Recipe Request: Cucumber Yogurt Sauce

The Enright CSA blog received a request at Saturday morning pickup for more cucumber recipes—specifically, a recipe for cucumber sauce. My first thought was of Greek cucumber sauce, the stuff you dribble on top of the tomatoes and onions on your gyro at Sebastian’s. I couldn’t remember the name of the sauce, but have since done a little research and found it is called Tzatziki sauce.

However, the requestor, farmer Dave (Rudy) Rudemiller, was thinking of Indian cucumber sauce. Ah, yes—forgot about that, it’s always on the lunch buffet at Amol Indian restaurant. And, a little more research unearthed the fact that it is called raita sauce.

Here’s the most intriguing part—it’s essentially the same sauce. Both are made with yogurt and cucumbers in equal amounts, two cups of yogurt and a medium cucumber, peeled, seeded, and diced. (Quick Tip: Cucumbers are easy to seed, just slice one in half longways and scoop out the seeds with a spoon.)

The difference is in the seasoning, obviously. For tzatziki sauce, add a garlic clove, fresh dill or mint, and salt and pepper to taste. For raita sauce, use ground cumin (or half cumin, half coriander), some chopped fresh cilantro, and sprinkle a little chili pepper and ground black pepper over it to garnish. You can also add a little lemon or lime juice to either one.

So, two sauces with one recipe . . . here are the directions with specific information about the amounts for both ethnicities of cucumber yogurt sauce. Both call for Greek yogurt because it is thicker than regular, but you can use regular as is if you don’t mind it being thinner. You can also strain regular plain yogurt through a sieve lined with a coffee filter to make it thicker, but that can take several hours.

Cucumber Yogurt Sauce

For either type:
2 cups Greek yogurt
1 medium cucumber, peeled, seeded, and diced
1 tsp. kosher salt

Put the diced cucumber in a colander, sprinkle with salt, and let stand for 30 minutes to draw out the liquid. Drain well and pat dry with a paper towel.

For Tzatziki Sauce:
1 garlic clove, chopped
1 T finely chopped fresh dill (use mint leaves for a different taste)
Optional: 1 Tbsp. lemon juice
Salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

For Raita Sauce:
1 tsp. ground cumin (or ½ tsp. ground cumin and ½ tsp. ground coriander)
1 T chopped fresh coriander
Optional: 1 Tbsp. lime juice
Salt to taste
Chili powder and/or fresh ground pepper to garnish

Add all but about a ¼ cup of the diced cucumbers to the bowl of a food processor with the seasonings and optional lemon or lime juice and process until well blended. Stir this mixture and the reserved diced cucumber into the yogurt, taste, and add salt and pepper as needed. Let the sauce meld in the refrigerator for an hour or two before serving; for the raita sauce, sprinkle with a little chili powder and black pepper before serving.

Keeps in the refrigerator for several days, but you may need to pour off water that forms on top when you use it again.