From lazy Sunday afternoons in The Real Greek to lazy entire weeks in the real Greece, I am a fan of Greek food. A few months back I found a Greek cookbook casually lying around the house, and, realising that this was the same cookbook my parents brought me back from a holiday in Greece circa 1999, decided it was about time I finally used it.
I have now discovered the joys of putting feta cheese in eggs, chopping up vegetables and putting them in the oven for ages and ages in a minimal effort but maximum time style of dinner shizzle (slow food is so now), and marvelling at the baffling array of cheese pies detailed within. Also, can I just say FETA CHEESE. As many a regular reader of Single Mum Cooks will know (pardon my insolence in implying that my readers justify a “many”), I like a cheese, and feta is no exception. However, before the discovery of the Ancient Greek cookbook lying in my mother’s book cupboard in between the Strictly Come Dancing Annual 2015 and my father’s baffling copy of My Life by Sir Oswald Moseley (he repeatedly insisted it wasn’t his) I had consistently underestimated the necessity of feta cheese in my life, and many a block of the lovely crumbly stuff had lain untouched and unloved at the back of the fridge, a bit like poor Oswald and his autobiography in any given year past 1939.
Anyway, in honour of all things feta and sort of vaguely Greek, I give you the official Single Mum Cooks Mediterranean Vegetables with Greek Salad.
Ingredients:
For the Mediterranean vegetables
- Garlic
- Aubergine
- Courgette
- Mixed peppers
- Smoked paprika
- Tinned chopped tomatoes
- Olive oil
For the Greek salad
- Cucumber
- Tomatoes
- Black olives
- Red onion
- Feta cheese
- Cider vinegar
- Extra-virgin olive oil
Method:
- Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and add the chopped garlic.
- Add the vegetables one by one, stirring as they saute.
- Sprinkle the mixture with smoked paprika.
- Once the vegetables have softened, add the tinned chopped tomatoes and stir in.
- Leave to simmer until the vegetables are cooked.*
- Meanwhile cook the rice and prepare the salad by chopping cucumber, red onion and fresh tomatoes and mixing in a bowl.
- Add some pitted black olives and crumbled feta to the salad.
- Liberally douse the salad with the cider vinegar and extra-virgin olive oil.
- Serve sprinkled with chopped fresh mint.
Serve the vegetables and salad with rice.
*If you want a really lovely, improved version, you can put the vegetables in a pre-heated oven at 200 degrees at this point and leave for about 20 minutes, but really, who has the time?
So there we have it, Mediterranean vegetables. It’s all about the Mediterranean diet these days, remember, and with this lovely lot we should all be living to 120. Let’s just conveniently forget the acupuncturist who told me a few years back that I ate far too many dairy products as though that was actually a thing that was possible, and whose advice I have gamely ignored ever since.
Mmmm, I LOVE roasted veg – and this way sounds delicious too. I like to have mine with a mound of pasta! xx #foodiefriday
Sounds like a plan-I will have to try it with pasta!
I love cheese and Feta too! And I recently have a renewed love of olives, so this is perfect! I’ve only ever made the Greek salad on its own, so adding this delicious veggie dish with it will make it even more amazing! I’ve so got to try this sometime. Thanks for sharing! #foodiefriday
Thanks for commenting! The veg definitely complements the Greek salad.
Yum, feta roasted veg – delish! I love greek food. The food was the only saving grace on a nightmare holiday with ex-boyfriend. The holiday involved chuckle brothers in the next appartment, storm hitting our boat and torrential rain with HUGE toads. Actually, now I think about it the apartment was a lot like the one from the Inbetweeners movie.
Chuckle Brothers in the next apartment and storms with huge toads? That sounds amazing! Surreal, but definitely interesting. Maybe you should blog about it? x
Oh yes! I love greek food, I swear I was greek in a former life. You can’t beat a good greek salad with loads of feta. Roasted vegetables are also a favourite so this sounds amazing!x #foodiefriday
Me too! Love it. Thanks for commenting.
I literally have every ingredient (apart from the aubergine) so this is happening this week! Although may need to check the date on the cheese 😉
My in laws are in Greece ATM and every message they send I reply ‘Greek Salad’. Fave holiday food ever!
I love a Greek salad! Haha, I always used to struggle with the feta as it would go off so quickly once opened, but I’ve recently discovered it’s fab in loads of things so now I always use it up!
This sounds lovely we have been eating lots of med veg recently i through mine in a dish in the oven, never thought to add feta though we have been having baked fish. I am now adding feta and olives to my shopping list #foodiefriday
I can definitely recommend the feta! Thanks for commenting.
Mmmmmmmmmmm love roasted Mediterranean veg never thought of adding feta before tho – I will be tho !!!
#tribalchat
I can definitely recommend it!
Oooo sounds like a yummy dish and had everything that I love!!
Thanks for linking to #foodiefriday #triballove
Thanks for hosting! x