Yogurt Sauce - A Healthy Dressing

Yogurt sauce is a light and healthy alternative to Ranch dressing.  It still has that tangy cool flavoring without all the fat and calories.  I feel it's like a Mediterranean BBQ sauce in that there's so many ways to make it.  Every family has their own recipe and special ingredients.  I learned this while helping my Turkish friend prepare dinner.  Thanks Mehmet!

There are many variations to this sauce, but this is the one I've grown to like.
1 pint of plain yogurt
6 or 7 large cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
2 tablespoon of dill (fresh is best but dried will do)
1 teaspoon of salt


I've found the best way to peel garlic is to SMASH it with the flat side of your knife.  Place the knife's flat side over a clove of garlic and firmly press down.  Make sure you have a secure hold of the handle when doing this.  After the clove has been smashed, actually crushed is a better term... the peel will simply fall off.  No fuss no muss.  I believe this is a popular Chinese/Asian method, I saw my mom and grandma doing it growing up.  Martin Yan of Yan Can Cook is a great advocate of this method as well :P

I've seen those garlic peelers in the supermarket, but I've never tried them.  I don't like to clutter my kitchen with gadgets that only have a singular purpose.  Pretty soon you're swimming in silicone knick-knack and can't find your peeler.


Place yogurt, garlic, dill & salt in mixing bowl and mix!  I would recommend using good quality, thick yogurt.  A pint of this mix will last us about a week.  It's great in any garden salad or spooned over chicken or salmon.  You can also use it as a dipping sauce for veggie sticks.  It will stay good for the duration of the yogurt's date.  If it gets watery because the yogurt has settled, simply pour out the water and give it a good mix.


The yogurt sauce all mixed up.  I usually pour it back into it's original container for refrigeration/storage.


A typical lunch... Banh mi sandwich with greek salad & yogurt sauce.  The salad has cucumber and tomatoes from the garden as well as avocado and olives from the store.  The banh mi is from my favorite Vietnamese deli in Seattle called Seattle Deli.  I burned the sandwich because I was too busy taking picture for this blog to pay attention to the toaster oven!  Oops.