Dish #443 - Tzatziki - A Greek Dip

A lovely Greek dip usually made for dipping any grilled vegetables, sea food or pita bread....

Ingredients for "Tzatziki":

Cucumber - large - 1/2 (use English cucumber as they have less seeds)

Garlic - 2 cloves

extra virgin olive oil - 2 tablespoons

strained Greek yoghurt or any full fat thick youghurt - 1 x 500g tub

fresh dill - 1 small bunch

fresh mint - a few sprigs

lemon - 1

optional: 1 teaspoon dried mint

Method:

Slice the cucumber in half lengthways and cut or scrape out the seeds – this is where most of the water content is. Grate the remaining cucumber.

Place the grated cucumber in a sieve, rest it on a bowl and add some sea salt. Give it a stir, and leave to drain for a few hours, or overnight in the fridge. Stir now and again, helping it along by pushing the liquid out with a spoon.

In the meantime, peel and finely grate or crush the garlic, then combine with the oil in a large bowl. 

You can allow this to sit for a few hours to mellow out the pungency, but it’s not essential.

When most of the liquid has drained from the grated cucumber, spread it out over a tea towel and pat dry. Combine with the garlic mixture, then stir through the yoghurt until evenly distributed.

Finely chop the dill and mint leaves, then fold through the yoghurt mixture along with a squeeze of lemon juice and the dried mint (if using). 

Season with salt to taste.

Serve with warm pita or Turkish bread, or alongside salad and grilled seafood or my new recipe "Fiery Prawns" recipe which I will be posting shortly...