Hello everyone!
If you follow the blog, you would know that I went to Boston a few weeks ago (and really loved it! Boston is awesome!). I had some really tasty Greek food there, and since I've got back, I find myself keep wanting more Greek food. I decided I would try to make some myself, and have been searching recipes. A lot of the recipes I found sound delicious, but some are fairly complicated. I will hopefully be trying a lot of these recipes over the next few months, but I decided to start simple.
To kick off my Greek cooking spree, I decided to create my own version of a Greek Salad, and serve it with a Tzatziki dip and pita bread. I am not sure how traditional Greek Salad is, but the items in a Greek salad are very typical of the Mediterranean diet, as they are readily available in the region. Tzatziki is pretty traditional for Greek cuisine, but I made mine slightly different. Since both of these recipes have my own spin on them, they are NOT authentic. I will try some more authentic dishes later on, but will need to follow recipes for those. This Greek-inspired feast is a great summer meal because it doesn't require too much cooking with heat, and uses produce that is fresh in summer. With the help of my lovely sous chef (S/O Jan), this meal was ready in no time and delicious to eat! Let me tell you about how I made this feast come together.
Greek Salad
Serves 2
Ingredients:
2 TBSP olive oil plus some for cooking
1 TBSP lemon juice
1 tsp white wine vinegar
1 TBSP dijon mustard
1 tsp dill weed
1/2 tsp pepper
2 cups greens (your choice)
2 mini cucumbers
15 grape tomatoes
1/4 of an onion
2 oz feta cheese
1.5 cups artichoke hearts
Tzatziki Dip
Ingredients
1 container plain yogurt (can also be non-dairy yogurt)
1 TBSP dill weed
1 TBSP lemon juice
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp pepper
1 clove garlic, minced
pita bread (best if warmed before serving)
The first thing I did was make the Tzatziki dip. Put the plain yogurt (I used soy yogurt), dill weed, lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, garlic and pepper in a bowl and mix. Put the dip in the fridge until you are ready to eat.
The next thing I did was make the dressing. Mix olive oil, lemon juice, dijon, dill weed, and pepper in a container you can shake (mason jars work well for this if you don't have a salad dressing shaker. If you have neither of these, you can whisk the ingredients in a bowl). Mix and keep dressing in the fridge until you are ready to eat.
Next, I started cooking the artichoke hearts. Put them in a pan over medium heat with a little olive oil. The artichoke hearts do not need to be crisp, but cooking will get them less soggy feeling. Time varies depending on if you use canned or fresh artichoke hearts, but approximately 5 minutes for canned and 10-12 for frozen.
While the artichokes are cooking, start cutting the vegetables. Dice the cucumbers and tomatoes into bite size pieces, and cut the onion in slices.
Put 1 cup of lettuce in each salad bowl, and split the tomatoes, cucumber, onion and artichokes between the bowls. Top the salads with feta cheese and dressing. Serve the salad next to a plate of pita bread and the Tzatziki dip.
While not traditional recipes, I really enjoyed this Greek-inspired meal. It was refreshing to eat and incorporated a lot of vegetables. I am excited to share more traditional Greek recipes with you all in the future, and hope that maybe I have inspired you to try cooking a dish or eating cuisine from a culture that you never had before!
Have a great week,
-t
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