I’ve recently been writing for my university’s newspaper Spark. We now have a “Foreign Cuisine of the Month” article showcasing food from around the world with a bit of detail about the country it’s from (I’m very glad they like my idea for it). We’ve had Malaysian food and this month was Greek so I’m sharing the article I wrote with a recipe along with it, nothing fancy, just trying to inject a bit of summer into days that are getting darker and darker.
Greek cuisine is one of the oldest in the world. In fact the oldest cookery book ever written is said to have been Greek, dating back to 320 BC. Greece’s dominant influence on many areas of the Mediterranean meant its cuisine was spread around Western Europe, largely helped by the Roman Empire who adopted many of Greece’s cultural traits.
Traditional Greek food consisted of plenty of vegetables, herbs and different types of bread with plenty of olive oil and wine. Dairy products, meat and fish were rarely eaten until relatively recently thanks to the modernisation of food production. Food like this, naturally low in saturated fat, was also common in Southern Italy and Spain at the time and studies have shown that eating in this way can be extremely beneficial to our health. The “Mediterranean Diet” which is high in poly-unsaturated fats from olive oil and high in vitamins and minerals from fruit and veg has been proven to be a more effective method of reducing blood pressure and cholesterol than a “standard” low-fat diet.
So for a bit of a health boost that’s high in flavour, try this recipe for Greek Salad with Tzatziki and pitta breads. Quick, easy, low in sat fat, high in fibre and high in the vitamins & minerals that might just fight the Fresher’s flu going around!
Serves 2
Approx. £1.60 pp
- 1 wholemeal pitta bread per person
Salad:
- A large handful of olives
- 3 medium tomatoes
- ½ a cucumber
- ½ a red onion
- ½ a green pepper
- 4 tbsps olive oil
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp pepper
Tzatziki:
- Half a big pot of low-fat yogurt (Greek style or just natural)
- The other ½ of the cucumber
- 1 garlic clove
- 1 tbsp dried mint (fresh if you have it)
- ½ tbsp dried oregano
- Juice of half a lemon
- 1 tsp each of salt and pepper
- Make the Tzatziki by grating the first ½ of your cucumber into a bowl. Season with the salt and mix. Take all of the cucumber in your hand and squeeze out the excess liquid. Discard the liquid.
- Finely chop or crush the garlic into the cucumber and add all the rest of the ingredients. Give it a really good mix and pop in the fridge. Any extra you have will keep for about a week in a sealed tub. The flavour only gets better with time too!
- Turn your attention to the salad; chop the remaining cucumber and tomatoes into big chunks and pop into a big bowl. Add the olives.
- Slice the green pepper and very finely slice the red onion (no-one likes a big chunk of raw onion!) Add these to the bowl.
- Add the herbs, olive oil, lemon and pepper and toss everything together.
- Pop your pitta breads in the toaster to warm through for a couple of minutes.
- Serve the salad on a big plate and cut the pitta breads up into strips for dipping into a big dollop of the Tzatsiki on the side. You could also crumble ¼ a block of feta cheese on top per person if you wanted. Dig in.
thefoodstudent 