Homemade Tzatziki and Greek Salad

Nothing says Greece and Greek islands and holidays quite as much as the famous Greek salad and tzatziki dip. So here is my homemade tzatziki and Greek salad recipes for you to try yourself. They are so easy to make and taste amazing, the true taste of Greek sunshine wherever you are.

Why you’ll love these recipes

• Greek tzatziki dip/sauce is so easy to make with just a few ingredients
• You can use this Greek yogurt sauce is so many ways; as a simple dip with veggies and chips, with pitta and souflaki, drizzled over roasted or raw veggies and much more
• Tzatziti is healthy; protein packed Greek yogurt, garlic, cucumber and herbs, all good stuff!
• Greek salad, well it’s a classic isn’t it. Tomatoes, peppers, cucumber and onion, plus juicy Greek olives. You just can’t go wrong.

I’ve been lucky enough to live in Crete for 3 years recently and also spent a good deal of my misspent youth working on the Greek islands.

Anyway, my love of Greek food comes back to Scotland with me and real basics like tasty tzatziki sauce and Greek salad are something I make regularly.

Enjoy this homemade Tzatziki and Greek Salad.

Authentic tzatziki sauce

Tzatziki is probably the most well known of the Greek dips. This cool creamy cucumber dip is known the world over. You can buy it in any supermarket but when you make it yourself it taste so much better.

By the way it is pronounced Sat-See-Kee, just for anyone interested in that kind of thing. Always helps in a taverna if you pronounce tzatziki properly.

Anyone can make a mistake……

The first time I ever made tzatziki was when I worked on the Greek island of Spetse (too many years ago to mention really) where I was working in my first holiday rep job.

I had to make up the tzatziki for the beach picnic and didn’t have a clue. I was fine when dealing with the cucumber and garlic but the yogurt was my downfall.

How was I to know that good Greek yogurt (and of course that’s what you get over there) always has a little disc of waxed paper lurking on the top. I didn’t notice this and glibly chucked two cartons into the vast bowl of tzatziki I was making.

All was fine until the guests tucked into their picnic in the sunshine and some had the misfortune of munching on a mouthful of the hidden paper. I was mortified at my mistake and never lived it down with the other reps.

What’s in tzatziki

Tzatziki dip is very simple really with just a few ingredients. All you’ll need to make your own tzatziki is cucumber, Greek yogurt (check out my post on how to make your own Greek yogurt).

Garlic is another important ingredient for tzatziki.

The herbs for tzatziki are dill and mint. Use fresh herbs here please.

Youo will also need some olive oil, a little white wine vinegar and salt and pepper.

How to make tzatziki dipping sauce

• First you need to drain the excess water from the cucumber. This is important as cucumbers are just full of water, which although lovely and refreshing does nothing for your tzatziki if you don’t remove some of it first. If you don’t drain the cucumber you will end up with very watery tzatziki which is not pleasant. You want a rich creamy sauce.
• Simply peel the cucumber (you don’t need to do this if you are using the very thin skinned variety of cucumber that comes prepacked in the supermnarket. But you should remove the skin if it’s thick as it will make for a lot of texture in the sauce that you don’t want.
• Slice the cucumber in half lengthwise and run a teaspoon down the middle. on each half. This will remove all the seeds. A lot of people don’t bother doing this bur this is how traditional tzatziki is made.
• Grate the cucumber then either put it in a sieve over a bowl to drain or wrap in a clean tea towel and give it a damn good squeeze. Either way, remove the excess water.
• While the cucumber is doing it’s thing mince the garlic and add it to the Greek yogurt along with the finely chopped mint.
• Mix in the drained cucumber and then add the dill and vinegar.
• Finally finish off your tzatziki with a swirl of good Greek olive oil and an olive on top.

The complete list of ingredients and full instructions for making this recipe can be found on the printable recipe card at the bottom of this post.

Pro tips on making tzatziki

The longer you can leave the garlic in the yogurt the better. The flavour will soften and become smoother with a bit of time.

Let the cucumber drain in sieve overnight and have the yogurt infusing with garlic while this happens

Add the dill last as it is a pungent herb and can easily overpower everything else

Use good quality Greek yogurt. You can even make your own, just check out How to make your own homemade Greek yogurt.

 Simple Greek salad (or Horiatiki)

This salad is a classic. Originally served without any form of leaves though nowadays many tavernas in Greece do add lettuce. Traditional Greek salad does not have lettuce.

Ingredients for a Greek salad

• Tomatoes
• Red peppers
• Green peppers
• Black Greek olives
• Red onion
• Dried Greek oregano
• Feta cheese crumbled
• Olive oil
• lemon juice or white wine vinegar
• salt and pepper

Use the freshest salad ingredients

Use the freshest of veggies for your salad: juicy ripe tomatoes (use vine tomatoes for best flavour), crunchy cucumber, vibrant peppers, sharp onions and of course luscious black olives.

Toss in the ubiquitous Feta cheese and olive oil and lemon juice and you are ready to go.

Want to make your own Feta cheese? Then check out my homemade feta cheese recipe.

How to serve tzatziki sauce

• Traditionally tzatziki is served as a dip and forms part of a meze. A meze is a selection of small plates of dips and other goodies served at the start of the meal for everyone at the table to share. Or the meze can be the meal itself as there are so many wonderful Greek dishes that can be served in this way.
• It is also served as the sauce as part of a traditional gyro pitta.
• Serve with raw veggies or crisps as a dip
• Use with salmon, pork, gammon or chicken as a side sauce.
• Serve with a baked potato.

So here are two quick and easy recipes for you to try wherever you are while I enjoy reliving days gone by and building new memories in Crete.

Yammas!

Looking for more Greek dips? Then try these super recipes;

Authentic Greek skordalia

Beetroot tzatziki

Baked artichoke dip

Homemade taramasolata

Finally, if you do try this recipe don’t forget to leave a comment/star rating below as I just love to hear from readers. Want more Larder Love? Then follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter and sign up for my newsletter too of course.