Can You Make Tzatziki With Sour Cream?

A delicious tzatziki sauce is a flavorful and low-carb dip that best complements Mediterranean dishes. It is often served in Greek restaurants, but you can make it easily at home! You can create it using simple ingredients such as cucumber, yogurt, and herbs. If you’ve only got cucumber and herbs, can you make tzatziki with sour cream? Keep reading and learn if sour cream can substitute yogurt when making the tzatziki sauce recipe.

What Sour Cream Is Made Of?

Sour cream is one of the most common bases for dips and flavorings. It’s a cultured and pasteurized light cream fermented and condensed by adding lactic acid bacteria. It becomes sour as adding vinegar makes it acidic. Most people widely use sour cream as a condiment and as a cooking or baking component. Baked goods become moist and have a soft texture because of the richness and acidity of sour cream. It makes a great topping for sautéed vegetables and tangy flavoring to sauces and soups. But, can you make tzatziki with sour cream?

How to Make Tzatziki with Sour Cream

Here are a few simple steps on how to make tzatziki with the use of sour cream.

Serving Suggestions

Sour cream helps keep tzatziki sauce healthy and low in carbs, making it a good option for people on a keto diet. You have a nutritious meal when you use tzatziki sauce as a dip or dressing to vegetable salad. Keep in mind that it is tastier when chilled before serving.

Tzatziki sauce makes a perfect dip for pita bread or chips. It is also a delightful spread to your sandwich, and it is best paired with cucumber slices, carrot sticks, tomato wedges, and many more. Additionally, you can use it as a sauce on chicken or beef wraps; it is also commonly used with shawarma and tacos.

If you have grilled meat or seafood, a tzatziki sauce makes the best dip that gives a tangy and delicious flavor to your dish. It can be paired with any food when you are creative about using it, and it can be eaten in many ways. It is a flexible sauce mixed with any dish, making every breakfast, lunch, or dinner more appetizing.

Cucumber Straining Tips

The most important thing to note in making tzatziki sauce is to drain the water completely from the basic ingredient – the cucumbers. The less water you have with cucumbers used, the creamier and tastier your tzatziki will be. It is best to learn straining tips so you won’t have a hard time preparing ingredients for the sauce.

To strain the cucumber, remove its seeds first before grating. Get a bowl and place a fine-mesh strainer over it. Put the grated cucumber on the filter and sprinkle it with salt. You can use a coffee filter as a colander, too. Push out excess moisture, and set the cucumber aside while occasionally pushing and draining for excess water. Don’t exceed over two hours of removing the water.

Another option is to use a cheesecloth when squeezing the cucumber. But when you don’t have any straining tool in your kitchen, squeezing the cucumber using your hands will do.

Tzatziki Sauce Tips

• If you prefer to add oil to the sauce mixture, it is best to use high-quality olive oil to achieve the best tzatziki taste.
• Use fresh lemon juice only and not the lemon concentrate when you use sour cream instead of yogurt in your tzatziki. Lemon concentrates are good when you are baking and making other desserts but not with a tzatziki sauce.
• Fresh dills are ideal to use because it adds to the overall luscious flavor of the sauce.
• But, can you make tzatziki with sour cream? Sour cream and yogurt are almost the same ingredients, and each is a good substitute for the other. But when you prefer to use sour cream, try to add mayonnaise to the list of ingredients to soften the acidity of the sour cream.
• Cucumber needs adequate draining before mixing with other ingredients. It goes with Greek yogurt and sour cream, too. Both contain natural fluid content that can make your tzatziki watery.
• When draining the Greek yogurt and sour cream, put them on a coffee filter placed over the bowl. You can also leave it inside the fridge to drain for hours.
• Leftover tzatziki must be kept in a sealed container and chilled in the refrigerator; it can only last up to two days.
• It is not recommended to freeze homemade tzatziki. Its texture and flavor will be affected once it melts.

Conclusion

The tzatziki sauce is full of Mediterranean flavor, and whipping it up is easier than you think. Its basic ingredients are also simple. For the frequently asked question, can you make tzatziki with sour cream? Yes, sour cream can be a substitute for yogurt. When you know how to make a delicious tzatziki sauce at home, you will enjoy it much and have an unlimited supply for your hearty meals. Enjoy creating and serving this cool and refreshing, and low-carb Mediterranean-inspired sauce. Bon appétit! Get more Mediterranean recipes here.