healthy Greek recipes from the Blue Zone island of Ikaria.
Here’s a Greek recipe for iced tea made with ancient herbal classics like sage and mountain tea. It’s the perfect quaff for a Mediterranean diet frame of mind! Herbal tea is one of the secrets to longevity on Blue Zone islands like Ikaria, but truth be told, people all over Greece drink herbal teas, usually […]
I have made this dish in other versions, with my favorite Ikarian pine honey and fresh orange juice. Petimezi, the subtle, sweet syrup made by cooking down clarified grape must, is one of the world’s oldest natural sweeteners. In this dish, it lends balance to the already earthy beans and it pairs beautifully with tomatoes […]
This delicious Greek recipe for pumpkin comes from my native Ikaria and I can happily say that it’s one of the many longevity recipes that are plant-based and delicious and that people still cook today. This Greek pumpkin recipe is one of many Greek dishes in which vegetables make for a satisfying, craveable delicious meal. […]
Loukoumades are essentially Greek doughnuts, with or without a hole. On Ikaria, loukoumades are almost always drizzled with Ikarian pine honey, sprinkled with cinnamon and, of course, served warm. You can also serve them sprinkled with sesame seeds. The secret is not to let the yeasty batter sit too little or too long. The former […]
In the summer gardens of Ikaria, the island of longevity, zucchini prevails! This local Ikaria recipe for zucchini fritters is one of the most popular Greek summer recipes on the island. Serve it with Greek yogurt or tzatziki, and sip a little Greek ouzo for pleasure, too!
Every Greek summer, in my Ikaria "longevity" garden, zucchini rules. I cook it up in lots of different Greek recipes all great examples of the healthy Greek diet. You can grill or stir-fry the zucchini and add a sprinkling of Greek feta and Greek herbs. Don’t forget to use extra virgin Greek olive oil in […]
This Greek salad recipe is inspired by a classic Greek summer vegetable stew. On the Blue Zone Aegean island of Ikaria this vegetarian recipe is called mageirio. Elsewhere in Greece it is known as tourlou. I’ve taken the basic ingredients of green beans, tomatoes, onions, garlic and corn and transformed them into something lighter and […]
Mageirio, after the verb, to cook, “mageirevo,” is essentially an all-purpose summer stew, a kind of “throw-everything-in-one-pot,” dish that almost every home cook makes at least once a week, making use of everything that grows in her garden. This and the next recipe offer slight variations on the theme. If amaranth greens are unavailable, you […]
From: Ikaria: Lessons on Food, Life, and Longevity from the Greek Island Where People Forget to Die. Sfouggato is the name given to various egg-based dishes throughout the Greek islands; some are essentially omelets, while others are more like croquettes. But among older Ikarians, sfouggato was a dish that called for quite a different egg […]
Makes 6 to 8 servings Soufico is one of the “national” dishes of Ikaria, an island (not a nation!), in the northeastern Aegean that also happens to be where my family roots are. It is one of many dishes throughout Greece and throughout the Mediterranean at large that call for the same medley of summer […]