The Best Recipes To Try When You're Craving Greek Food
Greek cuisine is known for its simple and fresh ingredients that combine to deliver delicious, bold flavors. That ordinary-looking Greek garden salad is topped off with feta cheese and Greek dressing to really make it a fan favorite with your tastebuds. That Greek gyro is smothered in tzatziki to provide a light, herby complement to the smoky meat found in the sandwich. Nothing is much tastier than that.
There won't be many ingredients completely unfamiliar to you when you're exploring all of the delicious Greek foods and trying out new recipes. That is why, even if you bite into a Greek dish filled with ingredients you know, it will still be a new, exciting, and flavorful experience.
Normally, this type of culinary expertise requires a professional. But we have collected a series of recipes that even at-home chefs can conquer. Whether it's a simple baba ganoush dish or a full-on moussaka meal, these are recipes to try when you're craving Greek food.
Moussaka
If you've never heard of moussaka before, once you learn what it is, there's no turning back. You'll be obsessed and want to make it yourself. Moussaka is essentially a Greek casserole made with layers of eggplant and lamb, and topped with a béchamel sauce.
Making this moussaka recipe isn't for the faint of heart. It consists of roughly an hour and a half of prep time and 45 minutes of cooking. But the final product will be worth it. To start, you'll prepare the eggplant and meat sauce separately. Then, you'll assemble the moussaka much like you would a lasagna.
As stated above, traditional moussaka is topped with béchamel sauce. But this kind of sauce can be difficult to get just right. Instead, we swapped in a cheese-based sauce consisting of Greek yogurt, ricotta, feta, eggs, and cornstarch. You will pop this dish in the oven for 40-45 minutes, wait for it to cool, and then dig in.
Classic gyros
A gyro is the most classic Greek dish around. If you've ever walked past a Greek restaurant and seen that gigantic, spinning wheel of meat, you've surely thought, "A gyro is not something I can make myself." But, believe it or not, you'd be mistaken. Our classic gyro recipe shows you how you make this deliciousness right at home.
To prepare this meal, simply marinate the beef. Then cook in a pan for 5 to 7 minutes. Cut the meat into thick strips.
Then it's time to assemble. Place a few strips of beef onto a bed of lettuce and top with tomatoes, cucumber, and red onion. Add a healthy spoonful of tzatziki sauce, and you have yourself a delicious homemade gyro.
Zucchini tzatziki sauce
Greek food is all about big, bold flavors and nowhere is that more evident than the popular tzatziki sauce. Not only is it full of flavor, because it's yogurt-based, but it's healthier than most other sauces and dips. Tzatziki is usually made with yogurt, herbs, and cucumber, but our recipe swaps out the cucumber for zucchini, which is packed with vitamins.
The zucchini tzatziki sauce recipe is incredibly simple (it takes just 10 minutes to prepare) and requires only seven ingredients: zucchini, Greek yogurt, extra-virgin olive oil, fresh chopped dill, fresh lemon juice, salt, and garlic. Grate the zucchini with a box grater and then stir it together with all the other ingredients. That's it.
Tzatziki sauce goes great as a dip for pita chips or veggies, or as a sauce for meat kabobs, pita sandwiches, or salad bowls.
Greek stuffed peppers
You've likely had stuffed peppers before, but have you ever enjoyed Greek stuffed peppers? Probably not. This unique take on a popular dish is the perfect weeknight dinner, because it can be completed start to finish in less than one hour and consists of ingredients you probably already have in your kitchen.
The peppers are stuffed with a mixture of ground lamb (or ground beef), white rice, tomatoes, zucchini, and red onion. They're topped with a handful of feta cheese before they go in the oven for just 8-10 minutes.
These stuffed peppers are hearty enough to eat on their own, but if you're looking for sides, try some pita and hummus or a salad of your choice.
Baba ganoush
Whipping up an exotic dish often sounds intimidating, but this recipe for baba ganoush can be prepped in just 10 minutes. For those unfamiliar with the dish, baba ganoush is an eggplant-based dip. Recipe developer Nathaniel Lee describes this particular version as "like smokey hummus but not as heavy."
Prepping this delicious treat is a breeze. Simply cut the eggplant into 1-inch cubes and season with olive oil, and season with salt, pepper, and cumin. That's it. Then let the eggplant roast for one hour. When it's done, throw the eggplant, juice of one lemon, tahini, and olive oil into a food processor and set to high until the mixture is smooth. Top with olive oil, diced tomato, chopped parsley, and paprika.
While baba ganoush is typically a dip paired with flatbread, Lee reminds us that it "goes surprisingly well with grilled meats like chicken and lamb."
Greek salad
You do not need to be a Greek cuisine connoisseur to be familiar with a Greek salad. Many restaurants with a salad section this side of the Mediterranean Sea have Greek salad on their menus.
But here's the good news: You don't need to wait until you get a table at your favorite Greek restaurant. Our Greek salad recipe gives you the tools you need to prepare the same dish right from home.
The first step is to make that famous Greek salad dressing. All you need to do is mix garlic, olive oil, Dijon mustard, white balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, sour cream, oregano, salt, and pepper.
When your vegetables are cut and prepared, begin to layer the salad. Start with a lettuce base, topped with the other veggies and feta cheese, and completed with dressing. Your salad will be quite impressive.