4 Greek Recipes Your Friends Will Find Impossibly Delicious

Today, you can pay homage to Greek cuisine that uses natural processes and ancestral techniques to enhance and preserve the nutrients of its ingredients with any of the four following recipes.

1. Tzatziki with sunflower seed yoghurt

Ingredients for 8 people:

• 250 g of sunflower seeds
• 400 ml of quinoa
• 2 cucumbers
• 1 handful of chopped fresh mint leaves
• 1 teaspoon dried dill
• ½ teaspoon sea salt

Preparation (20 min + ferment time and soaking):

Put the sunflower seeds in soak for 6 hours.

Wash and strain the seeds and crush them together with the quinoa until a creamy consistency is achieved.

Leave the preparation to ferment for 6 hours at room temperature in a glass jar slightly covered with a cloth.

Once the time has passed, you already have your yogurt and you take it to cool.

Peel and finely grate the cucumber.

Put the yogurt in a bowl and add the cucumber along with the mint, dill and salt.

Recommendations:

The traditional recipe is made with the typical Greek yogurt.

You can eat this tzatziki with some appetizer like dehydrated crackers.

Rejuvelac is a fermented drink that is prepared with germinated grains.

2. Raw moussaka of nuts and mushrooms

Ingredients for 6 people:

For mushrooms:

• 300 g of mushrooms
• 1 tablespoon of tamari
• 80 g of dried tomatoes
• 300 g of carrot
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• 1 handful of chopped parsley
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

For white walnut sauce:

• 150 g of nuts
• 30 ml of lemon juice
• 160 ml of water
• 1 little nutmeg
• 1 little pepper
• ½ teaspoon sea salt

For raw parmesan:

• 100 g of nuts
• 30 g of nutritional yeast
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• ½ teaspoon sea salt

Preparation (30 min + soaking time):

For mushrooms:

Soak the dried tomatoes for ½ hour.

Cut the mushrooms into cubes.

Crush a little with the rest of the ingredients until achieving a rustic consistency.

For white walnut sauce:

Put the nuts in soak for 8 hours.

Strain, wash the nuts and crush them with all the other ingredients.

For the raw parmesan:

Grind the nuts, the nutritional yeast, the garlic powder and the salt, until reducing them to dust.

For the assembly:

In a pan, place the base of the mushroom paste.

Pour the sauce and the "cheese" on top.

Remove from the mold and serve.

Recommendations:

If you have a dehydrator, you can dehydrate the molded preparation a few hours. It will have more body and you can serve it tempered.

3. Greek salad with pumpkin and caper paté

Ingredients for 4 people:

For the salad:

• 4 tomatoes
• ½ purple onion
• 10 kalamata olives
• 2 cucumbers
• 1 little fresh oregano
• 1 clove garlic
• 60 ml olive oil
• 30 ml of lemon juice
• A little pepper
• A little bit of salt

For the paté:

• 200 g of pumpkin seeds
• 50 g of capers
• 1 tablespoon of lemon juice

Preparation (30 min + 4 hours of soaking):

For the salad:

Cut the tomatoes in cubes.

Peel and toss the cucumber, and cut it into slices.

Then, pick the oregano and garlic very finely.

Mix the ingredients and season them with oil, lemon, pepper and salt.

For the paté:

Soak the pumpkin seeds for 4 hours.

Strain and wash the pipes, and crush them together with the capers and the lemon juice until a creamy consistency is achieved.

For the assembly:

Serve the salad in individual bowls and add to accompany a pâté ball.

Recommendations:

If you do not have a slow juice extractor to crush the pâté, you can do it in the blender, but in this case you should add some water.

To make the pate balls, use an ice cream scoop or a spoon.

4. Baklava of cashew nuts and matcha

Ingredients for 16 units:

For the mass:

• 200 g of cashew nuts
• Lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons of agave syrup
• 1 Teaspoon vanilla extract
• A pinch of sea salt

For the filling:

• 150 g of cashew nuts
• 3 tablespoons of agave syrup
• 1 heaping tablespoon of matcha powder
• ¼ teaspoon of clove powder
• ¼ teaspoon cardamom powder
• 1 tablespoon of lemon juice

Preparation (30 min + soaking time and dehydration):

For the mass:

Put the cashews to soak for 4 hours.

Strain, wash and crush the cashews with all the ingredients until a cream is obtained.

Spread in the trays of the dehydrator forming a very thin layer.

Dehydrate at 45 ˚C for about 4 hours, turn and dehydrate about 4 hours more. It has to remain flexible.

For the filling:

Mash the cashews and season them with the matcha, agave, spices and lemon.

For the assembly:

Divide the dough into 4 and spread 3 parts with the filling.

Leave a dough to cover up, so that it is: dough, filling, dough, filling, dough, filling and finally dough.

Cut into 16 servings and you're ready to serve.

Recommendations:

It can be painted with agave syrup or coconut sugar mixed with a few drops of lemon.

Sprinkle pieces of cashew nuts on top.

In the Greek culture dishes are deliberately broken and the gods related to cooking abound, agriculture is still a pillar of the economy and its gastronomy – well Mediterranean and with a marked oriental and Arab influence – is synonymous with quality and enjoyment. How could Greece not inspire us?

The teachings of Pythagoras beyond mathematics

We could continue talking about the kitchen, but let's emphasize the teachings of Pythagoras, one of the Greek characters that has most influenced what we now call healthy living.

He is usually known as a philosopher, mathematician and physicist, and greatly influenced music, medicine and astronomy. But he also shared his lifestyle based on a naturist vision, to the point that vegetarians were once called Pythagoreans.

Pythagoras had in mind the universal laws that govern life and behavior. Among them, do not eat corpses; that is, not killing animals, not feeding our life with the death and suffering of others. As long as man continues to commit that unjust act of eating other animals, he said, war and conflicts between beings will not cease.

How interesting it is to understand the present according to what happened in the story. And how important it is to reveal what history tells us or hides us. With this in mind, we invite you to draw conclusions from these messages and consider how they are still valid today.

Greek-inspired menu

Cultures make up what we are, but at the same time we can create or modify the cultures in which we are born and move. And what better than to carry the message of respect for all the living beings that inhabit the Earth to the festive celebrations of winter? And now you can do it with healthy and tasty dishes inspired by Greek cuisine.