Tzatziki cucumber salad with Greek yogurt dressing
When you have a whole cucumber or two in the fridge that you don’t know what to do with, this tzatziki cucumber salad is a wonderful addition to a Greek or Middle-Eastern themed meal. This cucumber salad is like tzatziki sauce in salad form. Super tasty, easy, and healthy. Along with the cucumber and yogurt, chopped herbs, lemon, and garlic round out this salad’s great flavor.
Unlike most cucumber salads, in this recipe, we’re shredding the cucumber, which means you could easily use it in a pita or wrap – it’ll just give you more veg than a typical tzatziki sauce. You could also serve with pita wedges as an appetizer or alongside meat or fish. As a salad, as a mezze or side, or in a wrap, it’s great any way you choose.
Tips for making tasty tzatziki cucumber salad
- Avoid a soupy salad
- Be sure to squeeze as much water as you can out of the cucumbers! Very important!
- Also, choose a thick Greek yogurt. I used a full-fat, full-protein Greek yogurt (Meteora brand). (Some of the Greek yogurts here in France a thinner texture being high fat, but low protein. Indulgent, but not the best for this salad.)
- Prepping & grating the cucumbers
- Depending on the variety of cucumber, you may want to peel the cucumbers (some varieties have a bitter peel) and/or remove the seeds (if the seeds are big and might be chewy or to get more water out. Removing the seeds makes the cukes a lot harder to grate, though, so I usually leave them alone.
- I grated the cucumbers by hand for this recipe. A food processor would work, too.
- Pungent garlic
- If you feel your raw garlic is going to be too pungent or spicy, you can let it soak in the lemon juice a while immediately after chopping (prevents allicin, the compound responsible for the pungent flavor, from forming) or cook it a little before using (breaks down any allicin formed). The second option changes the flavor a bit, but still tasty.
- Optional toppings
- For a more dressed up tzatziki cucumber salad, you can add toppings such as toasted walnuts or pine nuts or pomegranate seeds.
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If this tzatziki cucumber salad sounds good to you, you might also enjoy my moussaka aux aubergines et blettes, ce roasted red pepper & tomato tart (one of my favorites!), or these crispy zucchini cigars
Did you make this recipe? Let me know what you thought in the comments!
Tzatziki Cucumber Salad
Ingrédients
- 2 cucumbers about 600 g
- 15 g chopped mint or dill
- ⅔ cup thick Greek yogurt see note
- 1 ½ c. à soupe huile d'olive
- 1 ½ c. à soupe jus de citron
- ½ c. à café sel
- 3 gousses d'ail hachées
- Pomegranate seeds or toasted walnuts for topping
Instructions
- Prepare the cucumbers: Coarsely grate the cucumbers. You may leave the skin on if it is not bitter. Place all the grated cucumber in a clean tea towel. Wrap it up and squeeze as much water as you can out of the cucumbers.
- Assembler : Mix strained cucumbers in a bowl with all the other ingredients.
- Servir lightly chilled and top with a little chopped mint. If desired, you can also top with toasted walnuts or pomegranate seeds.
Remarques
- The Greek yogurt needs to be thick to avoid a watery salad. I used full fat Greek yogurt with 10% fat and 6% protein.