📋 Light and Healthy Tzatziki Sauce Recipe

triangle of pita bread being dipped into tzatziki sauce in black bowl on black tray with pita bread in background and lemon wedges

5 from 1 vote

📋 Light and Healthy Tzatziki Sauce Recipe

This easy Light and Healthy Tzatziki Sauce is quick to make with both pantry and fresh ingredients and tastes authentic. It's also low-fat and Weight Watchers friendly. It goes perfectly with Greek-style potatoes, souvlaki, vegetables, crackers, or on its own with pita bread!

Course Appetizer, Snack, topping

Cuisine Greek, Mediterranean

Keyword easy, healthy, sauce, tzatziki

Special Diet low-carb, Vegetarian, weight watchers

Prep Time 15

Total Time 15

Servings servings

Calories 6kcal

Author Terri Gilson

Equipment

Ingredients

1 -long seedless English cucumber (about 1 ¼ cups grated cucumber, when liquid is squeezed out) unpeeled, grated on the large holes of your box cheese grater
1 ¼ cup plain, non-fat Greek yogurt 0 %
1 whole lemon (you'll use the juice from the entire lemon)
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill or 1 tablespoon dried dill
1 tablespoon lemon juice from concentrate
1 tablespoon white vinegar
3 cloves garlic pressed or minced
1 teaspoon fine sea salt *add additional salt as desired

US Customary - Metric

Get Recipe Ingredients

Instructions

Grate cucumber with large holes on box grater.
Squeeze the grated cucumber through a sieve to remove excess liquid. Make sure you squeeze it very thoroughly to get as much liquid out as possible. * You should get about 1 ¼ cup grated cucumber when you are done; if there is less, that's fine. *Pat dry with a paper towel.
1 -long seedless English cucumber (about 1 ¼ cups grated cucumber, when liquid is squeezed out)
Then transfer the squeezed cucumber to a serving bowl.
Add everything else (the yogurt, olive oil, dill, fresh lemon juice (juice from one whole lemon, lemon juice from concentrate, garlic and salt) to the bowl, and stir to blend.
1 ¼ cup plain, non-fat Greek yogurt, 1 whole lemon (you'll use the juice from the entire lemon), 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, 2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill, 1 tablespoon lemon juice from concentrate, 1 tablespoon white vinegar, 3 cloves garlic, 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
Taste and add additional salt, if necessary.
Serve tzatziki immediately or chill for later. *Leftover tzatziki keeps well, chilled, for about 4 days.

Garnish

Garnish with fresh dill, if desired.

Notes

*NOTE: Got leftover Tzatziki Sauce? Make my Leftover Tzatziki Pasta!

Weight Watchers Points:

This healthy, quick, light, and Easy Weight Watchers Tzatziki Sauce is only 1 WW point for 2 tbsp. This recipe is calculated on my ww app.

You may find some 0-point tzatziki sauce recipes out there, but those zero-point recipes don't have the same authentic creaminess that this recipe has!~ Trust me, you need a little oil and the 1 point is well worth it!

Variations & Substitutions

You can use full-fat plain Greek yogurt if you prefer. You will get a richer sauce, but it will have more calories and points. They are both high protein. But since I only ever have nonfat Greek yogurt in my house, that's what I use. And I still find it rich enough.
The olive oil gives it a smooth and rich taste and balances the no-fat Greek yogurt tartness. Some recipes don't use olive oil in order to make it lower WW points, but I am not willing to give up taste!
Dill is another important component of tzatziki, but if you don't have fresh herbs, you can use dried (I have the substitution amounts in the recipe card.) You can also use a combination of dry and fresh dill.
Regular salt or kosher salt can be used in place of sea salt (fine or coarse) if you don't have sea salt.
You can use regular olive oil or extra virgin olive oil
You can substitute black pepper for white pepper.

Expert Recipe Tips:

The Great Squeeze: The secret to a thick sauce that isn't watery is removing every drop of moisture from the cucumber. After grating, squeeze it through a fine-mesh sieve or a clean kitchen towel until it's bone-dry.
Pat it Dry: After squeezing, I like to pat the grated cucumber with a paper towel for one final insurance policy against sogginess.
Let it Mellow: While you can eat this immediately, it is spectacular if you let it sit in the fridge for 30 minutes. This allows the garlic and dill to fully infuse into the yogurt.
Large Grate: Use the large holes on your box grater. If you grate the cucumber too finely, it turns into mush rather than providing that nice, authentic texture.

Nutrition