Easy Homemade Tzatziki

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Make this classic creamy tangy Greek dip and sauce at home! Our Easy Homemade Tzatziki sauce is so simple to make and a delicious from scratch dip, sauce, or condiment for your favorite Mediterranean-style dishes.

Use it in our Greek Chicken Salad Wraps!

an overhead of a bowl of dill tzatziki surrounded by cucumbers, carrots, peppers, and tomatoes.

This one has been on my list for a while now, and I’m so happy it’s finally here! Not only that, just wait until you see how we use it. Our Easy Homemade Tzatziki sauce is a simple to make, creamy, and dreamy dip or condiment that’s cooling, tangy, and adds amazing complimentary flavors to a Greek or Mediterranean-inspired dish or as a refreshing crudité dip!

What is Tzatziki

Tzatziki is a Greek dip made of yogurt, cucumber, and herbs. It can be used as a condiment in sandwiches or as a meze for veggies or pita chips. It’s a dip that has a cooling cucumber, slightly tangy flavor with fresh herbs and lemon. It’s a deliciously creamy vegetarian and gluten-free addition to endless possibilities!

Ingredients Needed

cucumber, yogurt, fresh dill, fresh mint, lemon, olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper labeled on counter.

Greek Yogurt – Plain is key and we prefer a full-fat Greek yogurt, or you could use a regular plain yogurt too, but Greek already has a thicker creamier texture which is what you want for a good creamy tzatziki.
English Cucumber – Cucumber is a key component of tzatziki and the firmer flesh and fewer seeds of English cucumbers are best.
Fresh Mint and Dill – While we prefer fresh herbs for this one, you can of course use dried, too!
Olive Oil – Just a touch in the sauce itself, but you can also finish it with more if desired.
Garlic – Just a little, finely minced.
Lemon Juice – To add a necessary acidic touch.
Salt and Pepper – To help strain the yogurt and sweat the cucumber and season the sauce.

Tools Needed

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Sieve and Cheesecloth – While straining the Greek yogurt isn’t 100% required, trust us, it’s a step you won’t want to skip if you want the creamiest tzatziki. We use a combination of a sieve and cheesecloth to achieve this.
Box Grater – This is to grate that cucumber to add to the sauce. You could also mince it up really finely too, or even dice it and leave some larger chunks if you want some added texture to the sauce.
Colander – We use one while sweating the cucumber, but this can also be done just on some paper towels.

Easy to Make

sliced cucumber and shredded cucumber on cutting boards.

While our Easy Homemade Tzatziki is just that, easy, there is some prep that, trust me, is worth it. Plus, you can easily take care of these things in advance and set aside if you’re not ready to make the whole sauce, yet. Spoon out the seeds of that cucumber (much easier to do with English cucumbers than other varieties) and then give it a good shred. You only need about 1/2 of a cup which is about 1/2 of a large English cucumber or most of a small one.

yogurt in a cheese cloth and shredded cucumber draining.

Strain the yogurt and let the cucumber sweat by adding salt to each and letting them sit. This will remove excess moisture from each so that doesn’t go into your thick and creamy tzatziki!

a bowl of yogurt with fresh herbs, shredded cucumber, salt and pepper, and olive oil.

Now the easy part – throw it all in a bowl and mix well!

Easy Homemade Tzatziki, done! Enjoy it as a dip or slather it on a Greek-inspired sandwich (like our latest!), or use it as a cooling creamy condiment to cut the heat and spice of another dish.

Recipe Tips

Is straining required?

Required? No. Recommended? Strongly. It will ensure that you don’t have a loose or watery sauce which ultimately means a super creamy tzatziki!

Grate vs. Chop

I love a small grate on the cucumber for this tzatziki, but you can totally change this to your preference. Grate some and dice the other for bigger chunks in the sauce or do a larger grate on the cucumber so that it’s more pronounced.

Make in Advance

Once made, this tzatziki will last in the fridge for about 4-5 days. But you could also prep components in advance to make the day of assembly faster, too! You can strain that yogurt overnight in advance and sweat the cucumber in advance too so it’s all ready to throw together whenever you’re ready.

Customize!

Just with the chop of the cucumber, you can of course customize this to your tastes! Sometimes we add another drizzle of olive oil to finish the sauce. Or you could add more dill, more lemon juice, and of course more salt to fit your preference.

Just the right amount of tang with plenty of dill, mint, and just the right amount of cucumber! My kids love it with raw veggies and whenever something gets more raw vegetables in my kids, it’s surely a winner!

Serve it with

a bowl of tzatziki in front of a halved wrap on a cutting board.

Our favorite way to use our Easy Homemade Tzatziki, our Greek Chicken Salad Wraps, our must try new wrap!

Enjoy! As always, if you make this recipe or any of my others, I love to hear what you think! Leave a comment below, email me, or you can find me on Facebook, I n stagram, and Pinterest!

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