Lemon yogurt sauce prepared from scratch with a few ingredients.
This sauce has multiple uses and can be served with a variety of meals and cuisines.
Global Food Recipes
with Spices and Herbs
Free E-Book available for a limited time. Grab yours now and get instantly inspired!
You missed out!
Jump to:
📕 What is this Sauce?
I created this sauce because I wanted a lemon flavored yogurt sauce.
It's tart and enhanced with bright citrus notes, making it a great accompaniment as a dip with meat and seafood main course meals.
You won't need special equipment, such as a mini food processor, to make this sauce. Just grab a small bowl and a whisk or spoon.
Thin or thick, the lemon yogurt sauce is sure to enhance one of your meals if used the right way. I share flavor ideas and ways to serve up this yogurt sauce further below.
🧅 Ingredients
Here is a quick overview of the ingredients that you need to make this sauce from scratch.
The detailed US and metric measurements can be found further below in the recipe card.
- Yogurt – I recommend getting thick yogurt such as plain Greek yogurt, skyr or hung curd. You can also use homemade french yogurt, but your sauce might turn out too liquid.
- Lemon Juice – freshly squeezed juice.
- Salt
- Black Pepper
🔪 How to make it?
This is a summary of the steps that you have to take to make this yogurt lemon sauce. The detailed recipe to print is further below.
Step 1
Add yogurt to a small mixing bowl. (I use the same bowl to serve the sauce up as a dip).
Step 2
Pour in lemon juice, salt and black pepper.
Step 3
Whisk it all together to a well combined sauce.
🫙 Flavor Variations
Make this yogurt sauce your own by adding any of the following ingredients:
- Dill – Dried or fresh dill with lemon go hand in hand, especially if you plan to use this sauce with fish and seafood. I also like dill yogurt sauce with veggies.
- Oregano or Marjoram – Add some fresh or dried marjoram or oregano to your sauce. This combination works well if you use this sauce with poultry.
- Mint – Make this sauce with chopped fresh mint and serve it up with middle eastern, North African, central Asian or North Indian kebab meats.
- Parsley – Add freshly chopped flat or curled parsley to your sauce. This version of this sauce makes for a good supplement to seafood, vegetables, and most meats.
- Cilantro – For a Mexican or Indian touch, add freshly chopped cilantro.
- Curry Powder – Trust me, curry powder will make this yogurt sauce interesting.
- Lime Juice – Switch lemon juice for lime juice and your sauce will taste very differently.
- Lemon Zest – An optional addition or your choice instead of lemon juice if you would rather not add tartness to your yogurt sauce.
💡 Tips
To make this sauce less tart and creamier, add a ⅓ amount of table cream or Crème fraîche to the sauce.
Plain yogurt can make this sauce thinner, if that is the consistency that you are looking for.
🍴 Serving Ideas
This is a super versatile sauce, and you can use it with most meats, seafoods and vegetables, and with Western, Middle Eastern, North African, Central Asian and Indian foods.
I just love this sauce as a dip with Mediterranean dishes such as kebabs or souvlaki or also with Indian tandoori oven meals such as chicken tikka. Also a Döner will taste so much better with this sauce.
Middle eastern falafel, kibbeh and lamb meatballs just taste better with a lemon yogurt sauce.
Another idea is to enjoy this sauce as a dip (I add my Hummus without Tahini to that) with seafoods such as fried prawns, cooked crab, BBQ fish, fish sticks and baked salmon.
As you can see from my pictures, I also enjoy it with imitation crab sticks and fresh raw vegetables such as carrots, peppers, and cucumbers.
For lunch, you can also choose to drizzle this sauce over your salad with some fresh herbs to use it like a salad dressing.
Oh, and feel free to drizzle some olive oil over your lemon yogurt sauce, to serve it just like a labneh dip.
🍱 Storing
Store your sauce or leftovers in an airtight container for up to 3 days in your fridge.
I like to use small IKEA rectangular containers which come with a bamboo lid or a plastic clip lid.
Keep the best before date on your yogurt in mind when you make this sauce to store for later.
💭 FAQs
Greek Tzatziki is traditionally made with sheep or goat hung curd, cucumber, garlic cloves and fresh herbs.
Yes, the yogurt will curdle a bit, and therefore I recommend getting thick strained yogurt such as Greek yogurt to reduce the curdling effect.
📖 Recipe
Lemon Yogurt Sauce Recipe
Ingredients
- ¾ cup Yogurt thick greek style preferred *see Notes
- 1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice
- pinch Salt
- pinch Black Pepper Ground
Instructions
- Place yogurt with lemon juice, salt, and pepper into a bowl.¾ cup Yogurt, 1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice, pinch Salt, pinch Black Pepper Ground
- Combine and whisk together all ingredients.
- Keep in the fridge covered until further use. Serve up with meats, seafood, or veggies as a dip.
