Tzatziki

Tzatziki is something I’ve made ever since I left home for university – and something I’ve never tired of eating. My tzatziki is pretty stripped back – just Greek yogurt, cucumber, garlic, olive oil and salt, with maybe a squeeze of lemon juice if it needs brightening up. I have no interest in adding dill, mint, parsley, vinegar, sour cream, mayonnaise… or anything else I’ve seen in other tzatziki recipes.

Now that our cucumber vines are bearing fruit, I expect we’ll be eating a lot more tzatziki in the weeks ahead…

Tzatziki
(makes about 1 1/2 cups)

• 1/2 an English cucumber (or a few small ones, if available)
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 cup Greek yogurt
• 1 Tb olive oil (or to taste)
• lemon juice (optional)
• salt and freshly ground pepper

1. Coarsely grate the cucumber, sprinkle with salt and set aside for ten minutes.
2. Crush the garlic with half a teaspoon of salt in a mortar until it turns into a paste. Stir in the olive oil.
3. Put the yogurt in a bowl, scrape in the garlic mixture and stir to combine.
4. Squeeze all the moisture you can from the grated cucumber. (You can either use your hands, or gather it up in a square of muslin and wring it through that.)
5. Add the cucumber to the yogurt and stir to combine. Season and adjust the balance of flavours, maybe stirring in a bit more olive oil or a squeeze of lemon juice.
6. Let the tzatziki rest in the fridge for at least an hour before serving to allow the flavours to marry.

The first cucumber of the season

Tags: cucumber, dip, garlic, gluten-free, Greek food, vegetarian, yogurt