Traditional Greek Ingredients: Greek Cooking Fundamentals List

Greek cuisine is made up of the ingredients and dishes traditional to the southern European country of Greece. Greek recipes often incorporate seasonal fruits and vegetables, olive oil, meats, fish, and grains. Traditional Greek dishes range from simple meze (appetizers) of feta cheese and olives, to hearty casseroles like moussaka.

With a culinary tradition 4,000 years old, Greece built its cuisine on a foundation of bread, wine, and olive oil. Greek food evolved every time Greece was conquered by other empires who introduced new ingredients and dishes, enhancing the already flavorful cuisine.

Greek flavors also draw from other cultures in the region. With hints of Turkish flavors and shared recipes, like moussaka, Greek dishes are a fusion of flavors. Greece also shares traditional ingredients with its Mediterranean neighbor, Italy, creating some overlap between Greek and Italian cuisine.

From freshly grown produce to Greek-made cheese, Greek cuisine relies heavily on locally-sourced ingredients. In any Greek kitchen, you’ll find most of the following ingredients:

1. 1. Olive oil: If one ingredient could represent all of Greek cuisine, it would be olive oil. There are many varieties that are used for cooking, baking, and simply drizzling over any traditional dish.
2. 2. Olives: Along with olive oil, olives themselves are a staple on any Greek table—particularly the national favorite, kalamata. Stuffed with herbs and spices and marinated in vinegar or oil, olives are added to salad dishes or simply placed in a bowl at the dinner table.
3. 3. Mastic: This crystallized resin from the pistachio tree, called mastiha, is only grown on the Greek island of Chios. It has been used for thousands of years, as both a medicinal treatment and to flavor foods, both sweet and savory.
4. 4. Feta cheese: The national cheese of Greece, feta can only be produced in certain regions of the country. This white, crumbly cheese is made from sheep’s milk, or a combination of sheep’s milk and goat’s milk.
5. 5. Greek honey: Honey is one of the oldest sweeteners in Greece. Its flavor depends on the season and what flowering plants the bees are taking nectar from. Greek honey is used in many dessert recipes, like baklava.
6. 6. Herbs: Like other ingredients, herbs grow easily here thanks to the climate. Greek cuisine incorporates dry herbs in many traditional dishes, with thyme, oregano, mint, and savory as some of the most popular.
7. 7. Fruits: Greece has a year-round growing season and dishes often reflect what is ripe on the vine or tree. From apples in winter to citrus in the summer to berries in the spring, there is no end to the fresh fruits used in recipes or simply eaten after a meal.
8. 8. Legumes: Greek recipes often use native legumes, like fava beans, lentils, chickpeas, and split peas.
9. 9. Fish and seafood: Greece is surrounded on two sides by the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas, which are a source of one of Greek cuisine’s most traditional ingredients: fish. While oily fish, like sardines and anchovies, are a staple, a favorite seafood in Greece is octopus.
10. 10. Yogurt: One of Greece’s most famous culinary exports, Greek yogurt is known for its sour taste and thick consistency.

Greek cookery represents a wide variety of flavors. First, pour a glass of ouzo, an aperitif of distilled spirits, traditionally consumed before eating a meal in Greece. Here are 15 traditional Greek recipes to help you develop a taste of the Mediterranean:

1. 1. Greek salad: This classic, fresh salad can be found on the menus of many restaurants outside of Greece. It is simply feta cheese, tomatoes, red onion, olives, and cucumbers, served without dressing or with a simple vinaigrette.
2. 2. Tzatziki: This cold dip is a mix of Greek yogurt, lemon juice, cucumbers, dill, and garlic.
3. 3. Moussaka: This baked dish is a layered casserole with eggplant, ground beef or lamb, tomato sauce, spices, garlic, onion, and topped with bechamel sauce.
4. 4. Baklava: This slightly sticky, flaky, crispy treat is Greece’s most famous dessert. It can be found in bakeries around the world. Thin phyllo (filo) dough is layered with chopped nuts and Greek honey.
5. 5. Stifado: This stew was brought to Greece by the Venetians. It is made with rabbit, or sometimes beef, along with red wine, pearl onions, tomato, and spices.
6. 6. Rusks: Rusk is a double-baked bread made with barley flour. It is often topped with traditional Greek ingredients, like feta cheese, olives, and olive oil.
7. 7. Dolmades: A dolma is a stuffed dish. Most often, grape leaves are wrapped around a blend of ground meat and rice flavored with oregano, dill, and fennel.
8. 8. Pastitsio: This baked dish is similar to lasagna, with layers of pasta, tomato sauce, ground meat, topped with bechamel.
9. 9. Gyros: Gyros are a popular street food throughout Greece. Lamb cooked on a vertical rotisserie is thinly sliced and placed on pita with onions, lettuce, tomato, and tzatziki.
10. 10. Souvlaki: Chunks of pork, chicken, or lamb are cooked and served on skewers. They are also sometimes served on pita bread. Souvlaki is a popular fast food in Athens.
11. 11. Spanakopita: This spinach pie is a classic savory dish from Greece. Spinach, feta cheese, eggs, and herbs are mixed and baked between two layers of filo pastry.
12. 12. Fava: From the island of Santorini, fava is a creamy purée of yellow split peas or fava beans, with extra virgin olive oil.
13. 13. Dakos: This Cretan salad (from the island of Crete) is a rusk topped with olive oil, tomatoes, cheese, and olives.
14. 14. Saganaki: Graviera cheese is seasoned with salt and pepper, then coated with flour and fried until it is golden brown. It is served, most often, as an appetizer.
15. 15. Meatballs: Meatballs are popular in Greece and are cooked different ways: fried, baked, or in soup. Traditional Greek meatballs (keftedes) are a blend of lamb and beef rolled into balls with garlic, herbs, and eggs, then friend in oil.

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