home Heating calculation Tzatziki sauce recipe and what to serve with. Tzatziki sauce is the hallmark of the Greek cookbook

Tzatziki sauce recipe and what to serve with. Tzatziki sauce is the hallmark of the Greek cookbook

To make tzatziki sauce at home, take fresh crispy cucumber with thick pulp. Rinse thoroughly in running water and dry with a paper towel. If the peel is thick, 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 so that the cucumber releases its juice.

Place the grated cucumber in a colander and let the resulting liquid drain so that the finished sauce is not liquid, or squeeze out 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 consistency. During the preparation process, it is filtered from the whey, achieving the desired thickness. Greek yogurt is very healthy, it is obtained by bacterial fermentation of natural goat or sheep milk. It contains many vitamins, microelements, high protein and calcium content.

If you don't have Greek in your refrigerator, but do have classic unflavored yogurt, pour it into a colander lined with cheesecloth. Fold the gauze into 3-4 layers and leave for a couple of hours until all the whey is gone.

Mix yogurt with cucumber.

Thick Greek yogurt can be replaced with village fat sour cream, Armenian matsoni, ayran, yogurt or kefir.

Garlic peel off the husks. 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 the 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 at your discretion.

Tzatziki is ready. Place in a container with a lid and put it in the refrigerator for a couple of hours. Afterwards, serve with cold cuts, grilled meat, fish, French fries, hash browns, fried zucchini, eggplant or a slice of bread. Greeks often enjoy a glass of cool ouzo, raki, or tsipouro with the sauce. The serving method can be different - in bowls, a gravy boat, or placed on unfolded lettuce leaves or Chinese cabbage.

It’s a pity, but the sauce is not prepared for future use; it is not preserved. 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 sauce made from yogurt, and they all have the 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, and white cheese (brynza) made from goat or sheep 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 is one of the symbols of Greek cuisine, along with such dishes as souvlaki, feta, and moussaka. We will teach you how to make the right snack - you can diversify your daily menu with an easy and healthy dressing!

Composition and features

Tzatziki sauce, as we have already said, came to us from Greece – it owes its triumphant march around the world its unique taste characteristics. The taste of the dressing is fresh, light and delicate, ideally complementing and highlighting any ingredients.

The original composition of tzatziki includes the following components:

Cucumbers;
Greek yogurt;
Salt;
Olive oil;
Garlic.

One hundred grams of the product contains about 150-180 Kcal, depending on the fat content of the fermented milk dressing.

This healthy dish which makes digestion easier! Garlic protects against colds, cucumber provides the necessary fluid, olive oil stimulates brain function.

It's time to discuss where you can add dressing - you will be surprised at the number of dishes available. This the best option for a family dinner, a meal with friends or a fun party.

What do you eat the sauce with?

When looking for an answer to the question of what tzatziki sauce is eaten with, you will come across many options. The cold appetizer will be a great addition for a variety of dishes!

Baked and Fried fish;
Fried or grilled meat;
Boiled potatoes;
Vegetable salads;
Vegetable stew;
French fries;
Chips, crackers and other snacks;
Baked zucchini and eggplant, tomatoes;
Cutlets and chops;
A variety of snacks;
Dumplings and dumplings;
Fresh vegetables;
Slices of bread, flatbread and pita bread;
Burgers, hot dogs and sandwiches.

The dressing can be served in two different ways:

Serve in a separate sauce boat so that each guest can take their own portion;
Season the dish during cooking.

Let's talk about how to properly prepare the dish yourself?

Cooking it yourself: a classic recipe

Not everyone can travel to Greece right now. What to do if you want to try a delicious dressing? There is only one answer - make satsiki sauce at home!

We will tell you the classic Greek recipe for tzatziki - you can reproduce the legendary product yourself in a few minutes. We'll give you a couple of useful tips, teach you some tricks, and provide advanced original recipes. Shall we get started?

First, we’ll tell you how to prepare Greek tzatziki sauce (tzatzika) according to the classic method adopted in the homeland of the product. Stock up on the following ingredients:

One fresh cucumber;
300-500 grams of fresh yogurt;
50-100 ml olive oil;
3-4 cloves of garlic.

To get a delicious tzatzika dressing, you need:

Wash the cucumber and peel it, chop it on a fine grater;
Transfer to a bowl and let sit for about ten minutes;
After the specified period of time, drain the juice;
Add Greek yogurt, mix products;
Peel the garlic cloves, chop them and place in a bowl;
Pour in a little oil, add salt and mix thoroughly again.

Tzatziki in Greek will sparkle with new colors if you remember the following useful tips:

Take only natural fermented milk product, it is now sold in all stores;
Salt only the cucumber during the cooking process, and not the finished dish;
For achievement unique taste You should first prepare the vegetables and spices, and only then pour in the yogurt.

No one is stopping you from experimenting! The classic recipe for tzatziki sauce can be changed at your discretion - and we will teach you how to do it correctly.

Other sauce recipes

If you want to make the dressing more spicy, sophisticated, catch new recipe Greek tzatziki sauce:

Having trouble making Greek tzatziki sauce with yogurt? Didn't find it in the store? Let's replace the ingredient with the usual sour cream, which is in every refrigerator.

A little advice: it is better to take sour cream with a fat content of at least thirty percent.

Grate the cucumber on a fine grater, salt it and let it sit for 5-10 minutes;
Squeeze out the excess juice and add two cloves of garlic, previously grated and sprinkled with lemon juice;
Finely chop a few sprigs of dill;
Mix all ingredients with sour cream - 400 grams is enough;
Leave the bowl in the refrigerator for 1.5-2 hours.

Look detailed recipe on video:

Greek tzatziki sauce can even be prepared with mint - this recipe is perfect for hot days and summer meals:

Prepare a paste of two medium cucumbers, as described above;
Don't forget to salt the vegetables;
Add three minced garlic cloves;
Squeeze a quarter of a lemon, mix with chopped mint;
Combine all the products together, season them with 300 grams of natural yogurt and beat well;
Place the plate in the refrigerator for several hours.

Satsiki sauce can be made with cheese! With this recipe you will surprise all your guests and household members:

Prepare a fresh cucumber, drain the juice - everything is as described above;
Pour 300 grams of yogurt (or sour cream) into a bowl;
Grate 100 grams of feta cheese on a fine grater, chop two cloves of garlic and half a sweet pepper;
Combine all ingredients, add seasonings if desired, pour in a teaspoon of olive oil and whisk thoroughly.

You already know that the recipe for tzatziki sauce can vary depending on the preferences of the cook! A few small tips and tricks will help you:

You can replace fresh vegetables with pickled cucumbers;
If you are concerned about the freshness of your breath, a small amount of parsley will help neutralize the garlic odor;
Can't find classic yogurt? Take ayran or matsoni, you can use yogurt;
It is not necessary to peel the cucumbers - but if the vegetable is “sluggish” and not young, then it is better to remove the skin.

We taught you the classic recipe for Greek tzatziki sauce at home and introduced you to the available variations. Now you can diversify your boring meals with the original cold snack which will appeal to every member of the household.

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 come from your garden. There are a huge number of ways to prepare this sauce; I used a recipe I spied on from the famous St. Petersburg chef Ilya Lazerson.

Ingredients

To prepare 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, not required).

(!) as a last resort, natural yogurt can be replaced with sour cream 15%.

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 deal with the cucumbers).

Then squeeze the cucumbers through a napkin. Squeezed cucumbers will be crispier in the sauce, unlike unsqueezed ones. This is exactly how chef Ilya Lazerson advised preparing cucumbers for Tzatziki sauce.

Mix gently, add olive oil, taste, add salt if necessary. You can add finely chopped dill.

The delicious Tzatziki sauce is ready and waiting to be served.

Bon appetit!

Tzatziki sauce is one of the most famous traditional dishes Greek cuisine. It has several other names, including tzatziki and tzatziki. The base 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 the composition of 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 worrying about your figure. Let's look at several options for how to prepare tzatziki sauce step by step so that even avid gourmets will like it.

Unsweetened, curd "Activia" serves as an excellent replacement for sour cream;
Cucumber juice can be frozen. It is perfect for facial skin care.

Original recipe for tzatziki sauce

In addition to the main ingredients, classic tzatziki sauce may contain herbs, olives, and 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.

Product composition:

Garlic clove;
140 g Greek yogurt;
A small spoon of olive oil;
One small cucumber;
A pinch of salt.

Home cooking plan:

Peel the cucumber and grate it on a medium grater;
Now it needs to be squeezed out. To do this, we will use a sieve and a spoon, with which we press on the cucumber. This way the juice will be squeezed out;
Add some salt to the green fruit, stir, and leave for a minute. The salt will draw out any 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 garlic, pressed through a press, and olive oil to this mass. Stir, taste, add salt to taste.

Place in 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 each of dried parsley and dill;
60 g sour cream;
15 ml lemon juice;
Large fresh cucumber;
Sea salt - to taste.

Cooking instructions:

The yoghurt product must be strained from unnecessary liquid to obtain a dense and less watery state. We take gauze folded in several layers or cotton cloth and line a sieve;
Next, lower the sieve into a container of boiling water for half a minute;
We take it out, place the fermented milk product in it, and leave it at the temperature of the living room above the plate for 12 hours. It will turn out almost;
We will also prepare a green vegetable. If it has a hard peel, get rid of it, cut the fruit in half, and clean out the middle with the seeds. Grate the rest of the pulp on a grater with medium or large holes, add salt, stir, and leave for three hours;
Squeeze the cucumber shavings from the juice, add to thick yogurt, add sour cream, garlic cloves pressed through a press, dried herbs, mix in lemon juice;
Add some salt to the dressing as desired, stir well, and let it sit for two hours.

Some variations of the sauce contain cold-pressed 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 each 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 classic recipe the yogurt should be strained and fresh cucumbers give away 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 the 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 them to the sour cream mixture, add salt and pepper, mix thoroughly;
Place the mixture in the refrigerator for several hours so that all the ingredients are saturated with each other.

Tzatziki option without yogurt

The aromatic 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 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 carefully squeeze the dairy products;
Next, mix them thoroughly until smooth, but do not beat;
Remove the seeds from the peeled vegetable and grate on a fine grater. Lightly strain the mixture so that the tzatziki turns out thick, not watery;
Grate the garlic on a grater with small holes, chop the washed greens, combine all the ingredients in one bowl;
Add freshly squeezed lemon juice, olive oil, spices to taste, mix.

Place in the refrigerator for at least two hours.

Tzatziki with cheese and pepper

Components:

Cheese cheese – 100 g;
Garlic – 3 cloves;
Sour cream or yogurt – 200 g;
Paprika pepper – 1/2 part;
Olive oil, salt;
Fresh cucumber.

Homemade recipe tzatziki sauce:

Grate the peeled cucumber on a fine grater and squeeze. Yogurt and sour cream can be taken in equal proportions, add grated vegetables;
Cut the pepper into small cubes, chop the garlic cloves in a garlic press, grate the cheese on a fine grater and add all this to the milk-vegetable mixture;
Finely chop the greens, add them to the total mass, add salt and pepper, add a teaspoon of olive oil, and stir 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 – large spoon;
Black olives.

Cooking diagram with photo:

Grate the garlic cloves on a fine grater and mix with olive oil;
Combine this mass with sour milk, put it in the refrigerator for several hours to soak the milk;
Before serving, grate the green vegetable on a grater with small holes and squeeze;
Mix it with cold milk and the rest of the ingredients;
Decorate with olives on top.

What do you eat tzatziki with?

Not a single holiday in Greece is complete without tzatziki sauce, which is rightfully considered universal and is eaten with a wide variety of foods.

It mainly serves as a dip sauce into which pieces of fish (both sea and river), various vegetables, meat (especially grilled), seafood and just slices of baguette are dipped. homemade bread. When cooking, tzatziki is indispensable. This dressing is perfect for fried or boiled potatoes and will add its original notes to any dish that will take on a completely different taste.

Video: Homemade Tzatziki Sauce Recipe

Trips to Greece are memorable not only for the beautiful nature, entertainment programs and comfortable stay. A separate conversation about travel impressions is getting to know the local cuisine. Many Greek dishes have become world hits, but you can only experience the sophistication of their taste in local taverns. For example, Tzatziki sauce (tzatziki): at first glance simplest recipe, but try to cook it in such a way as to get the real Greek taste. If you succeed, it will only be 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 little 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 history of this dish is complicated. According to legend, the prototype of satsiki was the Greek Mittiko, which was served at ancient feasts. The recipe for the two dishes is almost identical, but the continuity has not been officially confirmed. Later, when the Byzantines came to 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 fermented milk soup with herbs, which was called Cacik. And finally turkish recipe borrowed and remade by the Greeks who fell under Ottoman dictatorship. Fermented milk Ayran was replaced by traditional Greek yogurt, and the cold Djadzhik 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 resoundingly called Tzatziki. Today this dish is served as a dip for meat, fish and vegetables, and is also used as an independent light snack with bread. Tzatziki is even used to dress various salads, and according to gourmets, with Greek dressing they turn out much tastier than with mayonnaise or sour cream.

In addition, Tzatziki sauce also belongs to healthy eating. After all, the dish is prepared from natural products that contain many useful substances. Just look at the cost of Greek yogurt: it contains calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, zinc and a whole galaxy of various minerals and vitamins. A tasty, healthy and easy-to-prepare dish - what could be better for a nutritious lunch or dinner?

As you know, everything ingenious is simple. Likewise, to prepare 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 prepare Satsiki exclusively from natural products. It doesn’t matter whether you use the Sadzyki recipe of the ancient Hellenes, or want to try modern variations of the dish. Only from quality products cooks get satiated spicy taste famous Greek Tzatziki.

Sauce ingredients

For classic Tzatziki, only four ingredients are needed. This number includes:

fresh cucumber(1 PC);
Greek yogurt (300-500 g);
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 has a denser consistency and a special preparation recipe, thanks to which the finished product is rich in nutrients and minerals. But if you can’t find original Greek yogurt, you can replace it with regular natural yogurt, for example, Activia. Of course, the end result will not be like in Greece, but it will also be very tasty.