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Tomato pie with phyllo pastry
Traditional Greek stuffed vegetables (tomatoes and peppers). Baked tomato fritters from Santorini. Spinach and feta cheese pie. Greek semolina halva with orange and honey. These are some of the traditional Greek recipes I’ve recently experimented with. Today, I am using the basic ingredients I used in these recipes to create something different, but as delicious: a tomato pie. For me, the star ingredient in the recipe is -surprise, surprise- the tomato, one of my favourite ingredients and protagonist in my diet. Tomatoes are rich in various antioxidants and the major dietary source of lycopene, which has been linked to many health benefits, including reduced risk of heart disease and cancer.…
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Traditional Greek stuffed vegetables
Although I am neither a vegetarian nor a vegan, stuffed vegetables is my favorite Greek dish. ‘Yemista’, as it is called in Greek, is one of those dishes that I’d rather have at home than at a tavern. When I was a child, it was always my grandmother who’d make this delicious dish; if I didn’t happen to be in her house, she would always find a way to send a few portions to mine. Now that I am an adult, I’ve simply taken over that role myself. For me, ‘yemista’ have always been tomatoes and bell peppers stuffed with rice and baked in the oven. As a child, I…
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Baked tomato fritters from Santorini
I recently started tweaking traditional Greek recipes, foods that I enjoyed as a child and I still enjoy every time I visit my home country. To showcase the Greek cuisine and Mediterranean diet, this week I’m baking tomato fritters (known as ‘domatokeftedes’ in Greek). This dish is very popular in Santorini, where it is served as an appetiser. Traditionally, tomato fritters are deep-fried and not baked. But, since I am an advocate for healthy eating, I swapped the frying pan for the oven. Despite being eaten and prepared as vegetables, tomatoes are actually fruits. They are rich in various antioxidants and the major dietary source of lycopene, which has been…
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Baked zucchini (courgette) fritters
Two days ago, England went to a second national lockdown, and so have many other countries around the world. During the spring lockdown earlier this year, I must have baked more cakes and biscuits that any other time of my life; each week I came up with a new recipe, inspired by my travels, but tweaked to make it healthier than it would have been otherwise. This time around, I have decided to tweak traditional Greek recipes, foods that I enjoyed as a child and I still enjoy every time I visit my home country. To continue a tradition I actually started a few weeks ago, this week I’m baking…
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Spinach and feta cheese pie
A few days ago, on the 28th of October, Greeks all around the world celebrated 80 years from the rejection of the ultimatum made by Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. This ultimatum, presented to the Greek Prime Minister Ioannis Metaxas on 28 October 1940, demanded from Greece to allow Italy and the Axis forces to enter Greek territory, or otherwise face war. Metaxas answered ‘ohi’ (‘no’ in Greek) and this marked the beginning of the country’s participation in World War II. In Greece, the anniversary of ‘ohi’ is commemorated every year with military and student parades. As I’ve been in London for almost a month now, I decided to cook a Greek recipe:…
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Fava: a healthy Greek island recipe
When I visited the Greek island of Skyros a couple of months ago, I bought several jars of spoon sweets, a couple of packs of trahanas, and a pack of fava beans (yellow split peas). Since I returned to London a few weeks ago, I have been trying to re-create some of the healthiest and yummiest dishes I had during my holidays in Greece. Amongst these dishes is fava, otherwise known as yellow split pea puree. In Greece, this dish is usually served as an appetiser or a side dish; however, it can also be served as a main. It is particularly popular in many islands in the Aegean; after all,…
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Trahanas: heart-warming Greek winter recipes
It’s been a couple of weeks since I returned from Greece to London and I’ve been feeling very homesick. The grey skies and the rainy weather certainly haven’t helped me beat those post-holiday blues. As a Psychiatrist who loves cooking and baking, I have the right ingredients and recipes to help lift my mood. In my almost overweight suitcase, I had packed many Greek culinary products hard to source in the UK. Amongst those, there were several jars of spoon sweets, fava beans, and a couple of packs of my all-time winter favourite food: trahanas. Trahanas is a dry food ingredient, commonly found in Greece and the Eastern Mediterranean. It…