Tear the mint by hand instead of cutting it. And crush the garlic rather than grating it, then fish it out after 15 minutes.
4 servings10 min
Crush one clove of garlic with the flat of a knife, drop it into the yoghurt and leave it 15 minutes. You are only after the aroma.
Rinse the mint leaves in cold water and dry them completely. Wet leaves thin the sauce.
Pull the leaves off the stems and tear them by hand. Do not chop them fine with a knife.
Fish the garlic out of the yoghurt. Left in, it grows sharper by the hour.
Stir the olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper into the yoghurt.
Add the mint last and stir only a few times.
Serve straight away, or chill for 30 minutes. After a day the mint turns black.
Not chopping the mint is about both colour and aroma. A blade crushes the cells and exposes oxidising enzymes, so the leaves blacken fast. Torn by hand there is far less cut surface, and they stay green much longer. Aroma behaves the same way: chopped mint is strong at first and fades quickly.
Crushing the garlic and removing it is about allicin. Grated garlic produces it in quantity and it keeps building inside the yoghurt. Steeping a crushed clove for 15 minutes and lifting it out brings the aroma in without leaving the burn.
One thing needs stating plainly. You may have heard that mint is used for irritable bowel syndrome. That evidence is for enteric-coated peppermint oil capsules, each holding 180–225 mg of essential oil.
The 15 g of mint in this sauce is a different thing entirely — whole leaf, no coating, and nowhere near that concentration of oil. There is no evidence that mint used as a herb does anything for IBS. You make this sauce because it tastes good.
The composition tells the same story. Fresh mint holds 243 mg of calcium and 5.08 mg of iron per 100 g, but the 15 g here works out to 36 mg of calcium and 0.8 mg of iron — less again once it is split four ways. Mint is a seasoning, not a source of nutrients.
What the yoghurt brings is another matter: 200 g of Greek yoghurt holds roughly 20 g of protein.
Take care if you have reflux. Menthol relaxes the lower oesophageal sphincter and can worsen symptoms. A spoonful of sauce is unlikely to matter, but some people are sensitive to mint.
What to put it on — roast lamb, chicken, roasted vegetables, potatoes. It works especially well beside rich food.
Tea & drinks
Early researchAcross 10 randomised trials in 1,030 people, peppermint oil beat placebo. But adverse events were more frequent (RR 1.57), the authors stated the quality of evidence was very low, and what was tested was an enteric-coated capsule, not tea.
Dairy & eggs
Moderate evidenceIt has nearly three times the protein of regular yogurt not because of any special ingredient, but because the liquid was removed. Calcium goes down in the same step.
Vegetables
Moderate evidenceThe evidence for garlic points to a modest drop in blood pressure and cholesterol. The trick is to crush it and wait ten minutes before it hits the heat.
Oils & fats
Strong evidenceCardiovascular events were 31 % lower in a randomised trial of 7,447 people. Against other vegetable oils, though, there was no difference.