Tzatziki Sauce is a creamy Greek yogurt sauce with English (or Persian) cucumbers and fresh garlic. Combined with lemon, fresh dill it’s the perfect accompaniment for gyros, burgers, pita bread and most Mediterranean dishes! Plus it’s ready in minutes!
When we had our pizza shop, we were known for our pizza, but also for our fresh gyros. We had this huge gyro spinning machine where the gyro cones spun slowly around a heated rod, slowly roasting and cooking the gyro meat. In a pizza shop that was always crazy hot, the gyro machine made it even hotter.
But the customers LOVED it. We made everything from traditional gyro pita sandwiches to gyro pizzas, gyro subs, gyro calzones, and gyro salads. With all those gyros, we went through a TON of gyro sauce. To be honest, for years I refused to eat it, as I was so burnt out on spooning it into 2-ounce cups, plus it reminded me too much of mayo, and y’all know how much I hate mayo.
When the pizza shop closed, I was pretty happy that I wouldn’t have to be near gyros or gyro sauce ever again, as I honestly was just burnt out from it. But then, love happened and Mr. Fantabulous came into my life who loved gyros. *sigh*. The gyro and gyro sauce was back in my life. The things we do for love!
The first thing I had to do was come up with a gyro sauce (Tzatziki sauce to be accurate). Most know it as gyro sauce as Tzatziki is tough to say for some. This recipe is only a handful of ingredients and you have 2 choices – His and Hers recipes. You see *I* prefer traditional with the Greek yogurt, English cucumbers (though mini cucumbers like those in the pictures can be used too), and some seasoning.
He is well, odd. He hates it with yogurt and prefers it with sour cream as that’s how Mama Fantabulous made it. Though it’s funny as she used my recipe but didn’t have Greek yogurt on hand and used sour cream. There’s really no difference other than Greek yogurt has a bit more zing to it. But he apparently loves the Sour Cream version.
This recipe comes together in only a few minutes – seriously peeling/chopping the cucumbers is what takes the most amount of time. Oh… so one thing I want to mention is about the cucumbers. In the recipe you have 2 choices – you can chop it up small or you can grate it. I personally like it chopped super small as I like the texture. I found that when you grated it made it, even after pressing the liquid out, it got lost in the dip. There wasn’t really any texture. But if you don’t want the texture, you can totally grate it but you have to press out as much liquid as possible.
This recipe, once you have it, is great with warm naan, veggies and on things like this Greek Turkey burger below (recipe coming!)
So if you have 15 minutes then you have one amazing dip that is great in countless recipes and perfect on any food party table!
Greek Gyro Tzatziki Sauce
Tzatziki Sauce is a creamy Greek yogurt sauce with English cucumbers and fresh garlic. Combined with lemon, fresh dill it’s the perfect accompaniment for gyros, burgers, pita bread and most Mediterranean dishes! Plus it’s ready in minutes!
- Yield: 1 1/2 cups
Ingredients
- 1 cup plain Greek yogurt (or full-fat sour cream)
- 2 garlic cloves, minced (about 1 1/2 tablespoons)
- 3/4 cup minced cucumber (1/2 English Cucumber, partially peeled (striped) *or you can use 2–3 mini Persian cucumbers too! )
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1/2–3/4 teaspoon Kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 2 teaspoons dried dill (if using fresh, make it 2 tablespoons fresh)
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
Instructions
- In a bowl add the yogurt (or sour cream), garlic, lemon juice, salt, pepper, olive oil and dill. Mix to combine and set aside.
- Mince the cucumber into small pieces, add to the yogurt mixture and then stir. You can grate the cucumber if you wish but place it in a strainer first with a pinch of salt and press gently to release the liquid. Mix the grated cucumber into the yogurt mixture. Chill for at least 1 hour.
- To serve, give it a quick stir first. Store for up to 3 days in the fridge.
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