Lighter Greek Tzatziki Sauce Recipe (2024)

FAQs

How can I thin out my tzatziki sauce? ›

Salt has a way of thinning out sauces so it is important to add it in to start with the cucumber. Once you add the Greek yogurt and other ingredients, it makes a nice creamy sauce that is ready to go in just a few minutes. This particular tzatziki sauce is on the thinner side as far as sauce goes.

In a medium bowl, stir together the yogurt, olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, and salt. Stir in the water. If the sauce is too thick, add more water, 1 tablespoon at a time, to thin it to your desired consistency.

You can thicken it by placing a piece of cheesecloth over the top of a wide mouthed jar and holding it in place with some rubber bands. Fill the cheesecloth with your sauce, cover it with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. The excess water will drain out and the sauce will be thicker.

If you have too much tart everything you can fix this by adding a little sweetener. Try 1 teaspoon, stir, and sample. Add more from there. Want to use fresh dill herbs instead of dried?

If you just heat milk to 165°F / 74°C briefly and then cool, the yogurt will taste fresh, a little fruity, and will be thinner and more tart when it sets.

Tzatziki is often served with a soupy, runny texture, but that's not the way I like it. I crave a tzatziki with teeth… something so thick and rich that you can eat it with a fork. The secret is strained yogurt.

You can heat your milk to only 155ºF, or only warm it to 105ºF. The result will be a thinner yogurt.

Boil it a bit

This is known as “reducing,” in the culinary world, because you are reducing the sauce's volume by boiling some of the water off, leaving behind the fat and other tasty ingredients (with higher boiling points). If your sauce looks runny before it even hits your food, boil it for a bit to thicken it up.

Add water, stock, or other liquid to adjust consistency if the sauce is too thick.

Step 3: Drain cucumbers

No matter what method you've chose above, you'll need to drain the cucumbers of excess water so the tzatziki isn't watery. The most effective way to do this is in a fine mesh sieve with a sprinkle of salt and not just squeezing with a paper towel. Add cucumbers to a sieve.

Why does tzatziki get watery? ›

The watery sauce is due to the cucumbers, which hold lots of water. The best way to avoid a watery tzatziki sauce is to get the excess moisture out of the grated cucumber before it's added to the sauce mixture.

Until recently, I never drained the cucumbers, but taking the time to do so has a twofold benefit: It prevents the tzatziki from becoming too liquidy. If you like a tzatziki with a thick consistency, draining the cucumbers is important. If you don't mind a thinner tzatziki, skip this step.

Tzatziki sauce should be kept in a sealed container and stored in the refrigerator when you're not using it. As long as it's stored properly, you can expect homemade tzatziki to last about three to four days. This will depend on how fresh the yogurt was when you made the sauce.

Why is my yogurt too sour or not sour enough? A. Culturing temperatures on the higher end of the range and longer culture times will yield a more sour flavored yogurt. To achieve a less sour flavor, culture at the lower end of the range or for a shorter period of time.

Yes, bacteria — but these bacteria are good. They don't harm you. According to Scientific American magazine, the bacteria's job is to break down, or ferment, the lactose sugars in the milk and turn them into lactic acid in a process known as fermentation. Lactic acid is what gives yogurt its sour taste.

You must Greek yogurt in tzatziki sauce. Greek yogurt is strained yogurt which makes it much thicker and higher in protein than regular yogurt. If you use traditional plain yogurt, your tzatziki sauce will be too runny.

Using chicken broth or beef broth is a simple way to thin a large amount of sauce while adding flavor.