Lentils soup is an easy dish to prepare. So, here is the recipe according to my Greek personal cooking style:

Greek Lentils Soup With Feta Cheese

Ingredients (for 4-6 portions):

• 250gr lentils
• 1 onion
• salt and pepper
• 2-3 carrots
• 2-3 leaves of laurel
• 1-2 cloves of garlic
• 4-5 spoons of olive oil

Dolmades (in particular stuffed cabbage leaves),  belongs to the family of vegetable dishes.

Greek dolmades – stuffed cabbage leaves recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 cabbage (big)
• 1/2 kilo minced beef
• 1 onion
• 2-3 spoons of rice
• 1 egg
• some parsley
• 1 tomato juice
• 5-6 spoons of oil
• salt and pepper

1. We put the cabbage in a sauce pan with water to cover it and boil it as its leaves start to be softer (it’s about a quarter of ah hour or so). Then we take it off the sauce pan.

Greek Stuffed Cabbage Leaves

This is an authentic Greek chicken recipe, very lovely for the majority of Greeks. Its name is really what we are going to prepare: Baked chicken with potatoes!

The Baked Greek Chicken Recipe

Baked Greek Chicken With Potatoes

Ingredients:

• 1  Greek chicken (but no matter if it is not from Greece!)
• 6-8 potatoes
• 6-7 spoons of olive oil
• 2 cloves of garlic
• some lemon juice (one lemon)
• some orange juice (one orange)
• a little oregano
• a little mustard
• salt and pepper

Preparation:

Wash the chicken and take the skin off (if you prefer). Then, cut the potatoes into small pieces and put them in a baking pan. Add the slat, the pepper and the oregano as well. Furthermore, drop the oil and the juices, as well as the mustard and then some water in order the potatoes to be covered. Bake the Greek chicken in 150ᴼ C for one hour and a half, looking at it from time to time, until to be roasted.

..and the baked Greek chicken is now ready to be served!

Veal with vegetables is one of my favourite Greek national dishes! Let’s see now in more detail what we need:

Good National Food Recipe – Veal With Aubergines, Courgettes and Potatoes 

Ingredients:

• 1 kilo veal
• 2-3 aubergines
• 5-6 courgettes (or zucchini)
• 3-4 potatoes
• 3-4 spoons of oil
• salt and pepper
• 1 tin of tomato juice

Cut the vegetables and the veal into pieces and wash them. Switch on the cooker and start stirring the pieces of veal with the oil, as long as it becomes reddish. Drop the tomato juice and lower the temperature. After half an hour, you put the cut vegetables in the saucepan with the veal, after they have been done a little red with very little oil in a frying pan. Put the salt and pepper. Cover the saucepan and the food is going to be ready after half an hour, or a little more gently cooked. It is also served with some boiled rice, if you like.

Taste it and enjoy your meal with a good company!!

Pastitsio (or Pastichio) is a very popular Greek dish. Below, I describe what you need and how to prepare this food in a Greek cooking style.

Pastitsio Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1/2 kilos spaghetti (No 10)
• 1/2 kilos minced beef
• 1 onion
• 1 tin tomato juice
• 1/2 cup of grated cheese
• 2-3 spoons of olive oil
• 2 teaspoonfuls of salt (one for spaghetti, one for the mince)
• some pepper (for the mince)

For the cream:

• 6-7 spoons of flour
• 2 spoons of oil
• some grated cheese
• an egg
• 5-6 cups of milk

Now let’s make the mince: In a saucepan put the onion chopped with the olive oil and the mince. Stir as long as the mixture becomes reddish. Then, put some water, the salt, the pepper and the tomato juice. Cover the saucepan and boil the mince after lowering the temperature, for half an hour or a little more. Then, put it on the boiled spaghetti, in the baking pan. If you like, you can mix the spaghetti with the mince.

Then, you have to make the white cream: Put the flour in a saucepan. Then, put the oil and the milk gently while, at the same time, you have to stir continuously having the temperature slow. Put some salt and pepper. At the end, put the egg as well. The mixture is ready when it starts to thicken and makes bubble. Then, put it on the mixed spaghetti with the mince in the baking pan. If you like, break an egg on the surface of the food, just for colour.

Bake it in the oven of 180 C and after half an hour approximately, it is ready.

Enjoy the Pastitsio dish and “Kali Oreksi”! (= bon appetite in Greek!)

One of the best Greek dishes in Greece is pumkin balls. Here is what we need to prepare that dish:

Ingredients

8-10 pumkins

Pumkin Meat Balls

some parsley

1 egg

200gr other white cheese (“feta” cheese preferable)

1 onion

1 cup of flour

salt & pepper

Preparation

Grate the pumkins and put them in a bowl. Then leave them dry in a strainer. When the grated pumkins are strained put them in a bowl as well as the other ingredients and mix them all together. If the mixture is a little watery, put some more flour in it. Then make balls with a diameter of 20 cm and cover them with flour. Put the frying pan with some olive oil on the heat. When it is hot enough, put the ball in it. Stir them very often. As soon as they become brown, they are ready. Put them on a sheet of paper in order the frying oil to be absorbed and.. good appetite. They are served hot and they are good appetizers!!

A delicious Greek food.. in minutes!

The “moussakas” dish is one of the most traditional Greek foods. Here you can learn how to cook the moussaka dish. Enjoy the preparation!

Ingredients

Moussaka Greek Dish

2-3 aubergines

6-7 pumkins

2-3 potatoes, medium in size

1 onion

1/2 kilos beef mince

2-3 tomatoes or a tin of tomato juice

salt & pepper (for the mince)

Ingredients for the white cream

7-8 spoons of flour

6-7 cups of milk

2-3 spoons of olive oil (or instead of oil you can put a yogurt)

some grated cheese (a cup)

salt & pepper and some grated nutmeg

1 egg

Preparation

1. Cut the potatoes in round slices and fry them in a pan with some olive oil. Then, put them at the bottom of the baking pan. Cut the aubergines and pumkins into long strips. Put them into a baking pan (about 30 cm diameter). Bake them in grill. Put a little salt on them (if you want, as it is not necessary), for 15 min.

2. Mince Preparation: Put the chopped onion in a pan, with 2-3 spoons of olive oil, as well as the mince and roast it for some minutes. Then, put the chopped tomatoes, or the tomato juice, a teaspoonful of salt and some pepper. Add some water too. Stir, and low the heat. Let it low boil for 30 min.

3. Once the grilled aubergines and pumkins are ready, take them out of the oven. Put the fried round potatoes at the bottom of the baking pan and put the grilled vegetables on them. Pour the ready mince on them as well. Then, you have to make the white cream (besamel) in order to cover all this mixture.

4. White cream preparation: Put the flour in a pan with the oil and stir. Then, pour the milk smoothly. When it starts to be absorbed, put the yogurt, the grated cheese, the salt & pepper and finally the egg. You have to stir all the time, in order not the mixture to be spoiled. The heat has to be quite low. It takes about 15-20 min. When the cream is ready, put it on the other ingridients and cover them. Put the baking pan in the oven and bake as soon as the cream becomes a little brown.

Good luck and good appetite! You can also fry the aubergines and pumkins instead of grilling them (that is the tradittional recipe!!), but I think it is not so healthy!

One of the most famous Greek dishes is the Greek salad recipe called “horiatiki salad”. Horiatiki means actually the Greek salad “made in village”. Although it’s a salad recipe, it is an ancient Greek food, which definitely can be eaten as a normal dish, not only as an aperitif.

This is a traditional Greek food, very famous in Greek islands (in a Greek taverna) and extremely easy to be made. Here below is what we need:

The Famous Greek Horiatiki Salad!

Greek salad recipe

1. (1) cucumber

2. (2) tomatoes

3.  some olives

4. a slight piece of Greek white cheese, well known as feta

5. (1) green pepper

6. (1) onion

7. some oregano

8. few salt

9. 3-4 spoons of olive oil

- Preparation

We cut tomatoes, cucumber and onion in short pieces and we drop them in a bowl or deep dish. Then we cut the green peeper and add its pieces in the bowl as well in the mix. Finally we drop the olives and then the slight piece of feta cheese.

Last, we throw the olive oil, few salt and oregano all round the dish. And the Greek salad recipe “horiatiki” is ready. Enjoy!

The Melitzanosalata Salad!

The traditional greek aubergine salad, as it is made obviously mainly from aubergines. In Greek, this salad is called “Melitzanosalata”. Melitzana means aubergine in English and “salata” word corresponds to salad. In order to prepare this salad we will need the follow ingredients:

1. (2) or (3) cloves of garlic
2. some nuts
3. (3) aubergines
4. (1) spoon vinegar
5. (2) to (3) spoons of olive oil
6. some salt and pepper

Aubergine salad recipe – preparation

Bake the aubergines in the oven and then peel their skin. Then put them in some salty water with some lemon juice. Then melt them. Beat the garlic with the nuts and then add the aubergines. Go on beating, while at the same time put the vinegar, the oil, the salt and pepper. After some minutes the salad is ready.

Tzatziki salad is one of the most well known and lovely traditional Greek salads. It needs some few ingredients and it is

The Tzatziki Salad!

easy enough to be made. Here below is what we need:

1. (1) yogurt 400-500 grammars
2. (3-4) cloves of garlic
3. some salt
4. some dill
5. (2) or (3) spoons of olive oil
6. (1) cucumber

Preparation:

Beat the yogurt. Add the garlic, dill and the cucumber, all of them chopped. Add the olive oil as well. Mix all them with a big spoon for a minute.

The tzatziki salad is ready. It is preferable to be served cold.