Turkish Cacik Dip

I guess we've been in a Turkish food mood recently, since this is the second recipe I'm posting within a couple weeks! This, however, is a down 'n' dirty, quick 'n' easy dip that you throw together in no time. We needed something to go along with our pita bread, so Will looked up Middle Eastern dips to try, since we already eat a lot of hummus and wanted to try something new. When he saw this, it seemed perfect because we already had all the ingredients on hand! The cacik went wonderfully with our homemade pita bread and we enjoyed snacking on this combo for a couple days. You could easily adapt this recipe to make a larger quantity, if you needed to serve more than just two people! It's got a little bit of tartness from the lemon and yogurt, which is mellowed by the cucumbers. The dill and red pepper flakes just add a bit more dimension and I'm sure if you add the walnuts that the original recipe calls for, it would be even better.


Cooking Notes: The original recipe called for the use of walnuts, both in the dip and as a topping, which we didn't add. It also called for fresh dill, which is one of the few "regular" herbs we don't have fresh, so we had to substitute dried dill.

Turkish Cacik Dip (adapted from The Kitchn; serves 6-8 as a side)
1 cup plain yogurt
2 small cucumbers, peeled and diced into small cubes
2 tbsp dill
1 tsp lemon juice
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Crushed red pepper

Mix yogurt with cucumber, dill, lemon juice, and garlic. Drizzle oil on top. Sprinkle crushed red pepper flakes on top, or mix in.

Recipe: The Kitchn: Turkish Cacik