The Best Authentic Vegan Tzatziki Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is real tzatziki made of? ›

Tzatziki is a creamy cucumber yogurt dip (or sauce) made from simple ingredients including strained yogurt (or Greek yogurt), cucumbers, garlic, and sometimes fresh herbs such as dill or mint. Traditionally, it is made from strained sheep or goat's milk yogurt, but a full-fat Greek yogurt works just fine in this dip.

You can thicken it by placing a piece of cheesecloth over the top of a wide mouthed jar and holding it in place with some rubber bands. Fill the cheesecloth with your sauce, cover it with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. The excess water will drain out and the sauce will be thicker.

How do you get the bitter taste out of tzatziki sauce? Your main ingredient – the cucumber – is often the culprit. To avoid this, make sure that you choose the right variety: English and Persian cucumbers have very little, or no, bitterness.

Tzatziki is good friends with grilled and roasted meats, especially juicy lamb chops. Serve it up with a crunchy fattoush salad – a combination of torn pitta, cooling cucumber, ripe tomatoes, sweet lettuce and refreshing mint – for a bonus hit of fresh, summer flavour.

Tzatziki sauce should be kept in a sealed container and stored in the refrigerator when you're not using it. As long as it's stored properly, you can expect homemade tzatziki to last about three to four days. This will depend on how fresh the yogurt was when you made the sauce.

Serve immediately, or store in the refrigerator (where it will thicken) up to 5 days, sometimes longer depending on freshness of yogurt. This Tzatziki is delicious on its own, but it also pairs well with Greek-inspired recipes like these Traditional Vegan Falafel, Tabbouleh Salads, Shawarma Sandwiches, or Buddha Bowls.

Yes, tzatziki is considered a healthier dip than hummus and sour cream. It contains several vitamins, a good amount of protein, and fewer carbohydrates and calories. The fat content of tzatziki is low too, which is not the case with other dips. Thus, you can opt for tzatziki dips over other dips.

Tzatziki is made of strained yogurt (usually from sheep or goat milk) mixed with cucumbers, garlic, salt, olive oil, red wine vinegar, and dill or mint or parsley.

The watery sauce is due to the cucumbers, which hold lots of water. The best way to avoid a watery tzatziki sauce is to get the excess moisture out of the grated cucumber before it's added to the sauce mixture.

No matter what method you've chose above, you'll need to drain the cucumbers of excess water so the tzatziki isn't watery. The most effective way to do this is in a fine mesh sieve with a sprinkle of salt and not just squeezing with a paper towel.

Why is my tzatziki lumpy? ›

Pulse the cucumbers in the food processor or hand chop to desired texture. I like them chopped small, but not minced. Bigger chunks will result in chunkier tzatziki.

Spices mask bitter flavors, so don't be shy. Add some spicy peppers or powders to your cooking, or sprinkle some onto your dishes for a little bit of extra heat. Black pepper in particular has compounds that counteract bitterness. Some other great spices include cayenne, red pepper, paprika, and chili powder.

After going through heat treatment to clear out harmful bacteria, special beneficial bacterial cultures are added. These cultures transform the milk's sugar into lactic acid, which gives yogurt its acidic twang. The yogurt is left to ferment for a while until its pH level hits around 4.5.

Preferably swap garlic for finely chopped red onion. Soak the onion in a little water before adding to the mixture. If you have already made the dish, then take out some of the garlicky yogurt (NOT sour cream as suggested in another answer) and replace with more fresh yogurt.

Ingredients: Cultured Pasteurized Nonfat Milk, Cultured Pasteurized Cream, Milk Protein Concentrate, Stabilizer (Tapioca Starch, Agar-agar, Pectin), Cucumber, Garlic, Sea Salt, Organic Distilled White Vinegar, Dill, Contains Live and Active Cultures: L. Paracasei, P. Freudenreichii, S. Thermophilus, L.

Conclusion. Tzatziki is not only a tasty, multi-use sauce, it's also a smart food pick. Its blend of yogurt, cucumber, olive oil, garlic, lemon, and herbs delivers key nutrients, which are proposed to support heart health, gut health, and may even lower diabetes risk.

The only difference is that a Tzatziki Sauce has a tablespoon of lemon juice and a couple of cloves of minced garlic added to these same ingredients I used below. The ingredients need for this Cucumber Dill Sauce for so simple. It's just cucumber, Greek yogurt, milk and chopped fresh dill.

Traditionally speaking, no, tzatziki isn't vegan-friendly as it has historically been made with dairy yoghurt, however, it's just as simple to make a plant-based version with all the same flavours and textures.