24 delicious recipes that feature Greek yogurt

Alfredo sauce is notorious for its ample amount of fat, but alternatives exist! This alfredo sauce from Creme De La Crumb only uses 2 tbsp. of butter and no heavy cream, opting instead for ½ cup of milk, half & half, or water to go with ¾ cup of plain Greek yogurt. It’s far from an authentic alfredo (as is the case with any recipe that includes milk or cream), but it’s much healthier and just as tasty!

Have you ever stopped to read the list of ingredients on a bottle of dressing? Freshen up your salads with this homemade avocado yogurt dressing from I Heart Vegetables that’s healthier and tastier than anything you’ll buy off a store shelf. With just five necessary ingredients, it’s also super simple!

Pudding made from Greek yogurt? That’s bananas — literally, as this recipe from Simple Nourished Living will show you how to make a Weight Watchers-friendly dessert from our favorite potassium-packed fruit. All you need is Greek yogurt, a banana, vanilla extract, and a graham cracker. 

Buffalo chicken wings dipped in chunky blue cheese is a staple of game day — or any day, in our household. But deep-fried wings and full-fat blue cheese doesn’t always jive with our diet, especially if we’re looking to cut calories and pump up the protein. Instead, we make wings in the air fryer and use this Greek yogurt blue cheese substitute from Eat the Gains that also includes lemon juice, vinegar, garlic powder, salt, and pepper.

Ever since we found out water baths are optional, we’ve been all about making cheesecakes. (We don’t care about cracking, especially since we usually cover our cheesecakes with fruit or ganache.) Bath or not, we recommend this recipe from Fit Mitten Kitchen, which includes nearly 2 cups of Greek yogurt as well as instructions for a graham cracker crust and a simple berry compote.

Coleslaw starts out healthy — boasting the likes of green cabbage, red cabbage, and carrots as its base — before tanking everything with the addition of mayo. But it doesn’t have to be that way. This recipe from Two Healthy Kitchens trades the mayo for Greek yogurt, and the only other ingredients needed are apple cider vinegar, sugar, salt, and pepper.

One of our favorite uses of Greek yogurt as a replacement for sour cream is in this Taco Bell-inspired Crunchwrap Supreme recipe from Thai Caliente. Layers of ground beef (or turkey), refried beans, cheese, tomato, shredded lettuce, avocado, yogurt, and a tostada come together in a tortilla that’s folded over toward the middle and crisped up in a skillet. It’s fun to make and has quickly become one of our favorite Taco Tuesday meal options.

We’re obsessed with everything pickle-related. Homemade pickles, fried pickles, pickle-flavored potato chips, and even dill pickle dip, like this five-minute offering from Favorite Family Recipes. Simply combine Greek yogurt, cream cheese, pickle juice, garlic powder, and fresh dill before stirring in some chopped pickles for additional dill deliciousness.

Sometimes we have eggs and a side of Greek yogurt for breakfast…but who would’ve thought you could combine the two for a fantastic lunch option? Apparently a lot of people, as recipes like this egg salad from Bowl of Delicious are prevalent on the interwebs. We like this one because in addition to not using any mayo, it also contains dill, one of our favorite herbs for any salad (chicken, tuna, etc.). 

You’ve probably heard of or tried chocolate bark, almond bark, peppermint bark, or another similar sweet treat, but did you know you can also use Greek yogurt as the base? Check out this recipe from Feel Good Foodie for the instructions, and feel free to customize the toppings to your liking. Keep it skinny with fruit only, add some protein with assorted nuts, or satisfy your sweet tooth with bits of chocolate.

Egg salad isn’t the only egg-based dish that can benefit from some Greek yogurt — frittatas can, too! This meal idea via Recipes From a Pantry is novel not just for the addition of Greek yogurt, but also because the frittatas are baked in muffin tins so each person can have their own portion…or two, or three.

Recently, this has been our breakfast almost every single morning. Start with half a cup of Greek yogurt, mix in some fruit, and add granola on top. If plain Greek yogurt is too tangy for you, try chopping up the fruit so the juices mix in with the yogurt, or simply start with vanilla-flavored Greek yogurt. If you need some parfait inspiration, try one of these suggestions from Insanely Good Recipes.

We sneak all sorts of things into smoothies — nut butters, leafy greens, protein powder — so why not Greek yogurt? After all, yogurt is already a common smoothie ingredient. We suggest this beverage from Belle of the Kitchen that combines Greek yogurt, mixed berries, spinach, almond milk, and chia seeds.

When we make a Greek salad — a fantastic meal-prep idea — we opt for this marinade from FoodieCrush. It combines Greek yogurt, garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, oregano, salt, and pepper, and the recommended marinating time is just 1-3 hours. 

Pound cake is named such because it was traditionally made with a pound each of flour, butter, sugar, and eggs. The dense dessert has evolved, which is how we eventually arrived at this lemon pound cake from The Baker Chick, which calls for the aforementioned four core ingredients in addition to lemon juice, baking powder, salt, vanilla extract, and half a cup of Greek yogurt.

Your mac & cheese probably already includes dairy products like butter, milk, and, of course, cheese…so why not Greek yogurt? This recipe from Running in a Skirt essentially replaces the milk and butter with yogurt, and the creamy result will have you running back for more.

We adore our make-ahead meals, whether it’s whipping up reheatable breakfasts, meal-prepping our lunches in individual containers, or simply getting something started ahead of time, like a slow cooker dinner. So of course overnight oats are right up our alley. This recipe from Joy Food Sunshine can be made by combining vanilla Greek yogurt, honey, and vanilla extract; adding some milk, oatmeal, sea salt, and cinnamon; and refrigerating it in a mason jar overnight. Eat it the next morning, the day after that, or later in the week, as this meal maintains its freshness for several days.

We first used Greek yogurt in pancake mix as a healthier toddler recipe, but they were so good that we started making our own breakfast this way, too. If you’re looking for a recipe recommendation, we suggest this version from Just a Taste that produces protein-packed, fluffy flapjacks.

This two-ingredient pizza dough from AllRecipes has become our go-to dough when we’re on a high-protein diet — or when we just want to make a quick and easy pizza. All you need to do is combine 1.5 cups of self-rising flour and 1 cup of greek yogurt, knead for about 10 minutes, and spread or roll it out on a pan before baking on 500 F for about 6 minutes. The dough alone provides about 32 grams of protein, and that doesn’t include the cheese and toppings!

If you’re ravenous in your ranch consumption but are looking for a healthier alternative, try making your own at home using Greek yogurt. This version from Ambitious Kitchen calls for nonfat Greek yogurt, garlic powder, onion powder, lemon juice, salt, and dill.

Skip the sour cream and cut your spinach-artichoke dip with Greek yogurt, this “skinny” recipe from Natasha’s Kitchen suggests. The yogurt to cream cheese ratio is a healthy 2:1, and it only calls for 2 tbsp of butter along with 1.5 cups parmesan cheese, 14 oz of artichokes, 10 oz of spinach, a couple garlic cloves, and — surprise! — some jalapenos to add some extra heat to this hot hors d'oeuvre. 

Skip the store-bought tzatziki and make your own at home. This recipe from Love & Lemons is made from Greek yogurt, cucumber, lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, dill, and sea salt — and it’s super simple to make. Just combine, chill, and serve.

We’re whipped cream addicts. We put it on ice cream and pies, of course, but also cakes, cupcakes, pancakes, pudding, waffles, fruit, and anything else we can think of. All that heavy cream can weigh us down, so we opt for this recipe from Project Meal Plan that cuts the cream with Greek yogurt and uses maple syrup as a sweetener. The maple flavor doesn’t jive with every recipe that can use a sugar substitute, but thankfully there are few breakfasts and desserts that aren’t complemented by a smidge of syrup.

We already know we can sneak Greek yogurt into desserts like cheesecake and pound cake, but what about breakfast breads? Yes, you can easily add Greek yogurt to favorites like banana bread, or, for a vegetable variation, this zucchini bread from Sally’s Baking Addiction. Taking things to an even healthier level, the recipe spurns sugar in favor of honey or agave, and it offers coconut oil as a shortening substitution.