It doesn’t matter that I’m not entirely sure how to correctly pronounce this word, it matters that tzatziki sauce is amazingly delicious, and now I can make it at home with relative ease. Tzatziki sauce, aka Cucumber Yogurt Dip, is a Greek sauce that is often served in gyros or on falafel. It’s delicious, and not even horrible for you. Imagine such a thing.

As my natural foods store does not sell pre-made tzatziki (anger!), I have been forced to fend for myself. I have now made this dip myself a half dozen times, and it’s really good. And my favorite thing about it: it’s nearly impossible to mess up.

Angie’s Amazing Tzatziki Sauce

Ingredients:

• 2 cups strained Greek yogurt
• 1 medium-sized cucumber (or 2 small ones, or a half a giant one…), peeled, seeded, and diced
• 2 cloves finely minced garlic
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh dill (or 1 tablespoon dried dill spice)
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper

Other recipes tell you to mix the oil, vinegar, garlic, salt, and pepper first, then mix all that into the yogurt, then add the dill and cucumber. Some recipes recommend letting the dip rest in the fridge for two hours before eating it. My way? Do whatever the heck you feel like; just get all the stuff in a bowl together and eat it before it goes bad.

This is one of those dishes that’s just good. You really can’t mess it up. Mix things together in some weird order? Fine. Forget an ingredient or two? No worries. Don’t feel like seeding the cucumber? Still tastes great. Put in twice the amount of dill because you just love dill soooo much? More power to you.

A few pointers from someone who has made this many times:

• Actually do seed the cucumber. It’s ok if you don’t, but it makes the whole thing a lot more watery, especially the following day.
• Replacing one cup of yogurt with sour cream is a tasty alternative, but yogurt is a bit better for you and seriously tastes just as good.
• I use Fage total classic yogurt (pronounced fa-yeh), no low-fat bullshit.
• Honestly, dried dill (from the spice aisle) is just as good as fresh. Garlic, however, needs to be fresh. And put as much as you like of both.
• This takes longer than you might think to make, but still not terribly long (30-40 mins or so, unless you’re lightening quick), and gets all kind of dishes dirty. Totally worth it though.

Enjoy!

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