12 Easy Greek Recipes

A lot of people would like to cook some Greek dishes, but would like something that is easy to prepare. So I've put together 12 easy dishes here - as you can guess, most of them are side dishes. I've also put together a small slide show with the dishes, with music by Theodorakis and Hadzidakis, which I hope you'll enjoy! To get the recipes, just click on the links.

SOUPS

Lentil Soup

This is an incredibly simple dish and popular in the villages especially, in the cold winter months. It is not so much the lentil soup that is so enjoyable as the whole meal with the accompaniments - feta cheese covered in olive oil and sprinkled with oregano; olives and bread, ideally olive pitta bread.

SIDE DISHES - MEZES

Tzatziki 

This is a classic Greek side dish, which can be served with meat and vegetable dishes, as well as accompanying souvlaki or gyros.

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Keftedakia (small meatballs)

They can be eaten as a snack, as a meze with ouzo and/or beer or just as part of a buffet meal. Children love these!

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Stuffed Green Peppers with Feta Cheese

These are different from the large, stuffed green peppers with rice - which is a main dish. These peppers are a delicious side dish and the filling is quite spicy - it has a nice tang to it!

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Saganaki

This is a delicious - and filling - side dish, which has to be a hard cheese .

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Zucchini Fritters

These tasty fritters are very easy to prepare and can be served as one of several side dishes - they go nicely with tzatziki - or as a light snack on their own.

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Tomato Fritters

This is a delicious and easy-to-make Greek summer snack. This is a speciality from the island of Santorini and is especially tasty with Santorini tomatoes. You can eat these as a side dish or a meze and are especially delightful with tzatziki and Greek salad.

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Taramosalata

This is well-known worldwide. It is made from taramas, which is the fish roe from cod (most common) or carp.

MAIN DISHES

Soutzoukakia

A variation on meatballs. This is a recipe for soutzoukakia from Smirni - Smirnaika Soutzoukakia. They are ideally served with rice and are very easy to prepare.

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Briam

This can be eaten hot or cold and is delicious when accompanied by a large slice of Feta cheese.

SWEETS

Ravani 

You can have this to accompany your coffee or tea.

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Yoghurt Cake (Yaourtopita)

This is a refreshing and easily prepared cake for the summer months using Greek strained yoghurt.

 

Eat and Enjoy!

 

Greek Food Joke

We prepared the Greek salad earlier. 

By the time our guests arrived, it was a feta compli.

I found this little joke over at Simon Brett's website and thought I'd like to share it with you!

Happy Easter!

Wishing you all a Happy Easter!

In our previous post we asked you to vote for your favourite Greek lamb recipe (what, with it being Easter) and the winner was Roast Lamb with Potatoes and Feta Cheese with 56%.

You can follow the link here for the recipe.

Eat and Enjoy!
 

What's Your Favourite Greek Lamb Recipe?

Easter Weekend is coming up here and traditionally on Easter Sunday lamb is eaten. So I thought it might be a nice little idea to see what your favourite Greek lamb recipes are. I've listed the lamb recipes we have on this blog below, plus the traditional roast lamb on a spit, which is not really a recipe. You can check out the recipes by clicking on the link and just click your favourite on the survey below.

If you have a Greek lamb dish that you like, which is not listed, then just write us a comment at the bottom of the post and we'll see what we can do!

I'm afraid this is not a survey for the vegetarians amongst you! Still, you can check out our post 10 Favourite Greek Vegetarian Recipes, which has some delicious ideas for you!

Lamb Kleftiko

This is an extremely popular dish.

Lamb Ribs On Vine Stalks

This is a traditional way of preparing lamb ribs using the stalks from vines as a kind of grill. The ribs take the aroma and flavour from the vine stalks. Also, instead of using normal brushes to apply the juice, bunches of dried oregano are used, which again adds another subtle flavour to the ribs. They can be eaten with pilau rice or salad.

Lamb With Yoghurt Sauce

This dish is usually served on festive occasions as it is considered 'special'. The yoghurt sauce with Greek strained yoghurt makes it especially delicious. Greek yoghurt is now sold in most parts of the world, so you should be able to obtain it.

Lamb Youvetsi

This is a popular dish in Greece and quite easy to prepare. It is usually made with lamb, but you can use other meat if you so prefer. You should be able to obtain Greek 'kritharaki' pasta where you live, as it is exported all over the world.

Roast Lamb With Potatoes And Feta Cheese

Roast lamb with potatoes is rather a common dish, but this is a way that it is prepared often in the villages here. The difference being the inclusion of feta cheese and also the fact that the whole potatoes are crushed (but not split) before they are put in the oven. Try it!

Roast Lamb On The Spit

Traditional Greek Easter Sweets

Easter Week starts tomorrow here in Greece - next Sunday 24th April is Easter Sunday. There are two types of sweets which are particularly traditional at this time. Click on the links to go to the recipes. Happy Easter!

Greek Easter Cake (Bread) - Tsoureki

Tsoureki is a light cake traditionally eaten at Easter. It is eaten at other times of the year as well, but the red dyed hard-boiled egg that it is placed in the centre is traditional at Easter.

The cake is nice and light inside, with the mastic creating a light stringiness when you break it into pieces (traditionally you break it with your hands and don't cut it with a knife).

Greek Easter Cookies - Koulourakia

You will find Easter cookies - koulourakia - in all the houses over the next days. They're easy to make and a nice accompaniment for your coffee. You can make them into whatever shape you want, but I have shown the most traditional in the lower photo above.

Eat and Enjoy!

KumQuat Fruit

Image: Mavromatis Distillery

The island of Corfu is the only place in Greece where the Kumquat fruit is cultivated. The word Kumquat in Chinese means "golden orange" and the fruit resembles very small oranges. It can be eaten with the skin and the flavour is bittersweet. Kumquats were first brought to Corfu by the British botanist Sidney Merlin in 1860.

Image: Wikipedia Commons

Nowadays, kumquats are mostly grown in northwest Corfu, especially near the village of Nymfes. The Mavromatis Distillery, where kumquat products are produced, also has an exhibition area where visitors can see how the liqueur and sweet are made. 

 Images: Mavromatis Distillery

Kumquat can be made into liqueur, marmalade and sweets. It can also be sliced and added to salads, as well as being a garnish for cocktail beverages. 

Prince William And Kate To Spend Honeymoon In Corfu?

Original Image: cfreephoto.com

It has just been reported in the British press that Prince William and Kate Middleton will be spending their honeymoon here in Corfu after their wedding at the end of the month. So I couldn't resist making up the photo above!

Oh, and by the way, if they do want to try our home cooking - not a problem!