Tasty Cucumber Dip Recipe with Mint (Tzatziki)

A basic cucumber dip recipe is a great way to use up plain yoghurt and cucumber. Serve as a dip or use it as a sauce. Here’s how to make it.

Cucumber dip with yoghurt and mint (Tzatziki) is an easy and delicious dip to make and an economical way to use up leftovers.

I like to serve this dip with toasted Turkish bread, ciabatta bread or homemade pita crisps. You can also serve this as part of a larger nibbles platter or as a sauce accompaniment (see below for ideas).

Tzatziki Ingredients

The ingredients of tzatziki are plain yoghurt, cucumber, garlic, and a little lemon for tanginess.

To this basic recipe, you can add herbs if you like. My favourite herb to add is mint (which is similar to Raita) but you can also use coriander (cilantro), dill or parsley.

As this dip is Greek-inspired, it would be natural to use Greek yoghurt. While I love Greek yoghurt for its thick creaminess, it’s not very good for the environment, at least not quantities we’re consuming on a global scale. So I opt for natural yoghurt to make tzatziki dip instead.

To thicken natural yoghurt, you can put the yoghurt in a strainer lined with a clean cloth to drain overnight. Place the strainer over a bowl and keep in the fridge.

Don’t throw out the whey that collects in the bowl, which would defeat the purpose of the exercise anyway. Whey gives baked goods a light fluffy texture, so use the whey in pancakes, muffins and scones.

On to the cucumber. Cucumbers are 96% water! So some of that water needs to be drained out so that the tzatziki dip isn’t too sloppy.

To do this, grate the cucumber and place in a strainer over a bowl. Sprinkle with salt – the salt will help draw out the water.

You can leave the cucumber to sit overnight in the fridge or you can speed up the process by gently squeezing the excess water out with your hands.

Using Cucumber Dip as a Sauce

You can use Tzatziki as a sauce as well as a dip.

Serve as a sauce on any grilled or pan-fried chicken, lamb, beef.

It goes beautifully in a Gyros – a Greek sandwich using pita bread, leftover grilled meat, tomatoes, cucumber and Tzatziki, similar to a Doner Kebab.

It doesn’t just go with meat, however. It’s also great drizzled on pizza, drizzled over roast vegetables or felafel. You can even use it as a salad dressing.