Easy Greek Tzatziki Sauce without Dill

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This easy Tzatziki Sauce without dill is a tangy, delicious yogurt dip with cucumber, lemon juice, garlic, and olive oil. You can make this simple sauce in just 10-15 minutes and you can eat it in a bunch of different ways. Tzatziki sauce is perfect in a gyro, on a Greek burger, or on the side of loaded Greek fries. 

Tzatziki sauce takes a little prep work but it’s easy prep work. You need to remove water from the cucumber so it doesn’t make your sauce watery.

Did you know cucumbers are 96% water? That’s a lot! To drain out the water you can finely grate the cucumber in the small holes of a cheese grater and then salt it and let it sit for a few minutes – like 10.  A lot of excess water will drip out and then you can squeeze out the rest!

What is Tzatziki Sauce?

Tzatziki sauce is a Greek dip or sauce made with thick Greek yogurt, cucumber, and garlic.

Does Tzatziki sauce contain dill?

Traditional Tzatziki sauce typically does not contain dill. Outside of Greece, it’s common to add dill but I don’t add it in mine.

Ingredients

• plain Greek yogurt: Use the thickest Greek yogurt available so your final sauce is thick.
• olive oil: I use Greek olive oil.
• lemon juice: I like fresh lemon juice when I have lemons on hand but I use the bottled stuff occasionally. Lemon juice gives a brighter flavor and helps bring out the rest of the flavors.
• garlic: you’ll need a few cloves. Use 1-2 for a less garlicky dip and 3-4 for more garlic.
• cucumber: I use a regular English cucumber. I grate mine on the small holes of a cheese grater for a fine texture. I feel like this allows me to get more water out of the cucumber and the sauce is smoother in texture than using coarsely grated cucumbers. English cucumbers have a thin skin so I don’t bother peeling them.

Substitutions

What can you substitute for dill? I don’t add dill to my recipe. If you want to add fresh herbs, try finely chopped parsley or chives.

Instructions

RECIPE TIP: Don’t skip draining the cucumber – look at all of the water it’s holding!

Tips for making Tzatziki sauce

• Microplane the garlic: finely grate or mince your garlic or use a Microplane. The garlic needs to be finely grated so that it isn’t lumpy in your nice smooth sauce and so that you don’t bite down on a large piece of raw garlic. Spicy!
• strain the cucumber: this is the most important step of making Tzatziki – preparing the cucumber. You must salt it and let it sit to drain after. If you don’t do this step the cucumber will let out all of its water right into your sauce, leaving you with a watery mess.
• let it sit: this is another good tip – make the Tzatziki sauce a while before you need it. This sauce’s flavors mingle together and soften into each other as it sits. You can eat it the same day but a few hours in the fridge does this sauce well.
• use thick yogurt: if you use a thin yogurt you’ll have a thin sauce. Get the thickest Greek yogurt you can.

What to serve Tzatziki sauce with

Tzatziki sauce is a versatile dip and can be served in many ways. I use Tzatziki sauce on my Greek Burger recipe, on the side of my lemon potatoes, and for dipping my Greek fries recipe. Tzatziki sauce goes well with appetizers, from pita triangles to fresh sliced vegetables to breaded portobello fries.

Storage

Store Tzatziki sauce in the fridge in a container with a lid for about 3 days.

Frequently asked questions

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This post was originally posted on January 17, 2018, and updated on January 23 2023.

A photo from the original blog post.