Traditional Greek Salad

With our little girl well on her way, my husband and I aren’t able to take our yearly trip to Greece to visit his family. As the humid days pass I find myself yearning for all things Greek, the people, the language, the water, the FOOD…

Fortunately, I’m lucky to live in Astoria, Queens where you can get authentic Greek food on almost every avenue and I’ve been taking advantage of it big time, practicing my Greek with the cooks and ordering all my favorites, gigantes (large white beans), Bamies (okra in tomato sauce) and Yemista (stuffed tomatoes and peppers).

But I’ve been making my absolute favorite, the Greek salad at home because it’s more cost effective and because its something that calms me to make. Traditionally, Greek salads don’t have lettuce, they consist of four main ingredients, tomatoes, cucumbers, kalamata olives and feta cheese. The fresher these ingredients are the better the salad will taste. This dish is refreshing to say the least and is the perfect addition to any summer dinner or lunch.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I have been. 🙂

Traditional Greek Salad

Serves 4

• 2 large tomatoes cut into large cubes
• 1 large cucumber sliced
• 1/2 large white onion, sliced
• 1/4 pound feta
• 1/4 cup kalamata olives, pitted
• Olive oil
• Red wine vinegar
• Dried Oregano
• Salt & Pepper

Add all the ingredients together in a medium size bowl and enjoy!

The Best Sweet Potato Fries Ever

Sweet potato fries are a weekly must have around my apartment and after many years of making them, we’d like to think we have perfected the recipe. 🙂

They are simple to put together and have a sweet yet savory taste that is amazing.

Plus they only take 25 minutes to cook, which is double amazing.

*Feel free to cut them thinner if that’s your preference but make sure to flip them about every 7 minutes to keep them from becoming burnt if you do.

The Best Sweet Potato Fries Ever

• 3 large sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced thick
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil, melted
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano

Preheat oven to 410 degrees and line 2 baking sheets with aluminum foil.

In a medium size bowl, toss the sweet potatoes and coconut oil together.

Then add the garlic powder, salt and pepper and toss well to coat each fry.

Place fries on baking sheets making sure to leave space between each one so that they have room to become crispy.

Cook sweet potatoes for 25 minutes, flip the fries at minute 10 and at minute 20 flip them again and also sprinkle them with the oregano, allowing them to cook the last 5 minutes with the oregano flavor.

Enjoy!