easy tzatziki

after an amazing week in Greece i found myself constantly daydreaming about all the wonderful food we ate.  i developed this recipe based on several i found online, and was quite pleased with the results

start with 2 cups of Greek yogurt

strain with a cheesecloth.
or if you're ghetto like me, a coffee filter or two (or twenty)

peel a cucumber

slice in half lengthwise

scrape out the seeds

and grate

next find some very naughty cloves of garlic

and murder them

now mix all your ingredients together plus some salt and pepper

chill it in the fridge for at least 30 min

slice up some bread

and enjoy!

this was super easy.  the worst part was straining the excess liquid out of the yogurt.  do yourself a favor and use a cheesecloth.  i went through approximately 988,397,398,468 coffee filters and i'm sure it took a lot longer than if i had had a cheesecloth.

easy tzatziki.

ingredients

2 cups (16oz) greek yogurt

4 cloves garlic

1 cucumber

salt & pepper to taste

method

strain yogurt with a cheesecloth to remove excess liquid

crush and dice garlic cloves, or smash through a garlic press

peel cucumber, remove seeds, and grate.  smush between 2 paper towels to absorb excess liquid

mix all ingredients together and chill for at least 30 minutes to allow flavors to combine.  

serve plain with bread or pita, or add to a gyro.

notes

grating the cucumber got a little messy.  one tip i found online was to stick it in the freezer for a few minutes after you peel and remove the seeds.

many of the recipes i encountered called for the addition of some or all of the following: olive oil, fresh dill, vinegar, lemon juice, sour cream.  others called for 2 cucumbers instead of 1.  the great thing about tzatziki is that you can increase (or decrease) quantities of the ingredients to suit your tastes.  i wanted to keep things simple so i kept to the bare minimum and doubled the amount of garlic many recipes called for.  i used 4 cloves but probably would have liked it better with 8!  the tzatziki in greece was very garlicy.   you can also dice the cucumber instead of grating, if you prefer that texture.  this is such simple recipe, so have fun and play around with it until it's just right for you!

πολύ καλό!