Tzatsiki and other yogurt salsas
Servings: 4
Preparation Time: 30 minutes
Ingredients
- 1 cucumber
- 5 spring onions, thinly sliced
- 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
- 1 cup yogurt
- 3-4 tbsp fresh mint, chopped
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1/4 tsp coarse sea salt
Steps
- Peel the cucumber, half it lengthwise, seed it, and chop it into small chunks.
- Mix the yogurt, cucumber, onion, and garlic.
- Add mint, salt, and pepper to taste.
As you might have guessed from some of the other recipes on this site, I like to always keep fresh salsa or its ingredients on hand. Tortilla chips and salsa—with an emphasis on the salsa—make a great quick meal.
You might recognize this yogurt salsa as a form of the Greek tzatziki. If you’re making it for a party, garnish with sprigs of mint. Serving with small toast rounds or warm pita bread is traditional, but it works great as a dip for tortillas and tortilla chips also.
Yogurt makes a great base for salsas. The simplest yogurt salsa is yogurt, some spice, onion, and a touch of salt. About 3/4 cup yogurt, 1/4 cup finely-chopped red onion, a half-teaspoon of thyme, and an eighth teaspoon coarse sea salt makes a great salsa for tortilla chips, quesadillas, or meats.
If you have any other fresh vegetables lying around, such as red bells, garlic, or hot peppers, try them out. Likewise, add different spices such as dill, oregano, or cilantro. Like tomato salsa, you can vary the ingredients extensively.
Generally you’re going to use fat yogurt, not low-fat. Trader Joe’s has a “creamline” yogurt that lets you pull off most of the cream for use in biscuits or other baked goods while still leaving a good creamy salsa-friendly yogurt behind.
Most salsas benefit from sitting a little while, but this is especially true for yogurt salsas and doubly true if you use any dried spice such as thyme or dill. Let it sit for an hour or even overnight in the refrigerator to let the yogurt draw out the flavors.
- June 9, 2006: Chili Yogurt
-
As it turns out, ajwain is similar to thyme, although I can’t taste the similarity. You may need less ajwain than I use, simply because I’ve had this spice on my shelf for a long time without using it. The wikipedia entry claims it is also similar to cumin, so I may also try some on popcorn. I’ll definitely be making a lot of this salsa!
The strength of this salsa is its subtlety. If you add more spices or chili, be careful not to add too much. Adding too much chili, or too much of any of the spices, will mask the subtle flavor mix. It’ll still be good, but it won’t be as intriguing.
This salsa greatly benefits from a half an hour to an hour of rest to let the flavors settle.
More recipe
- Mango macadamia pie for π day
- This creamy mango pie with a macadamia nut topping is perfect for π day. Celebrate the impending end of winter with a bit of the tropics.
- Ice cream from your home freezer
- You can make great ice cream with whole eggs, egg yolks, and egg whites. You can even make it without eggs at all. All you need is syrup and cream—and a refrigerator with a freezer or a standalone home freezer.
- Bicentennial Pie for Pi Day
- A pie and crust from 1976 for Pi Day. The crust is a coconut crust, and the pie is a whipped orange-gelatin filling. Top it all off with chopped macadamia nuts and you’ve got a pie fit for any holiday.
- Cream of coconut jack-o-lantern soup
- If last year’s jack-o-lantern soup wasn’t gruesome enough, try mixing your pumpkin’s disgouged facial parts with coconut and ginger.
- Buttery foil-baked potatoes for National Potato Day
- National Potato Day is tomorrow. And it’s a great day to grill. Here’s a simple foil-wrapped potato and onion recipe for the grill or the oven.
- 82 more pages with the topic recipe, and other related pages
More salsa
- Yogurt-Eggplant salsa
- This baba ghanouj-style salsa adds yogurt and citrus for an even more exotic flavor, and is very easy to make.
- Olive-basil tapenade
- With the holiday season in full swing, easy-to-make snacks are in demand. This variation on the tapenade is fast, and the tapenade itself is tasty baked or “raw”.
- Eggplant hummus
- The smooth, smoky flavor of roasted eggplant mixed with the nutty flavor of chickpeas, it combines baba ghanouj with hummus.
- Chili Yogurt
- I lucked into this salsa recipe because I ran out of thyme. I decided to try something completely different, some spice that I rarely use. So I went to the spice rack and pulled down some ajwain. The subtle interplay of flavors in this yogurt salsa has quickly made it one of my favorites.
- Avocado and mint salsa
- You can also use avocados rather than tomatoes for a great creamy salsa, and it goes great with mint or basil.
- Six more pages with the topic salsa, and other related pages