I absolutely adore Greek food. I would happily eat it every day for the rest of my life! From the light freshness of tzatziki to warm crusty bread with olives, all the flavours and smells bring me back to my childhood holidays on the Greek islands. I was lucky enough to visit Crete last year (you can read my Crete diaries here) but since I don't have any plans to go back this year, I decided to recreate the taste of Greece at home. This meal serves around 4-5 people for a lovely summer dinner and is comprised of a Greek roast chicken with new potatoes for the main and fried courgettes with tzatziki with a simple rocket, tomato and feta olive salad as the sides. A glass of cold wine would also be a good addition!
Greek Roast Chicken
Ingredients:
• 1 large chicken
• 1 lemon
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 tsp honey
• Olive oil
• Dried oregano
• Flaked sea salt / rock salt
• Pepper
• 1 bag of new potatoes
• Fresh chives
Method:
Pre-heat your oven to 200C and put a roasting dish in the oven. Boil your potatoes until you can stick a fork in them easily then drain and put to one side.
Time to stuff the chicken! Slice up the lemon and place inside the chicken. Then add the honey, and cloves of garlic. Coat the chicken with lots of olive oil, salt, pepper and oregano. Then take the tray out of the oven and place your hot potatoes inside, then pour more olive oil over the top.
Use a masher to break up the potatoes into small pieces, they're a blanket for the chicken!
Cook in the oven for around 1.5 - 2 hours. I recommend taking off the lid of the roasting tin about a half an hour and brushing with more olive oil before it's ready so the skin goes nice and crispy.
To serve, carefully lift the chicken onto a surface to cut it up and then scoop out the potatoes and place in a dish. I like to add black pepper and chives to mine to finish them off.
Tzatziki & Fried Courgette
Ingredients:
• ½ cucumber, grated
• 1½ cups plain zero fat Greek yoghurt
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• pinch of paprika
• ½ teaspoon salt
• Juice of half a lemon
• Fresh dill to top
• 1 courgette
Method:
Grate the cucumber and drain through a fine mesh sieve, use a paper towel to get rid of any extra moisture.
Combine the yoghurt, garlic, oil, paprika and salt in a bowl. Place a couple sprigs of fresh dill on top, cover with clingfilm and put in the fridge until ready to serve.
For the courgette, chop it into very fine rounds and heat up a frying pan with olive oil until it's hot. Add the courgettes a few at a time and fry on a high heat until they are crispy. Sprinkle over some salt and then serve as a side to dip in the tzatziki.
This combination is so good!
Simple Rocket Salad
Ingredients:
• 1 bag rocket
• 4 vine tomatoes quartered
• Handful of olives
• Handful of fresh parsley
• Feta cheese
• Balsamic vinegar
Method:
Empty a bag of rocket into a salad bowl. Chop up the tomatoes and add to the rocket, then distribute the olives and crumbled feta on top. Use salad serves to toss it all together. Then when you are ready to eat, drizzle over some balsamic vinegar and enjoy!
To do all three together takes a bit of preparation but it's definitely worth it. I love how the flavours are so simple yet taste so delicious. And they say the Mediterranean diet is one of the best for us so I'm going to use that as my excuse to cook Greek food a lot more often.
If you fancy a dessert for after, I have lots of healthy sweet treats over on my blog.
Thank you Lucy for letting me share my recipes on She's So Lucy!
Thank you so much to Ella for sharing this beautiful Greek inspired collection of recipes - it's certainly not helping to calm down my dream to visit Greece soon! Don't forget to tweet Ella if you re-create any of the above recipes, I'm sure she'd love it.
If you aren't already following Ella, make sure you do! If you're a fan of my blog and the sort of things I post (health, beauty, food and lifestyle) I have no doubt you'll adore Ella and her blog too. Head on over to her blog today too as there is a super delicious, creamy Vegan Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream recipe a certain someone has proudly rustled up!
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