healthy Greek recipes from the Blue Zone island of Ikaria.
Fava, a reduction of cooked yellow split peas, is a Greek classic and one of the most essential plant-based, legume-based spreads on the Greek table. It is an ancient food in the Eastern Mediterranean, and there are many variations. In this version, I add heirloom carrots, which lend both a deeper golden color to […]
Greek cabbage salad, or lahanosalata, is the de rigeur Greek salad when the weather gets chilly and cabbage comes into season. It’s easy to dress up this cabbage-carrot duo with other ingredients, and some of my favorites are pomegranate seeds, fresh dill and nuts. You can swap out the walnuts for pistachios, almonds, hazelnuts […]
This carrot salad with carrot greens, mint and walnuts is inspired by Ikaria’s longevity diet and the waste-not, want-not mentality of Ikarian home cooks. Nothing evinces that more than the variety and number of edible greens most of us, myself included, would discard if someone didn’t show us a more enlightened way to use […]
Ikaria Fresh Bean and Corn Stew is a great between-the-seasons one-pot recipe packed with deliciousness and healthy plant-based ingredients.
This luscious Greek recipe for a lemony braised goat with blackened garlic and white wine is a variation of a classic Ikarian recipe for goat. I use lemon zest for extra perkiness and a heaping teaspoon of blackened garlic, which is sweet and subtle and adds an almost molasses-like density to the final result. […]
This Greek recipe for a summer vegetable stew is from Ikaria, the Blue Zone Greek island of longevity. It’s called soufico and in this version, from t he south side of the island, it’s basically all the summer vegetables cooked together in a skillet with extra virgin Greek olive oil and herbs. It’s a […]
This Ikaria style grilled zucchini salad with lots of garlic and oregano is a Greek recipe adapted from my first Ikaria book: Ikaria: Lessons on Food, Life and Longevity from the Greek Island Where People Forget to Die. My next Ikaria-inspired book, The Ikaria Way, will be out in March 2024, and you can […]
The best Mediterranean diet recipes are the oldest, most traditional and easiest ones, and this Greek recipe for trahana is a perfect example. What is trahana, for those of you who may not be familiar with the world’s oldest slow fast food? It’s a fermented grain product made by cooking wheat or flour with […]
Miracle Onions and Leeks. Onions and leeks are miracle ingredients, bursting with nutrients and compounds that help fight cancer and diabetes. Too boot, they’re also really tasty and the foundation of so many great Greek recipes. They even star in a few, like this simple onion-leek pie from Ikaria! One of the major phytochemical […]
Highly nutritious sweet potatoes, rich in antioxidants, were a really important longevity food on the Blue Zone Greek island of Ikaria. Indeed, they were once the dessert of choice, simply baked and savored by children who are now well into their 80s and 90s, who probably didn’t know way back when that consuming them […]