A Few Things on Cooking and the Recipes to Come

Since this is my first blog on Vegan Travel I thought I’d share some information about myself, about cooking and about Greece!

Growing up in Greece in the 80’s

I love food, I love cooking but I am not a cook by profession. I grew up in Greece in the 80’s where everything was and still is centred around food; family life is organised around meals, social life does not happen unless there is a meal involved, food is everywhere.

Grandmothers, who took care of us back then, had survived the Second World War and the civil war afterwards; they had been through hardships and famine. So naturally the prosperity of the times was a blessing; us kids of the 80’s being “blessed with enough food”, we had to keep on eating no matter the time of the day or our hunger levels. It was all about food, its excess or the lack of it.

Greece in the 80’s was full of independent little food stores, big Super Market chains and Malls did not exist at all. Only those of us living in Athens had the privilege of visiting a Super Market for the weekly groceries, this was the novelty of the times. I would follow mum on her shopping rounds, as we would still buy most of the fresh produce directly from the specialist. Back then there was no option but to devote time on food shopping, cooking and eating. Nowadays, you can skip a lot of the steps but I am convinced things have changed for the worst. Super Markets are everywhere, small independent shops are fewer, shopping for fresh, good quality produce needs more time and money, and fewer people cook at home.

So I am here to communicate home cooking, artisan produce, and a more sustainable diet based on Greek gastronomy; things that directly or indirectly shaped a happy childhood, a childhood centred around food!

Greek Gastronomy – Supporting a Vegan diet

Greek gastronomy holds a large number of recipes that are ideal for vegan diets. The many religious influences and the long fasting periods that the Greek Christian Orthodox religion commands are in part responsible for this. Many of the recipes I will be sharing here have originally been developed in monasteries. Religious influence or not though, the important thing is that Greek gastronomy holds the solution to a more sustainable way of eating!

I ‘d love to share this so lets cook some wonderful vegan recipes using good quality produce. Cooking starts outside our homes, when shopping for ingredients and even before that …when we think about what we will prepare, so in effect we have already started the process!

We will be using a lot of herbs, dried and fresh, a lot of extra virgin olive oil, sea salt, and good quality aged vinegar. Stock up on those and plant some herbs if you can, these are easy enough to grow and extremely useful in the kitchen, especially if you are preparing greek dishes!

I will write about Greek pies and filo pastry, vegetable stews and traditional dishes with pulses, stuffed veggies and also some classic dishes with tips for vegan versions.

I am really glad I will be sharing the recipes and flavors of my childhood and I am looking forward to receiving feedbacks and comments. Please see my next post for a garlicky beetroot dish!

Lovely to be here.

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