Roman’s Tzatziki

Tzatziki is another really simple thing to throw at your children. I’ve had limited success trying vegan variants on this. A good one is refreshing and delicious and I can never stop eating it.               

Gear

• 1 chopping board
• Sharp Knife
• Large Bowl

Tzatziki

Ingredients

• Plain yoghurt – Greek and live ideally
• Lime juice – Lemon will do, I prefer lime
• Fresh mint
• Cucumber
• Garlic
• Sea Salt                     

Method

1. Peel and smash your garlic. Again, 6 decent cloves to a litre tub of yoghurt will give a flavour spicy with garlic. Then finely mince it.  
2. Chop your cucumber lengthways and use a teaspoon to scoop out the seeds in the middle. This part is too watery and will prevent your tzatziki achieving the brilliance it deserves. Some people chop the skin off the cucumber. I don’t even do that with potatoes. There’s a whole host of extra micronutrients in the skin that aren’t present in the flesh of many if not most fruit and veg – the skin, after all, is what comes in contact with pathogens and pests. It’s also more work and who wants more work between them and tasty food?
3. Cut the cucumber into about 1cm cubes (1/4″ for our American friends) or, if you prefer, thin strips.
4. Finely chop your fresh mint.
5. Combine the garlic, mint and cucumber with the yoghurt and add salt and lime juice in increments until the desired flavour is reached.
6. You’ve made Tzatziki!

Awesome. Imagine if you still had to be at work rather than eating this. eating it with a good baguette or flatbread is heavenly and though I cautioned against drinking earlier (binge drinking can temporarily increase the “leakiness” of the gut allowing pathogens easier entry from the gut), a piney retsina with tzatziki and bread and you aren’t in your house on lockdown any more, you’re looking over olive groves with a Hellenic zephyr playing upon your face.

Variations

I don’t know many. Adding pomegranate seeds looks spectacular and is an interesting variation but I think the normal version does everything it’s supposed to, rather wonderfully.