Tzatziki Sauce Recipe

Overhead view of tzatziki sauce with a pita chip being dipped in the sauce.

5 from 10 votes

This creamy Tzatziki sauce is cool, refreshing, easy to make, and tastes good on just about anything! Perfect as a dip or sauce on your favorite meals.

Prep Time10

Total Time10

Course: Dip, Sauce

Cuisine: Mediterranean

Total Cost: $3.99 recipe / $0.67 serving

Servings: (1/4 cup each)

Calories: 56kcal

Author: Marsha McDougal

Equipment

Box Grater
Cheesecloth

Ingredients

½ cucumber $0.35*
1½ cups plain Greek yogurt whole milk, $1.87
1 clove garlic finely minced, $0.08
1 Tbsp fresh dill $1.25
1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice $0.20
1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil $0.16
½ tsp salt $0.04
⅛ tsp black pepper freshly cracked, $0.02
¼ tsp granulated white sugar $0.02**

Instructions

Wash the cucumber well. Then using the large holes on a box grater, grate half of the cucumber. Save the other half of the cucumber to serve with the tzatziki sauce.
Place the grated cucumber in a fine mesh cheesecloth or nut milk bag.*** Squeeze out as much liquid as you possibly can into a bowl or over the sink. You should end up with roughly ½ cup of grated cucumber after most of the water is squeezed out.
In a medium mixing bowl add the Greek yogurt, grated cucumber, minced garlic, dill, lemon juice, olive oil, salt, black pepper, and sugar. Stir well to combine.
Refrigerate the tzatziki sauce for at least 30 minutes to allow the flavors to marry and blend together. Enjoy served cold. If liquid separates out from the sauce during refrigeration, simply stir to reincorporate before serving.

See how we calculate recipe costs here.

Video

Notes

*Save the other half of the cucumber, cut it into slices, and serve with the tzatziki sauce.

**If you don't have a cheesecloth or nut milk bag, you can can squeeze the excess water from the cucumber using clean hands or a thick paper towel.

***Although not part of the authentic recipe, after testing this dip a few times, adding just a very small amount of granulated sugar really helped balance the tangy flavors in the sauce.

Nutrition

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