Chunky Tzatziki Sauce
This quick and easy Chunky Tzatziki Sauce is the mandatory complement to any good souvlaki, but really it tastes so good, you’ll want to eat it by the spoonful!
If you’re gonna have Chicken Souvlaki, me says you absolutely need some Tzatziki Sauce to go with that, wouldn’t you agree? For really, the two of them fit so perfectly well together, it’s like they’re like a match made in heaven. They’re almost inseparable!
I used to think that Tzatziki Sauce was like über complicated to make. Ha! Nothing could be further from the truth. It’s as easy as mixing a few ingredients together. There is one very important rule, however, that cannot be foreseen, and that is, you NEED to drain the water out of your cucumbers. But that’s super easy…
Speaking of cucumbers: I discovered years ago that I like my Tzatziki to have a bit of a chunky feel to it, so instead of grating my cucumber like most recipes will have you do, I cut mine into small bite size chunks. Oh, heaven. It makes you want to eat the thing by the spoonful!
Also I find that the addition of a little bit of lemon zest and juice gives the sauce a nice little extra tang that I’m not hating at all. If you don’t care for it, feel free to leave it out. But I strongly suggest you give it a try!
I always prefer to use small Lebanese cucumbers because I find they are extra crunchy, but any kind of cucumber will do, really. However, no matter what kind you decide to use, you will want to remove the seeds because otherwise, it will render way too much water and make your Tzatziki Sauce super watery.
Not really what we’re after, is it?
And even after having had its seeds removed, cucumber has SO MUCH water to it, we still want to draw more of it out.
To do this, we’ll simply place our chunks of cucumber in a fine mesh sieve and sprinkle them with a good amount of salt, then mix really well to make sure all the pieces are coated with salt.
We’ll then force that water out by setting a small plate over them and placing a weight right on top that plate. A large can, small saucepan, or even a half empty jar of honey would do the trick! You’re looking for anything that’s not too large in size and weighs about 1 or 2 pounds.
Leave that to drain for about 30 minutes.
In the meantime, you can go ahead and add the rest of the ingredients to a mixing bowl then give them a good stir. Leave that to sit while the cucumber finishes rendering its water.
Once the cucumber is done getting rid of its excess water, add it to the sauce and mix well.
Now you *could* serve your sauce immediately, but if time permits, know that it gets even better after it’s been given a little bit of time for the flavors to fully develop. If you have an extra hour or more to spare, just let it sit in the fridge.
Your taste buds will thank you for it!
Chunky Tzatziki Sauce
Ingredients
- 3 Lebanese cucumbers, seeded and diced
- 1 tsp salt, I use Himalayan salt
- 1 cup plain Greek yogurt
- the zest and juice of 1/2 lemon
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 tsp freshly cracked black pepper
- 1/2 tsp Himalayan salt
- 2 tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped
- 2 tbsp fresh mint, finely chopped
- 1 tbsp dried oregano or za'atar
Instructions
- Peel the cucumbers and remove the seeds by halving them lengthwise and running a spoon down the middle to scoop out the seeds. Slice in half lengthwise again, then dice into ¼ inch cubes.
- Place the chopped cucumber in a fine mesh sieve and sprinkle with salt. Top with a small plate and add some weight, such as a large can, over that plate. Leave that to drain for about 30 minutes.
- In a mixing bowl, combine yogurt, lemon zest and juice, garlic, black pepper, salt, parsley, mint and oregano or za'atar and stir to combine.
- Add the cucumber to the yogurt mixture and again, stir to combine.
- Cover and refrigerate for about an hour before serving to allow the flavors to fully develop.
Nutrition
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*Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in May of 2014 and has since been completely revamped and updated with better pictures. A few minor modifications to the original recipe may also have been made.
16 Comments on “Chunky Tzatziki Sauce”
I AM OBSESSED with tzatziki. For reals, if I make some, I have to eat it, all.
Loving that you added za’atar, I prefer it to “regular” oregano, I think it has a great depth.
Have you ever tried it with chunks of cucumber? It’s crazy the difference that it makes… I’m telling you, you’re gonna want to sit yourself down with a spoon and eat the whole thing!
The difference between full fat Greek yogurt and anything less is…….well there is no comparison. Only full fay is worth eating and because we are paleoers we can eat it. No more freakin out over fat content. Those that do, don’t know what they are missing with our way of eating.
Almost like heavy cream vs whole milk. Completely different ball game! 🙂 And seriously, isn’t paleo the best? People say it’s restrictive. I find it liberating! 😀
This was excellent… except for the mint! My wife and I love our mint that we grow in the garden, love our mint tea, but it really just overpowered that great cucumber flavor we love in a tzatziki sauce. We even reduced it to 1 tablespoon. Everything else was absolutely perfect, though!
Amazing. Simply amazing. This was so easy to make and served it with grilled zucchini. I would love to post it on my site with a link to you if that is cool Sonia. Just love it. We’re on our boat and it’s so hot everything is cooked on the grill and this was perfect!
Oh yeah I forgot. I had to use regular yogurt. No store in site! But still amazing delicious.
Thank you so very much, Melinda. Glad to hear you loved the tzatziki that much! As for posting it on your site, I really don’t have a problem with that, so long as you don’t use my pictures or recipe, and link to the original post.
What are Lebanese cucumbers? We have field cucumbers that we peel & hot house cucumbers that we don’t Peel, eat the whole cucumber. Also, what is za’atar?
If you use regular cucumbers, would you still use 3? That seems like a lot of cucumbers.
Lebanese cucumbers are super small Marlene, so definitely don’t go using 3 large English cucumbers! That would be A LOT of cucumber indeed!
Thank you for your reply. I used half of a regular cucumber sliced into very small pieces and it was delicious. Thank you.
Way too much garlic for one cup of yogurt! I used 2 and think next time 1 medium Clive would be sufficient. Also left out the mint? No one in my house likes it although I see it in a lot of tzatziki recipes.
Sorry to hear, Cindy, but the fresh mint actually plays a role in toning down the garlic and also brings a refreshing balance to the overall flavor of the sauce… I really don’t suggest leaving it out!
I halved this recipe last night to go with pork souvlaki and Greek salad that I made. It was delicious and easy to make. Next time I may try adding a touch of dill. Half the recipe was more than enough for two of us – even though I could easily have eaten what was left. Very tasty!