Greek Recipes

15 Greek recipes. Page 1 of 1. Compare ingredients and cooking times. Bougatsa (Semolina Cream Pastry), Chicken Gyro.

Bougatsa (Semolina Cream Pastry)

Semolina milk cream is wrapped twice in paper-thin, buttered pastry, baked until golden and finished with icing sugar and cinnamon rather than syrup. One stretched sheet folds around the cream like an envelope, then a second sheet wraps that parcel again, so crisp layers surround the filling top and bottom. Pulling hard at one spot opens holes, and stretching from the edges a little at a time avoids them. The butter total looks large, but it is split between the cream, the dough and four rounds of stretching.

Prep 110min Cook 60min 16 servings

Grilled Easy

Chicken Gyro

Chicken thigh charred over high heat and cold cucumber yogurt go into a warm pita together. Hot meat against cold sauce in the same bite is the whole point of the wrap, and it is eaten the moment it is rolled. The cucumber gets a light squeeze before it meets the yogurt, which keeps the sauce from turning thin.

Prep 20min Cook 15min 2 servings

Soups Medium

Avgolemono Soup (Greek Egg-Lemon Chicken Rice Soup)

Rice and chicken breast cook in the stock first, then eggs beaten with lemon juice turn the broth thick and tart. Hot stock is whisked into the eggs a ladle at a time to warm them, and once they are in the pot the soup never comes back to a boil.

🏠 Everyday

Prep 15min Cook 30min 4 servings

Pasta Medium

Giouvetsi (Beef and Orzo Bake)

The beef first braises in tomato with a cinnamon stick, and orzo joins this Greek bake only once the meat yields easily to a fork. Stretching the oven time to rescue tough beef leaves the pasta swollen and mushy.

Prep 30min Cook 110min 8 servings

Salads Easy

Cretan Dakos Salad (Barley Rusk with Tomato & Feta)

On Crete, dakos piles grated ripe tomato, juice and all, onto a hard barley rusk, putting bread and salad on one plate. The rusk slowly drinks in the tomato juice, leaving a soft, moist center and an edge that still crunches. That is why the rusk gets only a light sprinkle of water on top, as a long soak would take away the crisp rim altogether. Crumbled feta adds salt against the tomato's acidity, while black olives and dried oregano rubbed between the fingers bring aroma. Islanders eat it as a summer starter or a light meal on its own, and the riper the tomato, the better it tastes.

⚡ 20-Minute Recipes 🥗 Lighter Meals

Prep 15min 0 2 servings

Western Hard

Moussaka (Greek Eggplant Lamb Bechamel Bake)

Pan-fried eggplant, lamb sauce scented with cinnamon and a thick bechamel set into distinct layers that show clearly when the dish is sliced. Egg yolks whisked into the bechamel let it firm into a golden crust that holds everything in place. A day or two in the fridge deepens the flavors, which makes it a good dish to prepare ahead for a gathering. Ground beef in place of lamb, or potato and zucchini alongside the eggplant, are common swaps.

Prep 40min Cook 60min 6 servings

Baking Medium

Greek Custard Phyllo Pie (Crispy Filo & Semolina Custard)

In this Greek pie, sheets of filo, each brushed with butter, are layered around a semolina custard, and a syrup of sugar and honey goes on after baking. Semolina leaves the custard faintly grainy in a way a flour-thickened one is not, and lemon zest scents it. The syrup is cooled to lukewarm before it meets the hot pie, which keeps the top layers crisp while the bottom soaks it up and turns soft.

Prep 40min Cook 45min 4 servings

Grilled Easy

Chicken Souvlaki (Greek Lemon Herb Grilled Chicken Skewer)

Lemon, olive oil, garlic, and dried oregano give these Greek thigh skewers a sharp, slightly bitter herbal edge over the char. Thirty minutes of marinating works, but a night in the fridge goes deeper. Serve with plain yogurt, or tuck the chicken into warm pita with tomato and onion.

Prep 20min Cook 15min 4 servings

Pasta Hard

Pastitsio (Greek Cinnamon Beef Macaroni Bechamel Bake)

Cut a square of pastitsio and three layers should show clearly: macaroni, a cinnamon-scented beef sauce, and a thick cap of bechamel. Each layer has its own way to fail. Macaroni boiled fully soft keeps softening in the oven, and a beef sauce with liquid pooling underneath soaks the pasta below it. The 15-minute rest after baking lets sauce and pasta set, so a knife pressed straight down leaves all three layers clean.

Prep 30min Cook 40min 4 servings

Salads Easy

Greek Salad (Chunk-Cut Vegetable Toss with Feta)

Tomatoes and cucumber stay in big, rough chunks, so each bite keeps its own juice and crunch. Sweet bell pepper, briny olives and salty feta layer on top, and the oil and red wine vinegar are tossed in only until the vegetables look glossy. Thin slices of red onion keep its sharpness from covering the tomato, olives and feta. In Greece the feta traditionally sits on the salad as a single slab rather than crumbled; broken off bit by bit at the table, it mixes with the olive oil on the plate and becomes the dressing. Rough tossing crushes the tomatoes and leaves a pool of watery juice underneath.

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Prep 15min 0 2 servings

Western Easy

Saganaki (Greek Pan-Fried Cheese)

A single 1.5cm slab of firm graviera goes into the pan whole and comes out with a thin golden crust. Unlike breaded cheese sticks with egg and crumbs, it gets only a dusting of flour over a lightly wetted surface, and the excess is shaken off so it does not fall into the oil and burn. Leave it alone until one side turns golden, then flip it once with a wide spatula under the whole piece; if the cheese starts running at the edges, lower the heat. Lemon goes on after it reaches the plate.

⚡ 20-Minute Recipes

Prep 5min Cook 10min 2 servings

Baking Medium

Spanakopita (Greek Spinach and Feta Phyllo Pie)

Layers of buttered phyllo bake into sheets that shatter at the touch of a fork, around a filling of spinach with salty feta and dill. Most of the effort goes into the spinach, which is cooked until no water pools in the pan.

Prep 25min Cook 40min 4 servings

Western Easy

Strapatsada (Greek Tomato Scrambled Eggs)

With so much tomato in the pan, the eggs end up as small soft curds scattered through red pulp instead of big scrambled pieces. The clear juice tomatoes release at first would water everything down. The tomatoes cook until the flesh collapses and no liquid pools when pushed aside, with a little tomato paste adding body in that short time. Cherry tomatoes counted one for one are not the same amount as small tomatoes. With feta bringing salt, a pinch is enough, and it goes to the table right away with bread before the eggs dry out in the leftover heat.

Prep 10min Cook 15min 2 servings

Baking Hard

Trigona Panoramatos (Custard Phyllo Cones)

A Greek pastry: phyllo folded into triangular cones, baked hollow, soaked in cooled syrup and filled with cold custard. Fourteen sheets of phyllo make 42 small cones. Each cone bakes with a crumpled piece of parchment inside so the opening stays wide.

Prep 150min Cook 70min 42 servings

Western Easy

Tzatziki Salmon Bowl

Cold tzatziki over warm grains and pan-seared salmon gives this bowl its contrast in temperature. The Greek sauce mixes thick yogurt with cucumber, garlic, lemon, and dill, and the dill cuts through the richness of the fish. Brown rice or quinoa both work as the base, and halved cherry tomatoes add a bright, sweet note.

Prep 20min Cook 10min 2 servings