As the weather warms up and days become longer, I’m beginning to transition from warm, comforting, earthy roasted dinners to lighter more refreshing dishes. And if you followed me last summer you know my go-to dinner was salmon (shocker) with some mix of vegetable and rice and ALWAYS globs of tzatziki. The Turkish got it right with this one.

The vegan version of this really comes down to the base. I tried to find a vegan yogurt most similar to plain Greek yogurt (or Skyr) in both flavor and texture, which is no easy task. Many dairy free yogurts are incredibly watery, tangy or sweet. I ended up using New Earth Superfoods Unsweetened Coconut Yogurt which you can only get it in California. I know I know, I’m sorry! I’ll add a recipe for homemade coconut yogurt soon, but for now you could also try the Coconut Cult although it is way too tangy for my liking. Anyway, the rest of the recipe is pretty intuitive and can be altered depending on preference, so this is just a base on which you can customize.

Ingredients:

1 jar of coconut yogurt

1 large cucumber

2 cloves garlic

fresh dill

lemon

salt and pepper

Directions: 

Peel cucumber and squeeze excess water out using cheesecloth (or paper towels)

Salt cucumber and let sit 15 minutes

Mix yogurt and cucumber

Add 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

Add fresh juice of 1/2 lemon

Add 2-3 sprigs of dill

Blend on pulse just enough to mix and chop up the cucumber into smaller pieces

Add salt and pepper to taste

PRO TIP AND THIS MADE A HUUUUGE DIFFERENCE: let sit in refrigerator as long as possible, ideally overnight!