Egyptian Zabadi Recipe
If you’ve ever been to Greece or Turkey you may have tried the cucumber / Garlic yoghurt dip ‘Tzatziki’, that leaves your mouth zinging with the taste of garlic long after its consumption.
The Egyptian cousin of Tzatziki is ‘Zabadi’, and replaces garlic with fresh mint. Zabadi would traditionally be served as one of a number of mezze style dips (e.g. hummus, babu ganouche, tabouleh etc) along with warm pita bread and salad.
The Egyptian Zabadi recipe is healthy, very quick to prepare, and with reduced garlic, more socially acceptable than its Greek counterpart.
Time to table: 10 minutes
Ingredients for Zabadi Recipe:
1 x large pot of plain yoghurt
1 x cucumber
3 x sprigs of fresh mint
2 x cloves of garlic
2 x pinches of salt
Directions:
1. Peel the cucumber and then dice into small cubes.
2. Finely chop the garlic
3. Remove the leaves from the mint sprigs and finely chop. (Alternatively use powdered mint)
4. Add these ingredients to bowl, pour over yoghurt, and add the salt and stirs.
5. Add some mint leaves to the top for decoration and serve with other mezzes
Optional:
In Egypt you will both Salatit Zabadi and Salatit Khiyar bi-l-zabadi on the menu, the difference being the addition of cucumber. If you are not fond of cucumber simply omit this ingredient from the recipe above.
Add a pinch of cumin for additional flavour
