11 recipes
A simple, sun-drenched Mediterranean cuisine built on olive oil, fresh herbs, lemon and cheese that will feel familiar to anyone who knows the Aegean.
Read its storyLayers of roasted eggplant and potato with a cinnamon-scented meat sauce, finished with a thick béchamel and baked until golden.
A thick, garlicky Greek dip of strained yogurt, squeezed cucumber, olive oil and dill.
A lettuce-free village salad of ripe tomatoes, cucumber, red onion and olives, crowned with a thick slab of feta, oregano and olive oil.
Lemon, garlic and oregano chicken skewers, grilled and wrapped in warm pita with tzatziki, tomato and onion.
A Greek pie of spinach, spring onions, dill and feta baked between crisp, buttery layers of phyllo.
A bright, comforting Greek chicken and rice soup thickened to a silky finish with egg and lemon.
A Greek summer favorite of tomatoes and peppers filled with herby rice and baked in plenty of olive oil alongside potatoes.
Greece's celebration pasta bake: layers of tubular pasta and cinnamon-scented meat sauce under a thick béchamel that bakes to a golden crust.
Greek meatballs fragrant with mint, oregano and grated onion, dusted in flour and fried until crisp outside and tender inside.
Crisp, airy Greek fried dough balls soaked in warm honey syrup and finished with cinnamon and walnuts.
A hearty Greek soup of dried white beans slowly simmered with carrot, celery and tomato in generous olive oil, made with beans soaked overnight.
Greek cooking rests on three crops that have fed the Mediterranean for thousands of years: wheat, olives and grapes. In ancient Greece, bread, olive oil, wine, pulses, cheese and fish formed the core of the daily diet. Even today many Greek dishes are built on that simple but powerful base: good olive oil, ripe tomatoes and a handful of fresh herbs.
During the Byzantine era the spice trade and monastery kitchens enriched the table. In the centuries that followed, a long shared life under Ottoman rule led to remarkably similar dishes on both sides of the Aegean. Moussaka, dolmadakia (stuffed vine leaves), keftedes (meatballs), tzatziki and baklava live on in both Greek and Turkish kitchens, often under nearly identical names. Rather than asking who "owns" these dishes, it is fairer to see them as a heritage that neighbouring communities enriched by learning from one another. Modern touches shaped the cuisine too: in the early 20th century the chef Nikolaos Tselementes popularised the French-style béchamel topping now standard on Greek moussaka.
Greece may be small, but its food varies widely. The islands favour fish, octopus and sun-dried tomatoes; Crete is famous for its wild greens, cheeses and dakos, a salad on barley rusks. In northern Macedonia and Thrace the cooking is spicier and heartier, while the mountain villages of Epirus are known for countless kinds of pita, or savoury pie. The street food of Thessaloniki still reflects the city's multicultural past.
The essentials are olive oil, lemon, oregano, dill, mint and garlic. Feta, hard sheep's-milk cheeses such as kefalotyri and thick strained yogurt are ever-present. "Ladera" dishes, in which vegetables and pulses are slowly cooked in plenty of olive oil, are close cousins of Turkish zeytinyağlı dishes. Grilled meat is usually seasoned with nothing more than lemon, salt and oregano; the aim is to let the ingredients speak for themselves.
Begin with horiatiki, the Greek village salad of tomatoes, cucumber, olives and a thick slab of feta: it needs no cooking at all but teaches how much ingredient quality matters. Next, try tzatziki and lemony, oregano-scented chicken souvlaki to discover the power of a good marinade. Once you are more confident, spanakopita, a spinach and feta pie, is a great introduction to working with filo pastry.