Friday, July 24, 2009

Greek Taziki Sauce & Appetizer

I had a mad craving for Greek food the other day and decided that instead of going out to eat I would cook and invite a couple friends over. I love that Greek food can be really simple or really complicated to make, and being lazy I went with the easy recipes. I decided to make my personal favorite Taziki sauce and then I just added onto that with olives, fresh veggies, hummus, pita bread, feta cheese, and some lamb burgers so we could turn this appetizer into a meal by making gyros. It was so nice to be able to just sit outside in the backyard and relax and graze on the appetizer, which so easily transitioned into dinner. This would also be a great appetizer if your throwing a large party, or need a heavy snack during mid-day. Opa!


Greek Taziki Sauce

4 Cups Whole Milk Yogurt
3 Cloves Garlic, minced
1 Cucumber, peeled, seeded, and finely diced
2 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Juice From 1/2 Lemon
1/2 Teaspoon Salt

The secret to making a good thick taziki sauce is to drain the yogurt first. Simply line a colander with 2 layers of paper towels and dump in yogurt. Let drain over a bowl for 2 hours, you will lose half the volume of the yogurt, so make sure to use the full 4 cups.
Next place the thickened yogurt into a mixing bowl, add the garlic, cucumber, olive oil, lemon and salt and stir until well combined. Cover and let rest for at least one hour before serving so that the flavors can develop (the longer it sits the more pronounced the garlic will be). Stir again and place into your desired serving dish.
To make a full appetizer plate cut up tomatoes, cucumbers, red onion, fetta cheese, and warm pita bread and hummus, and serve.

9 comments:

Noodlegirl said...

I love it everything looks so good!

Pam said...

I love this! I am going to make this for dinner soon - my whole family will dig it.

Stacy and Brian's Adventures in Life said...

This makes a great dinner to beat the heat......no cooking! Thanks for sharing. Stacy

Anonymous said...

I just returned from a trip to Greece and fell in love with the food. Your presentation is wonderful. Making this for Thanksgiving hor d'oeuvres. Do you ever make your own yogurt?
OregonSue

Anonymous said...

feta with one t.

Unknown said...

Thanks for the inspiration- I am planning a greek menu for this Saturday-56 people and counting!.

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4rx said...

maybe the best of the Mediterranean food so far, thanks for share the recipe sweety!

Lake Travis said...

wow... nice..You did a great job there... thank you so much for sharing this idea, Keep up the good work (: