Tzatziki Sauce

Wanted to share this delicious recipe with you guys.  Jonathan and I are forever in love with Mediterranean food mostly because of how fresh and wholesome it is.  One of the recipes that we made a ton when we first got married was a chicken gyro with tzatziki sauce.  The chicken was marinaded in a yogurt sauce as well and we stuffed all the deliciousness in a warm pita. When we started eating a more paleo/gluten free type diet, bread sort of fell by the wayside as did this recipe because to me the best part was the pita. Well, call me pregnant or call it spring but this past week I have been craving the citrusy and light flavors found in tzatziki sauce so I decided to make some and incorporate it into my meal in a way that doesn’t involve bread.  Here’s how it went.

1. Gather ingredients: cuke (peeled), yogurt, lemon, spices, white wine vinegar, EVOO

2. Shred or chop cucumber (I use the food processor because it’s one of my favorite kitchen machines)

3. KEY STEP:  Wrap chopped cucumber in a paper towel and squeeeeezzeeee it out until most of the moisture has been wrung out of it.  Dump into yogurt bowl.

4. Squeeze half a lemon. (Tip: use real lemons!  Store bought lemon and lime juice are poor substitutes for the real thing) Pick out the seeds and add the juice to your bowl.

5. Add spices. I used garlic powder, salt, pepper, and dill.  DISCLAIMER:  I am a notorious “non-measurer” when I cook and bake. Especially with seasoning, everything is to taste.  Start with less and you can always easily add more. Also I tend to eyeball things and use proportions more than I actually measure amounts in cups/Tbs./tsp. My precise husband sometimes watches me with horror as I blatantly disregard the amounts listed in recipes, but he can’t argue with me because my food tastes good =) Winner winner chicken dinner.

6. Drizzle with some EVOO.

7.  Mix it up well with a fork or whisk.

After eating a few delightful bites with a spoon I decided to come up with a more creative way to eat this stuff before it all disappeared.  I settled on a deconstructed salad of sorts: mixed greens/spinach topped with sliced avocado and snap peas, leftover roasted chicken from a few days ago, and of course a heaping side of tzatziki.  You can dump it (use as dressing) or dip it or drink it.  All ways are good.  Garnish with a lemon (great squeezed over the whole plate before ingestion) and green onion would be lovely but I didn’t have any.  Scarf it.

 

Tzatziki Sauce 

1 cucumber peeled and chopped or shredded

1 cup full fat greek yogurt (or more depending on how big your cuke is)

1 tsp. white wine vinegar

juice of 1/2 lemon

drizzle of olive oil (1-2 tsp.?)

salt, pepper, garlic powder, dill – to taste

Mix all ingredients and serve. Keeps well in the fridge for quite some time, but usually gets eaten pretty quickly around here =)