Cacık
Turkish yoghurt with cucumber, garlic and dried mint, loosened with cold water until you can drink it or spoon it.
- Prep
- 15m
- Cook
- —
- Waiting
- 30m
- Total
- 45m
- Serves
- 4
- Effort
- Easy
Method
Tap a step number to mark it done. Tap an ingredient once for got it, twice for need it.
| 1 | Salt the grated cucumber and drain it in a sieve for 15 minutes 15m Squeeze gently at the end. Skip this and the cacık waters itself down within the hour. | Stir the drained cucumber into the seasoned yoghurt 5m | Whisk in cold water to the consistency you want and chill 30 minutes 35m Thick as a dip or thin enough to drink from a glass — both are correct, decide before you pour. | |
| 1/2 tsp | ||||
| 500 g | Beat until completely smooth 3m Yoghurt is a set gel; beating breaks it so it pours rather than sits in lumps. | |||
| 1 clove | ||||
| 2 tsp | ||||
| 1/2 tsp | ||||
| 100 to 200 ml | ||||
| 2 tbsp | ||||
| a pinch | ||||
-
Salt the grated cucumber and drain it in a sieve for 15 minutes
15m- cucumber 1
- fine salt 1/2 tsp
Squeeze gently at the end. Skip this and the cacık waters itself down within the hour.
-
Beat until completely smooth
3m- full-fat natural yoghurt 500 g
- garlic 1 clove
- dried mint 2 tsp
- fine salt 1/2 tsp
Yoghurt is a set gel; beating breaks it so it pours rather than sits in lumps.
-
Stir the drained cucumber into the seasoned yoghurt
5m- from 1 Salt the grated cucumber and drain it in a sieve for 15 minutes
- from 2 Beat until completely smooth
-
Whisk in cold water to the consistency you want and chill 30 minutes
35m- from 3 Stir the drained cucumber into the seasoned yoghurt
- ice-cold water 100 to 200 ml
- extra virgin olive oil 2 tbsp
- dried mint a pinch
Thick as a dip or thin enough to drink from a glass — both are correct, decide before you pour.
Dried mint, not fresh
Drying mint drives off the light, grassy top notes and concentrates menthol and menthone, which is why a teaspoon of the dried herb reads more strongly minty in cold yoghurt than a whole handful of fresh leaves. Fresh mint also oxidises in acid and turns dark within an hour.
Salting the cucumber is the same osmosis trick used everywhere else in this kitchen: it pulls water out before that water can dilute the yoghurt. What is left tastes more of cucumber, not less.
Notes
- Grate the cucumber coarsely. Fine grating turns it to slush.
- One clove is enough. Raw garlic keeps getting stronger as it sits.
- Serve properly cold, with a lot of ice if you have made the thin version.