Tzatziki
Strained yoghurt, cucumber, garlic — the meze that makes everything else stretch.
Tzatziki is strained Greek yoghurt with grated cucumber, garlic and olive oil, served as part of a meze table rather than as a dip on its own. Two things decide whether it works: the yoghurt must be properly strained, and the grated cucumber must be salted and squeezed dry first. Skip either and you get a thin sauce instead of a thick one.
Ingredients
- 500g Greek yoghurt
- 1 cucumber
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
- Olive oil, salt
- Dill
Method
- 1
Grate the cucumber and salt it; leave 20 minutes.
- 2
Squeeze out as much water as you can — this is the whole trick.
- 3
Crush the garlic to a paste with salt.
- 4
Mix everything with the yoghurt, vinegar and olive oil.
- 5
Chill an hour and finish with dill.
One tub of yoghurt turns a plate of bread into a meal.
The rest of the meze table
- Horiatiki (Greek Village Salad) — The salad that sits beside it on every taverna table.
- Gigantes Plaki — Baked butter beans — the warm dish of the same spread.
- Briam — Roasted vegetables, served at room temperature like the rest.
Taverna Notes
The free Greek recipes are six of the thirteen in the guide. The rest of the book is the taverna itself: what may and may not appear on your bill, how fish by weight is priced, and how to order without being upsold.
Thirteen Greek recipes, and the language, law and labels of the Greek table.
- Thirteen Greek recipes with metric and US measures
- Regional food context and taverna guidance
- Menu and ordering language
- Restaurant pricing and consumer rules — including the prohibition on κουβέρ cover charges and the consent rules for bread and water
Travelling more widely? The Complete European Table holds all seven expanded guides — 495 pages across 7 guides, one-time purchase.
Get all 7 guides — $29.99Cooking this way every week? Read our free guide to the Mediterranean diet on a budget.