The Greek Food

Category: Vegetarian

  • Aubergine pie with Feta Cheese

    Aubergine pie with Feta Cheese

    Aubergine is by far my favourite ingredient of the summer and one of my favourites in general . So I was wondering how it would taste in a pie with feta cheese. It didn’t disappoint.

    The following pie is so easy to make that you don’t need any huge experience. If you use ready made phyllo pastry then it would be piece of cake.

    Aubergines are the summer ingredient of choice and one of the basic ones in Mediterranean cuisine.    Aubergine together with onions and feta cheese together with sesame on top will make you forget spinach pie and all other pies. Even if I do like spinach pie … a lot…

    Ingredients for Aubergine

    • 3 big aubergines cut in cubes
    • 2 big onions in slices
    • 2 eggs
    • 200gr of feta cheese
    • Thyme and Oregano
    • 1.5 cup of semolina
    • Olive oil
    • Salt and pepper
    • Sesame seeds

    How to cook Greek style Aubergine pie

    In a small pot we add the aubergines in a bit of olive and we stir them good until they get a good color all around.

    Add the onions, salt and pepper and the semolina and stir them until we don’t have any more juices.

    When the mixture is cold, add the eggs and the feta cheese together and stir them to become one mixture. Add the seasoning also.

    In a nice deep pan, add the first pastry sheet. Put all the mixture and spread it nicely. Add the second sheet on top and close nicely the edges. Put the sesame seeds on top and spread them everywhere.

    Put it in the oven and bake it for around an hour in 180c .  Timings differ depending on the oven.

    Aubergine pie with feta cheese
  • Roasted Sweet potatoes with Feta cheese

    Roasted Sweet potatoes with Feta cheese

    Obviously sweet potatoes were something that i learned during my years in UK but the combination with feta cheese and chickpeas make it a great lunch for every day.

    Chickpeas is something that we used to eat mainly as a chickpea soup but obviously that is not the only way to taste them. I guess if you mix feta, with sweet potato and chickpeas you will get a healthy and nutritious dinner but that wasn’t what attracted me to this. What i do like is how easy it is to make and ideal for everyday of the week when you are rushing after work.

    The mix just allows the main ingredients to stand out, and they all complement each other perfectly. To make the recipe faster i use already boiled chickpeas.

    INGREDIENTS

    • 1kg of sweet potatoes. The biggest you can find
    • 2 teaspoons of olive oil
    • Salt, Pepper
    • 350gr Chickpeas already boiled.
    • Juice from 1 lemon
    • 1 tea spoon of cumin
    • Coriander
    • 150gr feta cheese
    sweet potatoes with feta cheese
    Sweet Potatoes with feta cheese

    Method

    • Preheat the oven in 200c . Put some olive oil on the top side of the sweet potato. Afterwards place them with the flesh looking down in a baking pan.
    • Cook them for 45 minutes or until the flesh is soft enough
    • Remove them from the oven and with a spoon make space in there flesh, removing if needed some of the flesh and keeping it in a bowl.
    • Mix the chickpeas with the feta cheese, cumin and the lemon juice adding as much salt as we like. -Also add any flesh from the sweet potato was left
    • Add them in the sweet potatoes and make sure to sprinkle a bit of feta on top also. Bake them for 10 more minutes until the feta cheese starts to melt.
    • When you are done, sprinkle with some olive oil and add a bit more of coriander. Enjoy!
  • Aubergine Stew with Olives and Capers

    Aubergine Stew with Olives and Capers

    Aubergines must be my favourite summer vegetable. Many times when i try to think of different dishes to cook with aubergines i get lost from the various combinations you might have.

    In this case i got the ideam from the famous imam baildi and i tried to spice it up a bit with some more ingredients. Eggplants, or aubergines or whatever you want to name them are in the heart of Mediterenean cuisine and you can get a variety of similar dishes if you are at some point in Greece.

    As my father used to say it is important to manage and boil it properly and keeping the full texture of the vegetable. In the same time though the aubergine needs to melt in your mouth rather than having to chew it.

    Difficult? Well, that’s life!

    INGREDIENTS FOR AUBERGINE STEW WITH OLIVES AND CAPERS

    • 6 large aubergines
    • 2 medium onions sliced
    • 2 cloves of garlic
    • Around 20-30 olives without the stone
    • 20 cherry tomatoes cut in the middle
    • 1 glass of red wine
    • 1 tomato can juice
    • Oregano and Parsley
    • 300gr of Greek Yoghurt
    • Olive oil
    • Salt and Pepper

    METHOD

    • In cutting board start putting your aubergines and cut them in cubes with sharp knife.
    • In a deep pot add some olive onion and the onion and the garlic until it becomes brownish. Make sure you stir them all the time so they don’t get burned.
    • Add the olives, and the capers together with the tomato juice. Continue to stir them for couple of minutes.
    • Next, add the aubergines and leave them for couple of minutes. Pour the wine and let it for a minute more. Throw in the tomatoes , salt and peeper and lower the hit.
    • Keep boiling it for 25-30 minutes until they aubergines are done with out loosing there texture as we said before.
    • Just a bit before the end, add the oregano.
    • Serve in a deep plate by adding a big spoon of Greek style Yogurt on top
    Aubergine Stew with Capers

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  • Dilled Peas with Artichokes and potatoes (A la Polita)

    Dilled Peas with Artichokes and potatoes (A la Polita)

    Artichokes with peas is one of the most traditional recipes of my childhood and one of the most traditional in Greece. Really popular during summer as it is the time where the artichokes grow.

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  • Making a Greek Spinach Pie

    Making a Greek Spinach Pie

    Pie’s is not something that usually associate with the Greek cuisine but rather I would say with the English one. That is rather unfortunate as the Greeks have a lot of love for there traditional pies like the British.  If you travel to Greece there is no way you can miss them and especially the traditional Greek Spinach pie that is cooked everywhere in the country.

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