Lemon Yogurt Sauce is a zesty citrus sauce with serious tang! Freshly flavored with a creamy texture popped with sprinkles of lemon zest. This yogurt lemon sauce is a quick and easy sauce that pairs well with chicken, fish, anything and everything you can think of!
Recipes like the Herbed Yogurt Sauce, Cilantro Lime Yogurt Sauce and Basil Yogurt Sauce are next level yum! The Spicy Yogurt sauce is the best ever burger sauce.
Pair them with recipes like the Greek Ribs, Chicken Ribs or the Air Fryer Lemon Pepper wings for a heaven sent combo!
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🤍 Recipe Highlights
I have summarised the reasons why I think you will come to love this recipe in the points below:
- Simple ingredients: with maximum flavour. Lemon and yogurt are a heaven sent combo that brings both texture and flavor recipes.
- Quick and easy: if you have the ingredients and 5 mins, you can make this recipe. It comes together very quickly and there is little to no effort involved.
- Versatile: you can use it for drizzling, dipping, dolloping or dunking on all your favorites and then some!
- Lasts a week: once you have made this sauce, you can keep it in the fridge for up to 1 week. Store it in a sealed container for maximum flavour during the week without using a store bought sauce.
🥗 Ingredients
Everything you need to make this Greek yogurt lemon sauce is shown in the photo below. We use a combination of 4 simple ingredients with our main ingredient being, the lemon.
As you can see, the recipe calls for:
- Salt and pepper: just a little of each to season the sauce.
- Lemon: (zest and some juice of).
- Garlic: (peeled and end cut off).
- Greek Yogurt: (can use low fat).
We deliver both texture and flavor to this sauce, by using both the lemon skin and some of the lemon juice.
Too much juice would make the sauce too tart and unpalatable, however, the bit of juice and the full skin zested will have a citrus party dancing around in your mouth!
🍳Instructions
Here are the step by step instructions to make this sauce. You will need a food processor with a sharp blade (not the shred but the dice blade).
- Use a hand held grater to zest the lemon (Photo 1)
- Blitz the garlic for 2-3 seconds (Photo 2)
- Add Greek Yogurt, lemon zest, salt, pepper and garlic (Photo 3)
- Taste the sauce, then squeeze the ½ the lemon into the sauce, you will only need 2-3 squeezes, taste as you go (Photo 4)
These simple steps are all that is needed to bring our sauce together.
The garlic needs to be finely chopped in the initial step and the yogurt with additional ingredients added next.
Don't juice ½ the lemon and add that in as it will be too much lemon juice. Simply squeeze one ½ lemon into the mix (discard any pips that drop in) 2-3 times.
The most important points to follow are mincing the garlic as a step in itself (or used pre minced garlic) and only adding enough lemon juice to bring an act, not the whole show.
🍽 Serving suggestions
This sauce is very versatile and as such lends itself to a number of serving options. Try one of the following pairings:
I find this sauce pairs well with chicken and fish, but it is the battered fish or grilled fish that work best!
In the photo below you can see the pairing of this sauce with the Lemon Pepper Chicken Wings. It might just be the best wing sauce EVER!
With a pairing like the above, you will be getting some serious dunk on those chicken wings, the zesty freshness is irresistible!
💡 Tasty Tips
- This recipe is quick and easy.
- It takes less than 5 mins to bring it together.
- I recommend using full fat or light Greek yogurt (the light usually has a thinner (more runny) consistency. The full fat is dollop worthy.
- I also recommend using a fresh lemon (not bottled) juice for this recipe as we need the zest (texture) and freshness (juice).
- The recipe makes one cup of sauce.
- The sauce will last in the fridge for 7-10 days.
- This recipe is not suitable to freeze.
🤓 Frequently Asked Questions
Will lemon juice curdle Greek Yogurt?
Lemon juice can be used to curdle recipes when needed such as making homemade cheese.
It is the quantity of the lemon juice that curdles the whey when the milk is separating.
For this recipe, use use lemon skin (zested) and lemon juice to provide the lemon flavour but the actual lemon quantity in the recipe is not very high as to not curdle the yogurt.
Can you eat lemon and yogurt?
Lemon and yogurt are both complimentary flavours and work very well together.
Reminiscent of a baked cheesecake, this delightful combo of lemon and yogurt in a creamy sauce is quite simply heavenly!
Get ready to dollop, dunk, dip and spread your Lemon Yogurt sauce!
😍 More Easy Homemade sauces
If you love making homemade sauces, you might like to try the following flavour combinations:
- Saffron Sauce
- Cilantro Lime Yogurt Sauce
- Gorgonzola Sauce
- Apple Sauce for pork belly
- Garlic Yogurt Sauce
- Basil Yogurt Sauce
- Spicy Yogurt Sauce
- Lime Yogurt Sauce
- Herbed Yogurt Sauce
Or check out all of the Homemade Sauce recipes on the blog.
Adrianne
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📖 Recipe
Lemon Yogurt Sauce
Equipment
- Food processor
- Knife
- Chopping board
- Hand held grater
Ingredients
- 1 cup Greek Yogurt
- 1 lemon zest of
- ½ lemon juice of (2-3 squeezes)
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon cracked pepper
- 3 cloves garlic skin peeled and end removed
Instructions
- Blitz: add garlic cloves to the food processor and blitz for 2-3 seconds (till minced). Note 1
- Lemon zest: use a chopping board and handheld grater to zest the lemon skin. Note 2
- Combine: remove the lid of the food processor, add Greek Yogurt, salt, pepper, lemon zest, replace lid and blitz for 2-3 seconds to combine.
- Add lemon juice: remove the lid of the food processor, squeeze the lemon half 2-3 times, remove any pips that drop in using a spoon, place the lid back on and blitz to combine.
- Taste: then add more lemon juice as desired. Note 3
- Portion: recipe makes 1 cup of sauce and will keep in the fridge (sealed airtight container) for 7 days.
Notes
- Note 1 Garlic: I am very specific about doing the garlic in the food processor (mincing it as the 1st step). This is because if you added all ingredients at the same time and tried to blitz, the thick texture of the yogurt would prevent the blades from mincing the garlic and you would end up with a volume of the yogurt with 3 whole raw solid garlic cloves in it. So do follow this step as is, to ensure the recipe 'works' for you.
- Note 2 Lemon zest: We zest the full lemon (and use all that skin). You can use a microplane zester or a box grater.
- Note 3 Lemon juice: we only use 2-3 squeezes of the fresh lemon juice. It would be far too tart to add more lemon juice. However, taste after adding the juice (and blitzing to combine) and squeeze in more juice if you like!
Seema Sriram says
Yummy!! I had these over the cabbage steaks for dinner and it was a super success. We couldn't get enough, so I am sure it will get repeated.
Adrianne says
Thanks Seema! That is great to hear. I appreciate your feedback.
Maria says
This sauce is something I haven't tried before but your recipe makes me wanna try it! This would go well with many dishes.
Jac says
My daughter loved this sauce as a tortilla chip dip. So thumbs up from her 🙂
Adrianne says
Thanks Jac! I am happy to hear that.