Cacik

1. step 1
2. Put a sieve over a large bowl, line it with a thick sheet of non-dyed kitchen paper or a clean muslin cloth, and spoon in the yogurt. Cover with another sheet of kitchen paper and leave to strain in the fridge for a minimum of 12 hrs.
   12 hours
3. step 2
4. Add the lemon juice, most of the olive oil and the dried mint to a bowl and stir well for the dried mint to soften and soak up the juices. Mix in the strained yogurt, then pour away the strained yogurt liquid and leave that bowl to one side.
5. step 3
6. Halve the cucumber(s) lengthways and remove the seeds by running a teaspoon from the top to the bottom of the flesh, halve the cucumbers widthways to make them shorter and easier to handle, then coarsely grate each one into the bowl the yogurt was straining over. Using clean hands (or a clean muslin cloth), squeeze as much of the liquid out of the cucumber as possible.
7. step 4
8. Add the strained, grated cucumber, garlic and ¾ tsp flaky salt to the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Garnish with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and a sprinkling of dried mint.

Cooking notes

Scaling works best when you weigh ingredients rather than measure by volume — small differences in packing can compound at higher multipliers.

For volume-to-weight conversions of any ingredient — flour, sugar, butter, salts — use the ingredient converter. To translate the recipe's oven temperature between °C, °F and gas mark, see the temperature converter.

When you scale this recipe up or down, remember that cooking time does not scale linearly. A doubled cake takes longer, but not twice as long; a doubled soup takes roughly twice as long. The cooking-time guide gives sensible starting estimates by dish geometry.