucumber;
- Sour milk (10% fat) - 0.5 l;
- Salt, vinegar - to taste;
- Young garlic - 7-8 cloves;
- Olive oil - a large spoon;
- Black olives.
Cooking scheme with photo:
- Grate the garlic cloves on a fine grater, mix with olive oil;
- We combine this mass with sour milk, put it in the refrigerator for several hours to soak the milk;
- Before serving, grate a green vegetable on a grater with small holes and squeeze;
- Mix it with cold milk and with the rest of the ingredients;
- Top with olives.
What do tzatziki eat with?
Not a single holiday in Greece is complete without tzatziki sauce, which is rightfully considered universal, and it is eaten with a wide variety of products.
It mainly serves as a dip sauce, in which pieces of fish (both sea and river), various vegetables, meat (especially grilled), seafood and just slices of baguette, homemade bread are dipped. When cooking and tzatziki is indispensable. Remarkably, this dressing is suitable for fried or boiled potatoes, it will bring its original notes to any dish that will acquire a completely different taste.
Video: Homemade Tzatziki Sauce Recipe
To prepare tzatziki sauce at home, take fresh crispy cucumber with dense pulp. Rinse well in running water and pat dry with paper towels. If the skin is tough, remove it with a vegetable peeler. Young cucumbers can be used with the skin on. Grind on a medium grater. Lightly salt and leave for 8-10 minutes for the cucumber to release its juice.
Throw the grated cucumber into a colander and let the resulting liquid drain so that the finished sauce is not liquid or squeeze the juice with your hands. 
To the squeezed cucumber add greek yogurt. It can be bought at any supermarket. It differs from Russian yogurt in its velvety structure and dense texture. In the process of preparation, it is filtered from whey, achieving the desired density. Greek yogurt is very healthy, it is obtained by bacterial fermentation of natural goat or sheep milk. It contains a lot of vitamins, microelements, high content of protein, calcium.
If you don't have Greek in your fridge but do have classic unflavoured yogurt, pour it into a colander with cheesecloth. Fold the gauze in 3-4 layers and leave for a couple of hours so that all the whey is gone.
Mix yogurt with cucumber.
Thick Greek yogurt can be replaced with rustic fat sour cream, Armenian matsoni, ayran, curdled milk or kefir.
Garlic clean off the husk. Grate on a fine grater or pass through a garlic press. Adjust the amount of garlic to your taste. Add to yogurt mixture. Pour in lemon juice. Stir.
Wash and dry dill sprigs. Do not use dense stems. Chop finely and add to the rest of the ingredients.
Pour olive oil, salt and pepper to taste. Mix well and taste. If necessary, adjust to your liking. 
Tzatziki is ready. Place in a container with a lid and send to brew in the refrigerator for a couple of hours. After, serve with cold cuts, grilled meat, fish, french fries, potato pancakes, fried zucchini, eggplant or a slice of bread. Greeks often snack on a glass of cool ouzo, raki, tsipouro with sauce. The method of serving can be different - in bowls, gravy boat, or put on unfolded lettuce leaves, Chinese cabbage.
It is a pity, but the sauce is not prepared for a long time, it is not canned. In the refrigerator, the treat can be stored in a sealed container for no more than 2-3 days. 
On a note
- There are a lot of recipes for Greek tzatziki yogurt sauce, and they all have a right to exist. For example, instead of dill, some housewives put parsley, basil, mint, or both at the same time. Lemon juice is often replaced with wine vinegar, and in addition to cucumbers, olives, sweet peppers, white cheese (brynza) made from goat or sheep's milk are added.
- There is a modification of tzatziki, where pickles are used instead of fresh ones.
- Compared to mayonnaise, tzatziki is considered a low-calorie sauce.
Tzatziki sauce is a classic Greek appetizer. It is distributed in Turkey, Cyprus, the Balkan countries, Iran. There are many variations of this sauce. But the base is grated cucumber, thick yogurt, garlic, fresh dill and olive oil.
It is served with lamb, pork, dressed with salads, eaten with a piece of lavash.
What is tzatziki sauce
A firm favorite of summer picnics, parties and outdoor barbecues, tzatziki appetizer sauce has become a favorite all over the world. In Greece it is called zadjiki. In Turkey - Jadzhik. In Cyprus - talaturi.
The name of the sauce comes from the Turkish word cacık, which in turn is supposed to have been borrowed from the Armenian word cacıg.
In Greece, it is made from thick, salty yogurt (usually sheep's or goat's) mixed with cucumbers, garlic, salt, olive oil, and dill. Sometimes lemon juice, natural apple or grape vinegar are added.
In addition to dill, thyme, mint, parsley are used. Serve chilled.
In Turkey, the basis of tzatziki is made up of the same ingredients as in Greece, with the only difference that mint is added instead of dill. There are recipes with sumac, hot pepper, fresh or dried thyme.
It is served thick with the main course as an appetizer. As a side dish or sauce - dilute with water to the desired consistency.
It can be served with fried meat along with flavored anise aperitif, boiled or raw carrots and other vegetables are seasoned with it.
In Cyprus less garlic is added and mint instead of dill.
In Iran, where it is called masto-o-khiar (which literally means yogurt with cucumber) and some other Arab countries, it serves as an appetizer for alcoholic beverages, put on the table like a meze. Sometimes chopped nuts or raisins can be added to it.
In the cuisine of the Balkan countries, such as Bulgaria, Serbia, Macedonia, there is a similar dish called tarator. Unlike the cold soup of the same name, the sauce is based on cucumbers, garlic, chopped walnuts, salt, and vegetable oil. Whereas yogurt is added to the soup.
How to cook tzatziki
Tzatziki sauce is very easy to make. It only needs a few ingredients that are easy to buy in the summer. And it only takes a few minutes to cook. True, there are some subtleties.
Cucumber is known to contain a lot of water. The essential step is to remove this fluid. To do this, the grated mass is placed in gauze and suspended. Or they leave it on the sieve for a while, sometimes all night. Of course, you can just squeeze out.
It is better to grate garlic on a fine grater or pass through a press.
The thicker the yogurt, the better. Liquid is not suitable for him. The best option is to buy a real sheep or goat.
To make the sauce more fragrant, first combine all the ingredients with the exception of cucumber and dill, and refrigerate overnight.
Dill should be added last, just before serving.
How to make tzatziki sauce
Now two classic dressing sauce recipes. 
Tzatziki sauce recipe with dill and mint
You will need:
0.5 large cucumber
2 garlic cloves
500 grams Greek thick yogurt
1 bunch dill
Several sprigs of mint
How to cook:
- Cut the cucumber in half and clean out the seeds. Grate on a fine grater.
- Place the grated cucumber in a sieve, put it on a bowl and add salt. Stir and leave for several hours or overnight in the refrigerator. Stir again, squeezing out the liquid with a spoon.
- Peel and finely grate or crush the garlic. Combine with oil in a large bowl. Can be left in oil for several hours. But not necessarily.
- When most of the liquid has drained, spread the mixture on a clean kitchen towel and pat dry.
- Mix in garlic mixture. Add yogurt and stir.
- Finely chop the dill and mint leaves. Add to sauce.
- Squeeze lemon juice (to taste), add oil and mix well.
Sprinkle with dried mint if desired.
Serve with meat as an appetizer, season salad with tomato and other vegetables. Yes, and just put a spoon on a piece of loaf or pita bread - very tasty.
Classic recipe for tzatziki sauce
You will need:
0.5 cucumber
1.5 cups yogurt
2 garlic cloves
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon white grape vinegar
0.5 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon chopped dill
How to cook:
Grate the cucumber and squeeze out the liquid.
Mix yogurt, minced garlic, oil and salt. Cover with a lid and put in the refrigerator. Maybe overnight.
In the morning, add the cucumber mass and dill. Mix and serve.
You can get creative and add other herbs, paprika or hot peppers to it.
Surprise your guests by serving it with fried chicken, kebabs or grilled vegetables.