Greek Cooking, Recipes, & Lifestyle from a Greek-American Family

Traditional Moussaka

Moussaka is a layered dish of eggplant, ground meat, tomato sauce, and béchamel sauce. It is a popular dish in Greece and is often served as a main course. The eggplant is thinly sliced and then baked until soft. The ground meat is cooked with onions, garlic, and tomatoes. The béchamel sauce is made with milk, butter, flour, and cheese. The layers of eggplant, meat, and sauce are then baked until golden brown. Moussaka is a delicious and hearty dish that is perfect for any meal.

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Watermelon Feta Salad

This salad is perfect for a light summer meal or as a refreshing appetizer. The sweetness of the watermelon and the saltiness of the feta cheese are a perfect combination, and the mint adds a touch of freshness.

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Bougatsa

One of our favorite desserts! Our bougatsa recipe is a traditional, custard pie, but in researching the history, we found that it had a deeper history than a simple dessert.

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Homemade Pork Gyros

It took us a while to feature a gyros recipe because we focused recently on more vegetarian dishes, but the time has come for one of the most iconic Greek street-food dishes ever – homemade pork gyros! We feature pork tenderloin as the main ingredient, and we made sure to achieve extra tenderness by marinating the meat in a blend of herbs, oil, vinegar, and honey. The pork is prepared in a frying pan and served inside a pita bread with tzatziki, onion, and tomato.

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Chicken with Balsamic Sauce

We were having our weekly Sunday family dinner, this time at Joanna’s. She wanted to make something quick, easy and healthy. She had some chicken breasts on hand so she started looking around the kitchen trying to find ideas of how to prepare quickly, that didn’t require much effort. Thinking about how much I love balsamic, she decided to make the chicken with some balsamic sauce. Glad she did! Check out how easy this recipe is. Makes for a great quick meal.

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Araka (Pea Stew)

The other day my sisters and I were talking about our favorite dishes from childhood and Joanna listed araka as one of her favorites. Our mom used to make it for us all time, partly because she could make a big batch at once, and partly because it was good for us. But mostly because we all would eat it. We loved this dish as kids and really missed it when we realized we haven’t had araka in years so, of course, my sisters had to make it.

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Green Bean, Corn and Feta Salad

This is a great recipe for a light and healthy salad. Fresh green beans, fresh corn, feta and a light tangy dressing make this a great dish, especially refreshing as a summer meal.

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Baklava Ice Cream

Here is an end of summer treat that is sure to be a hit! We took two of our favorite desserts, baklava and ice cream, and combined them (no ice cream machine needed). What we got is a rich, smooth, delicious and refreshing treat! A little goes a long way with this ice cream, so you don’t need a lot. You can stay health and diet conscious and still indulge a little.

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Halva

Halva is a popular dessert in Greece that is traditionally made with semolina. There are a few variations depending on what part of Greece you’re from. Our mother used to make it with olive oil and farina, as semolina was not as easy to find here in the States. There are oven and stove top versions. We did a stove top version here, using butter, farina and a cake mold. You can easily replace the butter with olive or canola oil, or use half and half, and replace the farina with semolina. It’s a quick and easy dessert. Oh… and it’s delicious!

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Rizogalo Rice Pudding

Growing up, our mom would make rizogalo pretty often. It was a staple in our house. She would have to ration it because Joanna would eat it all. It was her favorite dessert. So that’s why over the years, Joanna has tried to come up with a recipe as good as my mom’s, and it looks like she’s done it. Give it a try. It’s some good Greek comfort food.

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Nescafé Frappe

If you’ve ever visited Greece then you probably know about Nescafé Frappe. If you haven’t, let me tell you about it. Read on.

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Htipiti

Htipiti is generally a spread made with feta, crushed red pepper or sun dried tomatoes, olive oil and lemon juice. Some even use chili peppers. But Joanna makes it as a dip, uses roasted red peppers and adds some creaminess for taste and volume, so the dip can be enjoyed by more! This dip is absolutely delicious! As our non Greek friends like to call it, “the tippy teepee dip”. Try it out, you’ll love it!

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Greek-style “Engagement Chicken”

Just in time for Valentine’s Day. We put our spin on “engagement chicken”, (link) and combined it with Kota Limonata (Greek style lemon chicken). Make this for someone you love. It’s sure to be a hit!

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Eggplant Tomato & Onion Saute with Lentils

Our neighbor’s garden had a great season and they generously shared with us for this recipe! Since we had the fresh eggplants and tomatoes from their garden, as well as onions, capers, and lentils on hand, we decided to make a delicious and healthy saute! It’s quite an easy (and did we mention healthy) recipe and a good way to use up the last of garden’s summer produce. You’ll love it!

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Manestra (Orzo with Tomato Sauce)

Manestra, more commonly known as orzo and also known as kritharaki, is traditionally a casserole baked in a cinnamony tomato sauce and usually made with meat. That’s how mom used to make it. Here we made this recipe on the stove top, left out the meat (great for Meatless Mondays) added mushrooms and spinach and used 2 kinds of paprika to give it a smoky, spicy flavor. We also used whole wheat orzo (Delallo 100% Whole Wheat is our fav) to make it more nutritious and topped it some yummy Dodoni sheep’s milk feta. We’re obsessed!

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Greek Easter Tsoureki

We played around a lot over the years with tsoureki recipes. There are different variations depending on what part of Greece the recipe hails from. I think we found our favorite! Not only is it delicious but it will make the house smell amazing! Here we left out the traditional red dyed Easter egg in the center because we never eat it but feel free to add it). The recipe will make 7 6-inch braids or 3-4 large braids. You can also use leftover tsoureki (if you have any!) as your bread for french toast or a croque monsieur sandwich. Sooo good!

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Coconut Curry Lentil Soup (Fakes)

Ahhh our beloved fakes soupa! How many plates of this dish have we eaten over the years? Not enough! It’s tasty, healthy, and reminds us of home. It’s such a classic Greek dish, but we created it with a spin! Try our delicious recipe for Coconut Curry Lentil Soup. We like it, actually we love it, and we think you will too!

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Orzo Spinach and White Bean Soup

We decided to make a healthy soup recipe before the weather really starts to warm up. We figured a nice soup to warm the soul is fitting right about now. We mentioned healthy but did we mention how delicious this recipe is? Well, now you know! Kali orexi!

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Traditional Koulourakia

We grew up in a Greek neighborhood outside of Boston, and our neighbors were more like family, not just people living nearby. It’s amazing to think back now and remember what it was like having this network of close friends all around us and always together. One of our neighbors, Theia Tasia and her daughter Ethel, have lived across the street from our family for over 40 years! They always made amazing Greek dishes and their Koulourakia were always our favorite. They were kind enough to give us their recipe and we’re posting it here for all of you!

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Greek Inspired Salsa & Guacamole

We had some pepperoncini, cucumber and feta in the fridge that we wanted to use up and with Cinco de Mayo around the corner, we decided instead of making a salad, let’s make some Greek inspired salsa and guacamole. We were very happy with the outcome so we thought we’d share these recipes with you! We hope you enjoy our Greek salsa and “Oli” (means “everyone” in Greek) guacamole!

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Kourabiedes

Kourabiedes are popular Greek shortbread style butter cookies, covered in powdered sugar and quite popular for the holidays. We are providing a super simple recipe that’s vegetarian but definitely delicious and fun to eat!

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Paximathakia

Paximathakia are a twice baked cookie, similar to biscotti, or hard rusk-style savory bread, served as thick slices. Here we make a very simple sweet cookie version perfect with coffee or tea… and perfect for today!

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White Bean Dip

Want a quick delicious snack or appetizer? We have just the thing..white bean dip! Serve it with pita, as we did, but you can also serve it with crackers, vegetables or spread it on some fresh bread. We used organic cannellini beans and parsley and whole wheat pita to make it extra healthy. And it’s so easy to make. No cooking required!

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Eggs Benedictopoulos

Eggs Benedict is an American breakfast dish that generally consists of an English muffin, topped with ham or bacon, poached eggs, and Hollandaise sauce. But we decided to “Greekify” it, bringing the best of both food worlds together! Instead of an English muffin, we used potato cooked in some Greek olive oil with salt, pepper and oregano. We added some sautéed spinach, Hollaindaise sauce made with Greek yogurt and our favorite cheese, feta! We didn’t use meat in our recipe but feel free to add some if you like. Traditionally, Canadian bacon is used for Eggs Benedict but if you can’t find Canadian bacon, you can use ham.

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