Mediterranean continues with Tzatziki Sauce

Continuing with my Mediterranean cooking, I came across an amazingly tasty sauce/dip. I was introduced to this dish by a new friend of ours. They had invited us for a potluck party at their place. The hostess send us three different cuisines and we were to choose from them. Majority of us chose the Mediterranean cuisine and I had to get Tzatziki Sauce and Shawarma chicken.

I had no clue what Tzatziki Sauce was. This was completely new to me. I knew this could be bought at store, but was determined to make it from scratch. So I set out on a research to find out on how this was made. Thats when I realized that it was very easy to make. Once I made them, it was totally worth the trouble. We loved it for its taste and being a healthy sauce. Thanks to our new friends for a wonderful party.

Tzatziki Sauce is made of Greek Yogurt. I hate Greek Yogurt even though its much healthier than the regular one. For me it tastes like liquid chalk, which is a weird description. I replaced with the regular yogurt, but there is a trick I found to get the same consistency. So lets go into the details of the method.

Ingredients:

Regular Plain Yogurt - 1 Can
Cucumber - 3 small nos
Lemon juice - 2 tbspn
Garlic - 3 cloves
Black pepper - 1 tsp
Dill - 2 tsp (chopped)
Salt - 1 tsp to taste

Method:

- The first step would be straining the liquid from the plain yogurt. You can do this by using a strainer. To be on the safer side I kept a tissue towel on the strainer and poured the yogurt on it. Keep this on a bowl to collect the excess liquid. Leave it in the fridge for atleast 5 hours. You may skip this step if using the Greek Yogurt.
-Peal the cucumbers and scoop out the seeds from them. Cut them into block pieces. Add some salt to this and put them in another strainer to drain the water. You may restrict the use of salt as we are adding it in cucumber at this stage. The salt helps to drain the water from it. Keep it aside for 30 mins.
-Fresh dill gives an excellent flavor to this sauce. You can find them in the greens section of the grocery store. You may also substitute dill with mint leaves. But that changes the flavor. Wash the dill and dry them with tissue towel.
-In a food processor/grinder, add the dill, garlic, cucumber, black pepper, lemon juice and grind them until the cucumbers are in fine bits.
-Transfer the mixture to the serving bowl and add the strained yogurt to this. Mix well. Add salt if required.

Tzatziki Sauce is ready. Its a healthy yummy tasting sauce/dip/spread. Pair it with anything, you will love them. Will be back soon with more recipes.

ENJOY!!!!