This vegan tzatziki is made with cashews, garlic, lemon juice, contemporary herbs, and grated cucumber. It is going to add an ultra-creamy, tangy, and funky part to your meals, from grain bowls to roasted greens to vegan gyros or pita pockets. The tzatziki can also be a refreshing and versatile dip.
The notion of a meals or cooking rut doesn’t solely apply to meals. It applies to condiments, too.
It’s no secret that I’m an enormous fan of tahini dressings, in any and all methods.
Likewise, I’ve written extensively in regards to the many bean dips that I like, from smoky refried beans to lentil & pumpkin seed dip to hummus.
Not too long ago, nevertheless, I’ve been craving a dip that’s particularly refreshing for summer season—one thing vibrant and cooling and creamy.
Vegan tzatziki, which is gentle sufficient to be a dressing but substantial sufficient to be a dip, is the reply.
What’s tzatziki?
Tzatiki is a yogurt-based dip that additionally comprises cucumber, lemon juice, garlic and salt. Contemporary herbs, comparable to dill, mint, or parsley, are almost all the time integrated.
Typically tzatziki comprises olive oil, or is given a splash of olive oil proper earlier than serving.
Whereas tzatziki is a good dip, it isn’t solely served as a dip. It may be drizzled onto kebabs, gyro, or keftedes, that are a sort of Greek meatball. On this sense, it’s very a lot a sauce as properly.
My mother is first technology Greek American, and I grew up consuming tzatziki.
I favored the coolness and creamy texture of the condiment, however most of all, I beloved its lemony taste. I’m an enormous fan of tangy sauces and acidity in meals.
Right here was a dip/sauce that was wealthy and luscious, however tremendous citrusy as properly.
What makes this tzatziki recipe vegan?
In a phrase, cashews.
Soaked, unroasted cashews are the bottom ingredient for the entire cream-based sauces that enrich my dairy-free life.
When blended, cashews flip into an ultra-rich, mildly flavored, and silky easy cream.
Probably the most versatile and fundamental model of that is my all-purpose cashew cream.
Extra specialised cashew lotions embrace my vegan mayonnaise with cashews, vegan ranch dressing, and 10-minute vegan ricotta cheese.
I additionally use soaked cashews to make an irresistable tangy, mildly salty vegan bitter cream. And that taste profile is exactly what’s wanted for a home made vegan tzatziki recipe.
Bitter cream is probably not an ingredient that involves thoughts for a standard Greek meals, however imagine me, it really works right here.
Bitter cream is the bottom ingredient that makes my vegan tzatziki come to life. When you put together the cream, the remainder of the recipe is simple.
You’ll combine the cashew bitter cream with different elements which are conventional for tzatziki—grated cucumber, salt, garlic, pepper, and dill—to create a really genuine, but solely plant-based, dip.
What if I don’t wish to make home made vegan bitter cream?
Should you’d wish to keep away from the step of mixing up cashews, which is completely truthful, then you’ll be able to enlist some store-bought vegan merchandise that can assist you out.
Tt’s positive to make use of both unsweetened, plain vegan yogurt or store-bought vegan bitter cream as an alternative.
Grating cucumber
I’ll stroll you thru steps for making the vegan tzatziki in only a second. However first, I ought to say somewhat about grating cucumber for the recipe.
Grated cucumber is to thank for tzatziki’s attribute style, in addition to it’s cooling, refreshing high quality.
For my vegan tzatziki, I wish to grate peeled, seeded cucumber on a handheld cheese grater.
Should you’re intrigued, I can let you know that this kitchen gadget is cheap and could be very hard-working. Its setting, which is coarser than most microplane zesters, however extra positive than most handheld field graters, is admittedly helpful.
For one factor, a handheld cheese grater creates stunning wisps of carrot for vegan carrot cake, or perfectly-sized bits of zucchini for vegan zucchini bread.
Should you’d wish to zest citrus in bigger items, whether or not for adornment or folding into baked items, the gadget can maintain that job, too.
After all, it’s also possible to use it to grate vegan cheese (such because the Violife wedge of vegan “parmesan”).
That gross sales pitch apart, if a field grater is what you could have, then a field grater is ok, too!
Basically, the purpose right here is to create very delicate items of cucumber, in order that they are often simply combined into the cashew bitter cream. Tzatziki ought to have texture, nevertheless it’s not imagined to be chunky.
Should you’re as much as the duty of very finely dicing your cucumber, that’s additionally a superbly OK technique of getting ready the cucumber for mixing.
How you can make vegan tzatziki
The steps in making this home made dip/sauce/dressing are actually easy.
Step 1: Soak your cashews
Soaking cashew nuts helps to melt them, which in flip makes it simpler to mix them. I used to suppose it was solely potential to make cashew-based sauces with an excellent high-speed blender. With sufficient soaking time, an everyday blender will most likely be as much as the duty.
I like to recommend soaking your cashews for a minimum of two hours, ideally as much as 4.
Should you’d wish to expedite the method, simply soak them in scorching water as an alternative of room temperature or chilly. Thirty minutes of soaking in scorching water ought to do the trick.
Step 2: Put together the cashew bitter cream
This is so simple as including components (soaked cashews, water, salt, lemon, lime) to a meals processor or blender and mixing until easy.
You possibly can put together the bitter cream as much as two days earlier than making the entire vegan tzatziki recipe.
Step 3: Put together the cucumber
Earlier than you grate the cucumber, you’ll wish to peel it and take away a few of its seeds. I counsel a seedless cucumber for the recipe, however a slicing cucumber can also be positive, as long as you get among the seeds out.
To do that, peel the cucumber, then halve it lengthwise. Use a small spoon to scrape out no matter seeds are current within the center. Then, grate the cucumber.
Lastly, it’s useful to wring some moisture out of the cucumber, in an effort to get a thick, creamy (not watery) dip.
To do that, tlace the grated cucumber right into a fine-mesh sieve and press on it to expel as a lot moisture as potential; alternatively, you’ll be able to squeeze it by a cheesecloth.
Step 3: Stir within the remaining components
These remaining components are:
- Grated cucumber
- Salt
- Finely minced garlic
- Further lemon juice
- Chopped contemporary dill
- Chopped contemporary mint leaves
Simply use a spoon or a small spatula to fold all of it collectively. When the dip appears evenly combined, it’s able to go.
Step 4: Serve or retailer
At this level, you’ll be able to benefit from the vegan tzatziki instantly. You may as well retailer it in an hermetic container within the fridge for as much as 4 days.
Does tzatziki freeze properly?
To be sincere, I anticipated the reply of this query to be no, however I found that it’s a sure.
After I was testing this recipe to write down about it, I froze a number of batches of my dip in small mason jars (which is how I normally freeze further parts of huge batches of dressing).
My concern was that the cucumber would flip slimy with defrosting. Quite the opposite, defrosted jars of the tzatziki tasted contemporary and had a standard texture. Win!
Serving vegan tzatziki
It is a pretty recipe to serve for snacking or hors d’oeuvres for those who’re entertaining. It’s such a fantastic dipper for crisp, uncooked crudités, and I prefer it with crackers, too.
Should you’d like to make use of it as a sauce, listed below are some recipes that I’d gladly drizzle it onto the roasted vegetable pearl couscous salad that I wrote about not too long ago.
It might even be fantastic to function an accompaniment to my oven-roasted balsamic eggplant cubes or stewed eggplant tomato lentils. Tzatziki and eggplant are a match made in summery heaven!
Should you’ve bought a recipe for vegan gyros that you just love, the tzatziki is an ideal topping for them. (And for those who don’t, there’s a recipe in my cookbook The Vegan Week that I like and make usually.)
It additionally works properly with grilled vegetable or tofu kebabs.
Lastly, I’m dying to make use of this instead of the tahini dressing for my cumin-spiced lentils and rice. Such a easy recipe, and this might take it to a brand new degree.
I’ll stay up for listening to about about the way you select to serve this recipe. I’m certain you’ll consider sensible makes use of that haven’t occurred to me.
Cool & Creamy Vegan Tzatziki (with Cashews)
Writer –
Yields: 8 servings
- 1 medium seedless cucumber, peeled
- 1 1/4 cups 4-ingredient vegan bitter cream (180ml; substitute unsweetened, plain non-dairy yogurt or store-bought vegan bitter cream)
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 cloves garlic, finely minced or grated
- 2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1/4 cup chopped contemporary dill (8g)
- 1/4 cup finely chopped contemporary mint leaves (10g)
-
Peel the cucumber, then halve it lengthwise. Use a small spoon to scrape out no matter seeds are current. Use a field grater to grate the cucumber. Place the grated cucumber right into a fine-mesh sieve and press on it to expel as a lot moisture as potential; alternatively, you’ll be able to squeeze it by a cheesecloth.
-
Switch the grated drained cucumber to a medium bowl. Add the bitter cream, salt, garlic, lemon juice, dill, and mint. Combine all the pieces collectively properly.
-
Serve the tzatziki instantly, or retailer it in an hermetic container within the fridge for as much as 4 days. The tzatziki will turn into extra highly effective in taste with time.
I’m actually no extra of an authority on Greek cooking than anybody else. My Yaya’s dishes had been actually part of my childhood, however honestly, I want I had taken extra time to really study from her.
Every time I do handle to create a plant-based model of a standard Greek dish, like my favourite vegan avgolemono soup or the vegan koulourakia cookies I posted this spring, I really feel glad about it.
And I’m completely happy to be including vegan tzatziki to the combo.
Take pleasure in it!
xo
