Pink Radish Tzatziki

A light, summery and classic tzatziki spiked with grated radish for a peppery kick and a pink hue.

Usually radishes go really nicely with butter, sliced thin with flakey salt over top. This recipe calls for yogurt, strained — pretty much a classic tzatziki, except for the radishes!

Every bite has fresh radish and cucumber, flavored further with garlic and lemon. I love using this dip as a salad dressing for a greek salad, just thinning it out with some white balsamic vinegar — or just for dipping fresh crudites. For a perfect aperitivo hour, serve this dip with sliced raw heirloom rainbow carrots and flatbread.

Strain yogurt, cucumber and radishes to get all the extra liquid out. That way, we can add lemon juice to thin it out, which adds flavour without watering down a dish.

Salt every step of the way — from straining the yogurt, cucumber or radish. Adding salt at every step will ensure we are salting our food from within and seasoning every component of the dish. Garnish with a bit of flakey salt on top and a drizzle of olive oil.

Save the cucumber juice for a margarita! Trust me.

Ingredients:

1 cup/250g yogurt, greek, plain, unsweetened

1 cucumber, grated

2 watermelon radishes, grated

2 garlic cloves, grated

handful of fresh dill

juice of 1/2 a lemon

pinch of salt x 4

drizzle of olive oil

Method:

Strain the yogurt over a fine mesh strainer with a bowl underneath to catch the liquid with a pinch of salt while you prepare the rest.

Grate a cucumber and radishes and strain the same way with salt. Squeeze out the water as time goes on.

After about 20 minutes, add the strained yogurt, cucumber and radish into a mixing bowl and add grated garlic, lemon juice, dill and mix until combined. There should be enough salt from straining that we shouldn’t need to add more, but taste for salt. I like to garnish with salt so I save it for garnishing.

Smear onto a pretty plate and dress with olive oil and flakey salt.