Elimination Diet Friendly Tzatziki Sauce

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Traditional Tzatziki sauce is made with greek yogurt and lemon juice. Since your elimination diet is likely to eliminate all dairy and may eliminate citrus, this Tzatziki sauce is a great substitute that can be eaten at any phase. If you follow my recipes you know I’m allergic to citrus. Since I discovered that unfortunate fact for myself I have amassed quite a collection of vinegars. Many recipes require an acid to help balance flavors and vinegar is a versatile, affordable, and healthy alternative. You should at least have plain distilled white vinegar and a basic apple cider vinegar in your pantry at all times. These two ingredients will become staples in your cooking.

Coconut yogurt is the only yogurt option available during phase one of an elimination diet. If you have reintroduced soy or nuts feel free to use soy or cashew yogurt instead of coconut if you prefer. None of these options are going to be as thick and rich as regular greek yogurt but we’ll make do. If you are really desperate to thicken your yogurt, especially if you’re going the home made route, you might try adding xanthan gum. A little goes a very long way here so I wouldn’t recommend more than ⅛ of a tsp for this whole batch of sauce. Use a food processor or blender to mix it thoroughly into the yogurt before adding any of the other ingredients.

Now, I actually don’t care much for the flavor of dill. Mint can also be used for this recipe to gain a different flavor profile. You can even substitute any fresh herb that you like. This is your sauce, enjoy it. Fresh parsley, cilantro, basil, go crazy! Whatever you want you can put it right in there. Just in moderation or it will take over this otherwise delicate Tzatziki sauce.

In order to sieve the cucumbers you can use a mesh sieve, or you can squeeze the liquid out using a tea towel or multiple paper towels. Measure the cucumber BEFORE you drain them. They will lose a lot of volume this way but it’s going to keep your elimination diet tzatziki sauce much thicker and help it last longer in the fridge.

How to prepare cucumbers for Tzatziki sauce

There are many ways to prepare a cucumber. Some people will tell you to peel and seed them, some people just cut them right up. A lot of this comes down to preferences, here are some tips for preparing cucumbers.

• wash OR peel your cucumbers. Cucumbers have a natural wax on the outside with has a bitter taste and unpleasant mouth feel. I prefer to wash my cucumbers because the peel contains plenty of nutrients. If you find that washing doesn’t remove enough of the wax you pay peel your cucumbers
• option to remove cucumber seeds. Since you’ll be draining the cucumber for this elimination diet recipe you may decided to remove the core of the vegetable which contains the seeds and the most liquid. The seeds contain their own nutrients so I like to leave them in but removing them will make draining easier and produce a smoother tzatziki sauce.
• use a food processor for quick grating
• use a clean towel to press and drain the cucumber if you don’t have a fine mesh seive, just place the cucumber in the towel and sqeeze all the juice out by hand
• mix all ingredients promptly, if you drain the cucumber but don’t mix it right away it will become dehydrated and turn an unpleasant texture

Ingredients

• ½ cup finely grated cucumber
• 1 cup coconut yogurt, or preferred plain yogurt
• 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 garlic clove, finely minced
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp sugar
• 1 tbsp mint or dill, minced

Instructions

1. sieve or press the liquid out of the cucumber
2. mix all ingredients
3. chill for at least one hour
4. serve chilled

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