Greek Recipes

You say tomato....I say fasolada, fasolatha, fasoulada or sometimes fasolia. Whichever way you say it, this meat-free soup of dried white beans, olive oil, and vegetables is called the "national food of the Greeks". A year or so ago, I posted a recipe for 'slow cooker' Fasolatha. In this post, I am sharing the recipe for the traditional stove top and a big pot method. This dish is said to have originated in ancient Greece and it has a counterpart in Turkish cuisine (kuru fasulye) and can also be found as fasoulia in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Egypt, Yemen and the Levant. Within Greece, recipes for Fasolatha are regional and considerably different. One thing most recipes share in common is that the soup is enriched with a good amount of olive oil. This dish is a perfect winter warmer and a great option for a comforting weekend cook-up. Traditionally, pickled hot peppers or vegetables (called toursi), olives (and sometimes a little cheese) are served on the table alongside thi...

Pickled octopus is one of the most common meze, served with ouzo in tavernas all over Greece. It is also something served regularly on the table in Greek homes - simple but delicious fare. I love to keep a jar of this meze in the fridge. Along with a little plate of cheese, olives and a little sausage - it makes for the perfect instant meze if you have surprise guests. Just don't forget to serve with some ouzo on ice. Prepared with just a few ingredients, the success of this dish depends pretty much upon the quality of the octopus. In Australia, some of the best octopus comes from South Australia, where it has been caught after feasting on lobster and crab pots. Wherever your octopus comes from, it needs careful cooking to have that sweet, succulent, slightly chewy texture. The octopus should be cooked for around 45-60 minutes, any longer and it will become gelatinous and mushy - which is no good for pickling. Dried Greek rigani and thyme are both perfect partners for the rich flav...

Lathera dishes are a wonderful genre. Plenty of vegetables slow cooked in olive oil and tomato with lots of herbs. Lathera are normally made with seasonal vegetables like green beans or okra in summer and in winter, I would ordinarily make this type of dish with cauliflower or peas ( see the recipe here ) but as the season has been so mild - I couldn't resist the green beans and fresh green garlic at my local market. Fasolakia (the Greek word for beans) is eaten in our house as a main dish, with a little whole wheat bread or barley rusks, olives and of course, feta cheese. This is such a delicious way to get a big intake of vegetables. You are not aiming for crunchy green beans in the dish - but ones that simply melt when you eat them. I'm fairly sure that lathera dishes are the secret of the Greek-Mediterranean diet. My husband was raised on them and it made his love of consuming lots of vegetables effortless. You simply don't need meat with this type of dish because it is...

Winter's harvest has arrived in my kitchen this June and it has bought some of my favourite cool weather ingredients: crab apples, quinces, chestnuts, pine (or saffron milk cap) mushrooms and Jerusalem artichokes. In my kitchen this month... There is as basket of beautifully fresh pine (or saffron milk cap) mushrooms from Orange in NSW, which I bought from my local market. Winter is definitely the season for wild mushrooms (even though we have, in Australia, a wonderful year-round supply of cultivated mushrooms). I love the meaty texture and earthy flavour of these pine mushrooms - they were perfect for a meat-free ragu, to sit atop some rich truffle polenta, which I bought back home from a trip to Italy. Mushroom ragu and truffle polenta For the ragu: Cloves of garlic, roughly chopped – to taste (I used about 6 medium cloves) 150g saffron cap or pine mushrooms, sliced 200 g Swiss brown mushrooms, sliced 20 g butter 1 tablespoon dried Greek organic thyme leaves (see homerst.com.au)...

Imagine this. You are in Greece; it’s Saturday night and some buddies are gathered in the living room to watch the football game. There is tension in the air, but they love what they watch. In front of them on a coffee table are cold beers and pizza - just delivered! But… if you see only pizza, then what you imagine is not taking place in Greece!  On a Greek coffee table there would be souvlakia (plural of souvlaki) and pites (plural of pita) and, of course, beers; beers are always there. We do love pizza, but we love souvlaki more. During these years of crisis, souvlaki places have opened one after the other. People who are thinking to start a food business, more often than not think about a ‘’souvlatzídiko’’ (souvlaki place).  With just 2-2.5 euros you can  buy a pita stuffed with souvlaki, tomato wedges, onion, fried potatoes and tzatziki, a tasty full meal that is cheap and a real life saver especially for people who like their veggies served with meat. . Not every bu...