Our best Greek recipes include recipes for everything from homemade taramosalata to the herby meatballs called keftedes and smoky char-grilled chicken skewers, souvlaki. We’ve also got recipes for tzatziki, the cucumber yoghurt dip; melitzanosalata, the eggplant salad; and horiatiki, the famous traditional Greek salad made with feta, tomatoes, cucumbers, capsicums, onions, and Kalamata olives.
A Grantourismo reader asked if we knew it was also Greek Orthodox Easter, as I’ve been sharing the Russian-Ukrainian family recipes my grandmother used to cook for Orthodox Easter in our recent newsletters. We did! So I shared our best Greek recipes in yesterday’s digest, then another reader asked if we’d compiled all our Greek recipes in one post on the site (we hadn’t…). That explains this collection of our best Greek recipes.
Terence and I used to spend a lot of time in Greece, for both pleasure and ‘work’, which was updating guidebooks, one of the most enjoyable jobs in the world. On our first holiday in Greece over 25 years ago we divided the month between island hopping, to a mix of the most enigmatic islands and more elusive isles, and road tripping on the mainland.
On later visits, we explored everywhere from remote parts of northern Greece near the Macedonian border (so pristine!) to every bit of the ruggedly beautiful Peloponnese, updating the Lonely Planet Greece guidebook (twice!). One of our favourite things to do in Greece, no matter where we were or what time of year it was, was leisurely grazing on a spread of home-style Greek food – whether it was at a welcoming ouzerie with a fireplace on a stormy night during winter in Crete or at a sunny seaside taverna within splashing distance of the sea in summer on Simi. So whenever we’re in the mood for reminiscing about our travels in Greece, we’ve cooked Greek food at ‘home’, wherever that happened to be in the world.
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And if you’re looking for more cooking inspiration, we have many hundreds of recipes from around the world in our archives from places we’ve lived, travelled and loved. Note that you can save your favourites by clicking on the heart on the right of any post to create your own private account. Now let me tell you more about our best Greek recipes.
Best Greek Recipes from Homemade Taramosalata to Herby Meatballs
These are our best Greek recipes, from homemade taramosalata to herby meatballs and smoky chicken skewers.
Taramosalata Recipe for a Greek Style Tarama Dip
This homemade taramosalata recipe for a Greek style tarama dip made with red caviar or fish roe is so quick and easy you’ll never buy a supermarket dip again. We’ve used an affordable red lumpfish roe but you could use a more expensive red caviar or red salmon roe, or cod roe for the creamy colour of the more traditional Greek meze dish.
Like my recipes for cheese straws, smoked salmon dip, olive tapenade, and French onion dip made from scratch, this homemade taramosalata is part of a nostalgic project to recreate the dips popular when I was growing up in Australia and we were living in Sydney, my hometown, in the 80s and 90s. Which explains why I’ve opted for the pink tarama and used red caviar rather than the more authentic creamy cod roe.
It’s super easy to make: the roe is whipped with lemon juice, olive oil and bread or mashed potatoes, and you’re done. Top it with a generous spoonful of red caviar or fancier salmon roe and serve with warmed flatbreads, homemade croutons, crusty sourdough, or crispy pita chips as part of a Mediterranean-style spread of meze, the snacks, appetisers, and small plates called mezedes in Greece. Wash them down with ouzo or wine.
Taramosalata Recipe for a Greek Style Tarama Dip Made with Red Caviar or Fish Roe
Tzatziki Recipe for an Easy Authentic Greek Yoghurt Cucumber Dip
This easy tzatziki recipe makes an authentic creamy Greek yoghurt cucumber dip that has cousins in other Mediterranean cuisines, from Turkish cuisine to the cuisines of the Levant of Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Palestine, and Indian cuisine. Traditionally served as a meze and eaten as a dip with pita, tzatziki is also served as a side and sauce with souvlaki and other grilled meats.
Cucumber and yoghurt are another one of those great ingredient combinations – like melon and prosciutto and tomato and buffalo mozzarella – and you’ll also find that cucumber and yoghurt combo in Arabic mezze in khyar bi laban and in Indian cuisine, in raita. Like those quintessential Italian appetisers, this simple meze is an iconic Greek dish that’s so intrinsic to the culinary culture it’s hard to imagine Greek cuisine without it.
Essentially, tzatziki is to Greek food what hummus is to Middle Eastern food, gastronomically and culturally. Both are beloved specialties. You can dip pita into tzatziki, just as Arabic flatbreads are used to scoop up hummus. Eat tzatziki alongside dips like taramosalata, above, and a Greek salad, Greek meatballs and souvlaki, below.
Tzatziki Recipe for an Easy Authentic Greek Yoghurt Cucumber Dip
Greek Eggplant Dip Recipe for Melitzanosalata with Kalamata Olives
This Greek eggplant dip recipe makes melitzanosalata or ‘eggplant salad’ in Greek, and it’s one of the best best Greek recipes. The smoky aubergine dip can be spread onto pita or crusty sourdough and eaten as a snack, dished up as one of an array of mezedes – Greek dips, starters and appetisers often labelled as ‘drinking food’ – or served as a salad or side to keftedes (meatballs), souvlaki (skewers) or grilled meats.
This recipe is adapted from a recipe for melitzanosalata in Philoxenia, A Seat at My Table by Kon and Sia Karapanagiotidis. I met the lovely Sia, Kon’s mum, at the Bendigo Writers Festival last year, and I’ve been cooking from their beautiful cookbook of vegetarian and vegan Greek kitchen recipes a lot over the last year. Their recipes are often amazingly simple yet incredibly scrumptious. You can read more about them and their gorgeous book in the post below.
Kon and Sia’s recipe calls for mashing the eggplant with a fork. That works, but I’ve also used a mortar and pestle. I don’t recommend blitzing the eggplant in a food processor as you want a more rustic texture. Use a great quality extra virgin olive oil. If you can’t source a Greek extra virgin olive oil, use a another Mediterranean-style olive oil.
Greek Eggplant Dip Recipe for Melitzanosalata with Kalamata Olives
Spicy Roasted Red Pepper Feta Dip Recipe for the Greek Meze Htipiti
If you’re a fan of the Middle Eastern mezze, muhammara, a Syrian roasted red pepper dip made with walnuts, you’ll also enjoy this spicy roasted red pepper feta dip, htipiti, a Greek meze made with roasted red capsicums and Greek feta cheese that’s usually enjoyed as one of an array of Greek mezedes.
If you haven’t tried it before, this roasted red pepper feta dip is all at once sweet and smoky, courtesy of the roasted red capsicums, creamy and salty from the Greek feta, and gently spiced due to the chilli peppers – but you can always bump up the spice levels if you like.
This pepper dip is a breeze to prepare with just a handful of ingredients: roasted red bell peppers (capsicums), Greek feta, lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil, salt, and chilli peppers, whether fresh or dried, ground or flakes. Not traditional, but I drizzle a little chilli oil on top. Scoop the dip up with warm pita bread or crispy pita chips.
Spicy Roasted Red Pepper Feta Dip Recipe for the Greek Meze Htipiti
Mediterranean Artichoke Dip Recipe with Red Peppers and Green Olives
This easy artichoke dip recipe with red peppers and green olives makes a versatile clean-out-the-fridge dip. Like all Mediterranean mezze that can be eaten as snacks, dips, starters, or sides, you can spread this antipasti-inspired dip onto toasted sourdough, serve it in a bowl and scoop it up with pita bread or crisps, or enjoy it as a side to grilled skewers, meatballs or barbecued meats.
If you have half-full jars or near-empty jars with remnants of marinated grilled vegetables in the fridge left over after you assembled an Italian antipasti platter on the weekend, then this artichoke dip recipe is the solution to your problem of what to do with them. Because the last thing you want to do is toss them. Although you could use them on homemade pizza or make my capricciosa pasta.
Drain the jars of vegetables of their brine, cut them into bite-size pieces, slide them into a serving bowl, stir in some finely chopped flat-leaf parsley to add freshness, and, dress the lot with a simple dressing of extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice – because they’re already been marinated. Serve with homemade croutons, crusty sourdough or crispy pita chips.
Mediterranean Artichoke Dip Recipe with Red Peppers and Green Olives
Greek Style Blistered Cherry Tomatoes on Goat Cheese Recipe
If you have a glut of cherry tomatoes, you must try this recipe for blistered cherry tomatoes pan-roasted in olive oil, garlic and herbs, topped on goat’s cheese, and drizzled with even more gorgeous extra virgin olive oil. The recipe makes another classic Greek mezze and a brilliant side to grilled skewers or meatballs or a simple snack on sourdough.
You can fry the cherry tomatoes in a pan, then serve them atop goat’s cheese, then drizzle with more extra virgin olive oil. But with more time you could slow-roast the cherry tomatoes in the oven, but they’re just as delicious done on the stovetop.
This is one of my favourite tomato recipes. The cherry tomatoes are extra sweet thanks to pan-roasting in olive oil, garlic and salt, they’re imbued with the fragrance and flavour of pan-fried dried herbs, and the delicious juices bursting in the mouth are an explosion of Mediterranean summer flavours. Like this? Try our whipped feta and cucumber salad recipe.
Watermelon Feta Salad Recipe with Red Onion, Mint, Dill and Balsamic
Our easy watermelon feta salad recipe makes a refreshing watermelon salad with salty feta, zingy red onion and fresh fragrant mint and dill. This classic Greek watermelon and feta salad has a little Italian twist, a generous drizzle of Modena balsamic vinegar glaze. It makes a fantastic light lunch or a side to grilled seafood or fish or barbecued meats.
You’ll love this watermelon and feta salad if you made and enjoyed our Cypriot watermelon, tomato and halloumi salad from the Mediterranean island of Cyprus and if you adore that combo of fruit and cheese in salads and starters as much as we do. You do? Then try our Caprese salad of buffalo mozzarella, tomatoes and basil from Southern Italy Capri, another Mediterranean island.
I first shared this watermelon feta salad recipe as part of a series of recipes for salads I’ve had on rotation in Australia in recent months, and includes this Italian melon, buffalo mozzarella and prosciutto salad (a fancier version of prosciutto e melone, the classic aperitivo snack and appetiser from Italy) and this Mediterranean style chicken salad with spring vegetables and a garlicky lemony Middle Eastern dressing.
Watermelon Feta Salad Recipe with Red Onion, Mint, Dill and Balsamic
Greek Salad Recipe for Horiatiki – Traditional Greek Village Salad with Feta
This Greek salad recipe makes horiatiki, a traditional Greek village salad made with Greek feta, tomatoes, cucumbers, capsicums, onions, and Kalamata olives, doused in a simple dressing of Greek extra virgin olive oil and wine vinegar, and a shower of dried oregano. It’s fantastic with everything from grilled seafood to keftedes (Greek meatballs) and souvlaki (grilled skewers ).
And when I say ‘with’ feta, it’s not that feta cheese is an addition. In fact, Greek feta cheese is the star of a classic Greek salad, so much so that it should be called a Greek feta salad, as all the other ingredients play a supporting role. And you must use Greek feta, not Danish feta, otherwise it’s not a Greek salad.
Now having said that, that doesn’t mean that you should buy a good quality Greek feta and purchase inferior ingredients for the rest of the salad. What makes these simple village salads or farmer’s salads so great is using the freshest best quality produce you can find, from vibrant red, sweet and juicy vine-ripened tomatoes to cucumbers so crunchy that they taste just-picked.
Greek Salad Recipe for Horiatiki – Traditional Greek Village Salad with Feta
Greek Salad Bruschetta on Olive Sourdough Bread for a Slice of the Mediterranean
This Greek salad bruschetta made with olive sourdough bread takes us back to languid lunches eaten barefoot at a beachside taverna where a Greek salad was always the first dish ordered. Pile the classic salad ingredients atop toasted slices of homemade olive sourdough, heady with the aromas of olive oil, Kalamata olives and herbs, and you’ve got a snack you’ll want to eat in the sun after a swim.
Terence writes in the post: “As soon as I pulled my first loaf of olive sourdough bread with rosemary, thyme and sweet red capsicum out of the oven, I wanted to take a slice and throw some feta cheese on it. It already had the aromas of what we call a Greek salad or what the Greeks call horiátiki or a village salad, a salad served from spring through to the end of summer when the ingredients are at their best.”
Greek Salad Bruschetta on Olive Sourdough Bread for a Slice of the Mediterranean
Greek Pan Fried Feta Recipe with Honey and Herbs for Feta Saganaki
This recipe for Greek pan fried feta with honey and herbs makes feta saganaki. Fried until crispy and golden brown, the feta cheese is soft inside and gently flavoured and fragrant with Mediterranean herbs. It’s a fantastic snack eaten with warm bread or toasted sourdough, is wonderful with a Greek salad, or served as part of a Greek feast.
If you’re a fan of Greek feta cheese and you’re looking for more things to make with feta cheese than a Greek salad – not that there’s anything wrong with that, we adore a great Greek salad – then try this recipe for Greek pan-fried feta cheese with honey and herbs for feta saganaki. It’s so quick and easy that you’ll be eating it in 20 minutes or less.
You can serve this pan fried feta as a snack – my mother and I have been happily eating it with warmed Turkish bread, but if I was home in Siem Reap with my husband we’d be eating into it with Terence’s sourdough. If you cut thin slices you could eat it with crackers. This is another recipe I’ve adapted (ever so slightly) from the beautiful Greek cookbook Philoxenia, A Seat at My Table by Kon and Sia Karapanagiotidis.
Greek Pan Fried Feta Recipe with Honey and Herbs for Feta Saganaki
Greek Meatballs Recipe for Keftedes – Juicy Meatballs with Greek Herbs
This easy Greek meatballs recipe for keftedes makes juicy meatballs gently infused with quintessential Greek herbs – dried oregano, fresh flat leaf parsley and fresh dill. Made with beef – which could be switched out with a combination of beef and pork or lamb – the meatballs are shallow-fried and served with tzatziki, a Greek salad, and pita bread.
If you’re a fan of meatballs, you’ll love these keftedes or Greek meatballs, which are juicy and gently flavoured with quintessential Greek herbs, but you can spice things up by adding a little ground paprika or chilli flakes to the mix. Shallow-fried, the meatballs are cooked in a pan in minutes and are best when piping hot, although I’m happy to eat them cold.
If you are a meatball lover, we have loads of recipes with meatballs, such as my meatball Stroganoff, these melt-in-the-mouth German meatballs, and our Spanish meatballs, which we serve as part of a Spanish tapas spread. And if you enjoy these Greek meatballs, you’ll love our recipe for Cypriot meatballs, which are what we call same same but different in Southeast Asia.
Greek Meatballs Recipe for Keftedes – Juicy Meatballs with Greek Herbs
Greek Chicken Souvlaki Recipe for Smoky Char-Grilled Marinated Skewers
This chicken souvlaki recipe makes traditional Greek grilled skewers, and it’s one of our best skewers recipes. You could cook the smoky souvlaki on an outdoor barbecue or grill if you’re having a backyard barbecue, but there’s no need to fire up the barbie just for the skewers. I cook these succulent Greek style kebabs on a griddle pan on the stovetop. You could also slide a tray of skewers under an oven-grill (broiler).
Feeding a crowd? Prepare big bowls of salad, dishes of tzatziki, and stacks of pita warmed on the grill (or in the oven) on plates on the table, and serve a tray of chicken souvlaki hot off the grill. Encourage guests to assemble their own chicken souvlaki – while they’re still hot! You could serve mezedes such as this Greek eggplant dip, taramosalata, artichoke dip, this pan fried feta cheese, and these Greek meatballs for guests to nibble on while waiting for the souvlaki.
If you’re a fan of grilled skewers, try our recipes for Middle Eastern beef kofta kebabs and shish tawook garlicky chicken skewers, Thai chicken satay skewers, Cambodian lemongrass beef skewers, and these Cambodian beef and pork belly skewers from Battambang.
Greek Chicken Souvlaki Recipe for Smoky Char-Grilled Marinated Skewers
Please do let us know if you make any of our best Greek recipes, as we love hearing from readers and love to know how our recipes turn out for you. Feel free to share your feedback and tips in the comments below.
