Diana Laskaris

In Food

Dutch Oven Bread

There’s nothing quite like a homemade bread recipe that makes it easy to create delicious bread without kneading or crazy ingredients. That’s why we love this super easy recipe that’s about as simple as it gets.

A Simple Homemade Bread Recipe

Our homemade bread recipe uses only four ingredients! It is so easy you’ll find yourself making bread all the time. Homemade bread is so delicious and it’s great when you know exactly what is in it.

You Don’t Need A Dutch Oven

We use the term Dutch oven bread, but it’s not necessarily baking bread in a Dutch oven. If you have a Dutch oven, that heavy cast iron pot that so many people love, that’s great. But if you don’t there’s no need to worry. You can make our homemade bread recipe in an enameled pot or any large heavy pot that can go into the oven. That’s part of the fun and flexibility of making our bread at home.

We tested this recipe out a few ways before sharing it with you. We wanted to make it a “foolproof” homemade bread recipe.

So, we made it three different ways. And guess what happened? Our Dutch oven bread came out perfect all three times. That’s what we call a winner, so now we’re ready to share our Dutch oven bread recipes with you.

We made our Dutch oven bread with ingredients we have in our pantry: flour, salt, yeast, and water. We know some ingredients can be hard to get right now. So we’ve made our Dutch oven bread three different ways. it should still make glorious bread for you.

Bread Three Ways

Our three types of Dutch oven bread were made with 1. regular all-purpose flour, 2. bread flour, and 3. with sourdough starter rather than yeast. If you like sourdough, you’ll love our Dutch oven sourdough bread too. Each time, the bread came out great but a little different.

The recipe made regular all-purpose flour came out with a dense crumb and crunchy crust. The loaf we made using bread flour came out lighter and softer. The crust had a little crunch to it, but the loaf was more light and chewy than the dense and crispy all-flour bread.

Dutch Oven Sourdough Bread

Because yeast can sometimes be hard to find, we’ve also made a version using a sourdough starter, which provides the leavening instead of yeast. If you already have a starter made, you’re ready to go. If not, there are lots of places on the web that can show you how to do it like these instructions for sourdough starter from King Arthur flour (no affiliate link, we just like their instructions).

So if you’re looking for something fun to do in the kitchen, try our recipes and let us know how it goes. The all-purpose flour and bread flour recipe are exactly the same. We will point out any differences in the sourdough bread recipe below.

Dutch Oven Bread Recipes

If this is your first time making bread, rejoice! We’ve made these bread recipes several times and each one has come out just perfect. It’s more a matter of what style of bread you prefer or what ingredients you have on hand. Whichever you make it will be delicious.

Dutch Oven Bread In Any Oven Safe Pot — Dutch Oven Bread In Oven Safe Pot

Ingredients

1 teaspoon instant yeast (any variety will work)
3 cups of flour, can be All-Purpose (bleached or unbleached) or bread flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups lukewarm (about 110 Degrees F) distilled or spring water (chlorine tends to come through in the flavor)

Yes, that’s really all there is to it. If you want to make the Sourdough version, use:

3/4 cups unfed sourdough starter instead of yeast
3 1/2 cups of flour teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups lukewarm distilled or spring water

Directions

1. Mix flour, yeast, and salt together in a large bowl then add water. If making Sourdough bread, mix starter and water first, then add flour and salt. Blend by hand or with a fork until it just comes together.
The dough may feel a little gummy and that’s okay. Don’t add more flour or it will become too stiff.
Sourdough may be more doughlike and less wet, that is fine.

You Can Score The Dough If You Want A Design

2. Cover the bowl with a towel and let it sit in a warm (not too cold or hot place) for about 8 hours, more or less depending on the temperature, until the dough rises, about doubling in volume.

4. Cut a large piece of parchment paper that will be long enough to hold the dough and stick up high enough for you to use it to safely place the dough into the pot.
5. While the pot is heating, sprinkle flour on a smooth surface like your counter or a large cutting board and sprinkle some flour on your hands as well.
6. Scrape the dough out of the bowl and shape it into a ball by folding the sides inward underneath. There will be a seam along the bottom where you pulled in the dough to form the ball.

7. Place the dough ball, seam side down, on the center of the parchment paper and cover with a towel. If making sourdough, let rise a second time for another two hours, and in the last 30 minutes proceed to the next step.

Time To Cook

8. Heat the oven to 450 degrees, move the rack to the bottom 1/3 of the oven, and place a large Dutch oven, enameled, or oven-proof pot on the rack with the lid on. Let it heat for at least 30 minutes.
9. When the pot is hot, carefully pull out the rack and remove the lid. Be sure to use oven mitts so as not to burn your hands or arms on the hot pot or lid.
10. Carefully lower the dough ball and the parchment paper together into the center of the pot.
11. Put the lid back on the pot and bake for 30 minutes. During this time the covered loaf will cook with steam.
12. After 30 minutes remove the lid carefully and cook for another 10 to 15 minutes or until the crust turns golden brown.

13. When the bread is ready, remove the pot from the oven. Remove the bread using the parchment and oven mitts to be careful not to burn your hands or arms and place the loaf on a rack and let it cool for another 15 minutes until ready to slice.

14. When the bread has cooled slightly, give yourself a reward by slicing off a piece and dipping in olive oil or spreading on some butter. Enjoy!

If you want to have fun with more pantry cooking ingredients check out our Stale Bread Recipes: Panzanella and Traditional Cuban Rice Moros Y Cristianos.

In Food

Israeli Couscous

By Diana Laskaris

Israeli Couscous By Any Other Name

Israeli Couscous is popular in many countries. It also goes by many names. Mograbieh (which means “from Morocco”) is the Lebanese version. Israeli cooks most often call it ptitim. Some places know it as Jerusalem couscous or sometimes Ben-Gurion’s Rice. The United States and other places name it pearl couscous or large or even giant couscous.

All of these names represent the type of pasta that is shaped in little balls that are used similarly to a grain. Cooking Israeli couscous is very simple and it’s incredibly versatile.

Israeli Couscous History

The history of ptitim is actually quite interesting. Israel rationed food products after the War of Independence in the 1950s when the country was founded. Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion chose Osem, one of the newly formed country’s largest food producers, to create an inexpensive starch that citizens could easily afford and use. The manufacturer created a pasta first in the shape of rice granules and then dried and toasted them.

The shapes evolved over time to resemble a bulgur and wheat flour-based Palestinian couscous called maftoul, and tiny toasted pellet-shaped egg noodles called farfel from Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine. Ptitim most often takes the shape of little round ball or pearls so marketers in the United States often label it pearl couscous. Israeli couscous is a staple in many kitchens and a favorite comfort food for many home cooks as well as restaurant chefs around the world.

Delicious Dishes

Roast some of your favorite vegetables and add them to cooked ptitim.

You can also make the Israeli couscous and then cool it off. Add some fresh fruit, cheese, and herbs for a delightful cold dish.

Some people add dried fruit and small diced veggies or herbs to make a lovely salad.

A popular dish uses ptitim as a base and tops it with cooked chicken, chickpeas, clarified butter, onions, and a gravy full of Middle Eastern spices.

Use It Like Pasta Or Rice

You can also of Israeli couscous as a fun and different replacement for typical pasta or rice. Make a pearl couscous and then top it with your favorite vegetables or sauce for a homestyle family treat.

Or dress up your Israeli couscous by putting it in a mold and giving it an elegant presentation. It can be a lovely appetizer as well as a side dish or an entree. It all depends on what you add to it.

Cooking Israeli Couscous

Cooking Israeli couscous is easy. It usually comes in a container or bag in its dry form. That means it can stay on your pantry shelf for a good long time, great for keeping as a staple when you want something a little different.

To prepare it, you have two choices.

Cook Like Pasta

Cook it like pasta. Fill a pot with water and bring the water to a boil.

Add some olive oil and salt to the water.
Measure out your desired amount of Israeli couscous. A typical dish will use 1 cup of dry pearls.
Turn heat to low, cover and simmer for 8 to 12 minutes.

Test the texture to be sure you like it. Some prefer it soft others like it al dente.
Drain off the water, fluff with a fork, and let the Israeli couscous sit for 5 minutes.

You Can Eat It Plain With A Little Olive Oil

Cook Like Rice

In this instance, you’ll use 1 1/2 cups of water for 1 cup of dry pearls.

Boil the water. Add some olive oil and salt.
Add the Israeli couscous.
Turn to low and simmer for 8 to 12 minutes until water is absorbed.

Some pearls take more or less water. Pour off any excess once the pearls are cooked to your taste.
Fluff with fork, and let sit for 5 minutes.

Let Your Imagination Soar

Here are a few ideas for serving Israeli couscous.

Roast some vegetables and serve on top.
Make chicken kebabs and serve with Israeli couscous.

Use it as filling in gemista stuffed vegetables.
Toast some almonds in a skillet with butter and pour over couscous.
Make your favorite pasta sauce and serve over Israeli couscous.

Add vegetables, dried fruits, nuts, rotisserie chicken, or other meat and toss until well mixed and warm.
Cut some fruit vegetables and baby greens, add to cold cooked Israeli couscous, and dress with lemon and olive oil for a refreshing salad.

As you can see Israeli couscous is a fun, different, and deliciously versatile staple you can add to your pantry.

For other pantry cooking ideas check out our Orzo Pasta Ideas and Recipes and Canned Tuna Recipes.

In Food

Gemista – Stuffed Vegetables

By Diana Laskaris

Gemista means “filled with” in Greek. It generally represents a whole host of stuffed vegetables like peppers, tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant, and others. Gemista is one of our favorite bell pepper recipes. But we also love to make other stuffed vegetables.

Best Stuffed Peppers

Healthy stuffed peppers are great tasting and easy to make. You can make Greek stuffed peppers or Italian stuffed peppers by simply shifting the spices and cheese a little. Vegetarian stuffed peppers or vegan stuffed peppers are super easy. You can choose the stuffing of your choice.

Fill As You Like

Rice, quinoa, barley, couscous, orzo, breadcrumbs or other grains or small pasta make a great stuffing. Add some veggies for healthy stuffed peppers.

Make ground turkey stuffed peppers or add any ground meat you like for the best stuffed peppers that fill you up at any meal.

Use Your Favorite Stuffable Vegetables

If you don’t feel like peppers, you can make other stuffed vegetables. Greek stuffed tomatoes are a favorite. But you can use eggplants, zucchini, or other vegetables just as well.

To stuff the vegetables, you can either slice in half or take off the top. Either way, you want to create some space for the stuffing.

Some people like their stuffed vegetables plain. Others like to sprinkle with buttered breadcrumbs and some cheese.

Gemista In The Oven

We like to roast our Gemista in the oven. We use a water bath to create some steam and allow the stuffing to get nice and set. You can do this whether you want vegetarian stuffed peppers, vegan stuffed peppers or ground turkey stuffed peppers or any stuffed vegetables.

Bell Pepper Recipes

It’s fun to create the best stuffed peppers using whatever ingredients you have on hand. Sometimes we add a little tomato sauce and basil to a mixture of ground turkey and orzo for delicious Italian stuffed peppers.

Other times we add rice, kalamata olives, and feta cheese to create Greek stuffed peppers. You can use the same combination to make Greek stuffed tomatoes.

Stuffed Peppers & Vegetables

However you make your Gemista, it’s fun to make a meal that incorporates veggies in a healthy way. Here’s our take on this classic Mediterranean dish, but feel free to add some twists of your own.

Fill With Beef Turkey Tuna Pork Or Other Ground Meat

Gemista Stuffed Vegetables Recipe

We’ll show you how to make this recipe for two vegetables, but you can make as many as you like.

Ingredients

2 large vegetables for stuffing, choose from bell peppers, tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant, and others
1/2 to 1 cup cooked grain or small pasta like couscous or orzo (1 cup if making vegetarian stuffed peppers, 1/2 if using meat too)
1/2 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tablespoon dry parsley
1/2 to 1 cup ground turkey, beef, pork or other ground meat (1/2 if using grain too)
1 teaspoon dried oregano (for Greek) or basil (for Italian)
1/2 cup other shredded or small diced vegetables, if desired. This can include zucchini, eggplant, potatoes, carrots, etc.
1 teaspoon tomato paste (can use sauce if you don’t have paste)
3 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Breadcrumbs and/or shredded cheese to top, optional
Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Slice vegetable in half or take off the top to make a “cap” and scoop out inner pulp to make room for stuffing.

Make grain or pasta according to the directions on the box. You can also use prepared stuffing mix for vegetarian stuffed peppers or to add to meat.
Heat the olive oil in a skillet and add chopped onions. Cook until soft, about 3-4 minutes.
Add garlic and cook for 1 minute until fragrant.

Put any shredded or diced veggies you want to include in the pan and stir until soft.
Add ground meat to the pan and cook until brown (if using meat).
Add tomato sauce or puree.

Incorporate cooked grain or pasta into the meat mixture. If not using meat, just add to onions and vegetables.
Fill hollowed vegetables with stuffing. Top with breadcrumbs and/or cheese if you like.
Add about 1/2 inch of water to baking dish.

Set stuffed vegetables in a baking dish. If you have “caps” place those on top.
Place baking dish in the oven and cook for 45 minutes or until vegetables are soft and top of stuffing is crisp.

If you’re looking for other easy and healthy recipes check out our Stale Bread Panzanella and Veggie Noodles Like Zucchini Spaghetti.

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In Appetizers

Stale Bread Recipes: Panzanella

By Diana Laskaris

These days if the refrigerator is low on fresh items, we look to our pantry to see what’s there. Chances are you may have some bread. Even if it’s not fresh or hard as a rock, we can help with some great stale bread recipes.

Easy Stale Bread Recipes

Whether you’ve baked some fresh bread or have some bread leftover, some creative stale bread recipes are easy and delicious. You may be surprised to know that bread is one of the most wonderful salad ingredients. Of course, you can use it to make croutons. But why not take it up a level?

Bread Salad

One of our favorite easy salad recipes is a Panzanella recipe. Panzanella is a bread salad from Italy. People outside of Italy make it too, using their own salad ingredients.

You can pretty much use any produce or vegetables you have around. A traditional Panzanella recipe will use ingredients that are found around Italian kitchens like tomatoes, basil, and Parmesan cheese.

Salad Ingredients

But let your imagination and your own ingredients be your guide. Some people like to dress up their salad ingredients with fruit like oranges or watermelon.

Easy Salad Recipes

Others make easy salad recipes using tomatoes, cucumbers, and onions.

If you want, you can roast some vegetables like tomatoes or red peppers.

You can tear your bread into pieces or cut it into cubes.

Toasting it makes a great bread salad too.

Toasted Bread Is Great For A Panzanella Recipe

Some people like to make thick bread crumbs for their Panzanella recipe.

A fun way to serve Panazanela is to put the salad ingredients and the bread right inside the hollowed-out loaf. There are many creative stale bread recipes you can make with these salad ingredients.

Make A Panzanella Salad Recipe Inside A Whole Loaf

Panzanella Bread Salad

Here’s our take on one of our favorite stale bread recipes.

Easy Stale Bread Recipes Like Panzanella

Ingredients

4 cups bread, cubed, shredded, hand-torn, whatever you prefer
1/2 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon granulated garlic
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon dried basil or 1 1/2 Tablespoons fresh basil, plus more for garnish (or other herbs as desired)
1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese (or other cheese like feta or goat cheese if desired)
4 cups salad ingredients of produce, vegetables, fruits as you prefer.

Popular salad ingredients in Panzanella include tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, and olives. But use what you have and like.
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Place bread pieces in large bowl
2. If bread is extra hard, add some water to dampen, cover with plastic wrap and heat in the microwave in 10-second increments until it softens to your desired texture. You can also soak in water and olive oil for a few hours.
3. Blend olive oil, vinegar, garlic, onion, and basil or other herbs until combined.
4. Pour oil mixture over bread pieces and toss bread until coated.

5. Chop vegetables, produce, and/or fruits into bite-sized pieces. Combine salad ingredients with bread pieces and toss.
6. Add vinegar and toss. If too dry, add more olive oil and vinegar in a ratio of 2 to 1.
7. Add shredded Parmesan and toss.
8. Put mixture into bowl or on plates.
9. Top Panzanella with more cheese, fresh herbs, or other desired garnish.

Pantry Cooking Ideas

If you like our stale bread recipes and Panzanella recipe for using what you have in your pantry, check out some of our other pantry cooking recipes like Canned Chicken Recipes and Canned Tuna Recipes.

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In Food

Orzo Pasta Ideas And Recipes

By Diana Laskaris

Orzo pasta is delicious and versatile. It’s a small pasta that looks like long grain rice. In fact, you can actually use it for many dishes in the same way you would either pasta or rice.

But it’s got a lot of wonderful properties that make it perfect as a side dish, mixed with vegetables, chicken, shrimp, or just about whatever you have and what sounds good to you.

Orzo Recipes And Ideas

Greek orzo makes many popular dishes such as the famous avgolemono (egg lemon) soup.

Orzo Pasta Chicken Egg And Lemon For Famous Greek Avgolemono Soup

And adding orzo pasta to a Greek salad gives it even more depth as the orzo absorbs all of the lovely flavors.

Orzo recipes can be as easy or complex as you like. Orzo itself is plain, so you can spice it to make different flavors.

Add it like orzo rice to a Mexican albondigas soup.

Use It As Orzo Rice For Mexican Albondigas Soup

Add some kalamata olives and chicken for a Mediterranean dish.

Get as creative as you like. Orzo pasta is good whether it is served cold or hot.

Add your favorite veggies to make a delicious and filling vegetarian meal.

Dress Up Orzo Pasta With Grilled Veggies

Chicken goes great with orzo too.

You can make wonderful chicken soup by adding orzo pasta.

Or just make a veggie orzo soup.

Veggie Orzo Pasta Soup Is A Real Tummy Warmer

We’re going to make a simple orzo pasta recipe that you can make in a single skillet. Ours is a lemon orzo with veggies, sprinkled with some feta cheese. You can add chicken or other protein you like. Recipes for orzo are very flexible. So experiment a little and make some orzo recipes of your own.

Easy Lemon Orzo Pasta With Vegetables

This is one of our favorite orzo recipes. It’s easy and flexible. You can use whatever vegetables you like or have on hand. Spinach, kale, broccoli, peas, eggplant, tomatoes, and many others. We’re also going to add some cannellini beans to ours for a boost. Any beans would work.

INGREDIENTS

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 cup cannellini or other canned beans
1 lemon, sliced
2 tablespoons butter
1 large clove garlic, minced
1 cup orzo pasta
1/2 cup dry white wine
2 1/4 cups low sodium chicken broth
2 cups broccoli florets, peas, or torn spinach, kale, or other veggies or greens
3 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon dried dill or 1 Tablespoon fresh dill
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Heat the olive oil and butter in a large skillet on medium-high heat.
2. Add the lemon slices. Sear the lemon until it gets golden brown, turning so that it cooks on each side, about 2 minutes. Remove the lemon from the pan and set aside.
3. To the same skillet, add the broccoli or other larger vegetables to pan and steam until slightly softened. Remove and set aside with the lemon. If you are using greens, you can skip this step.
3. To the same skillet, add the garlic and orzo. Stir and cook until the garlic is fragrant and the orzo is toasted, about 3 minutes.

4. Add the wine to the skillet and de-glaze the pan, scraping up all the crunchy bits. Add the broth and lemon juice. If using greens, add them at this time. Bring the mixture to a boil over high heat and stir until liquid begins to absorb.
5. If using larger vegetables, add them to the pan and mix in with orzo and stir until liquid is absorbed and orzo is softened like “al dente” pasta.
6. Add lemon slices to the pan and re-warm for a minute or two.
7. Place a serving of orzo pasta and vegetables on to each plate. Top with a lemon slice.
8. Sprinkle with dill and feta cheese.

You can also add cooked chicken, shrimp, or other protein if you like. Serve on its own or with a side salad and crusty garlic toast.

For more ideas and recipes to help with your pantry cooking, try our Shawarma or Gyros Pita, or Ultimate Egg Sandwich Recipe.

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In Breakfast

Ultimate Egg Sandwich Recipe

By Diana Laskaris

We love a good egg sandwich. These delicious classic eats have been around for ages. Many people have an egg sandwich for breakfast. But we know they are delicious at any time of day. You can eat a fried egg sandwich with lettuce and tomato. Or try a scrambled egg sandwich with bacon and cheese.

However you like to eat your egg sandwich, we have some ideas for how to make it special.

So Many Ways To Make An Egg Sandwich

The heavenly combination in New York is an egg-bacon-cheese combination on a bagel.

California boasts an open-faced egg sandwich on whole-grain bread with some smashed avocado.

Ethnic eats don’t get left behind if you add tons of yummy veggies with your eggs in a pita.

Add Some Veggies And Put It In a Pita Pocket

Of course, we don’t think there’s anything wrong with the classic white bread toasted to perfection.

Our ultimate egg sandwich recipe is good for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

Depending upon your appetite, you can serve it with a side salad or fries to make a complete meal.

Or just let it shine and be the star of the show.

We love the way our egg sandwich allows us to do whatever we feel at the time.

Serve it on a toasted bun.

Or if you have some crusty bread, that makes a wonderful egg sandwich too.

Have It Your Way

The point is, there’s no right or wrong way to make an egg sandwich. So our ultimate egg sandwich recipe will give you the easiest way to make a delicious classic egg sandwich. And we’ve put a lot of photos into this post to give you some ideas. We’ll even mention a few more as we go along.

Ultimate Egg Sandwich Recipe

We’ll give you some ideas here, but feel free to adjust however you like.

Ingredients

2 slices of bread, bagel, crusty roll, or pita
Butter, softened or olive oil for toasting bread and frying egg
1 or 2 whole eggs
A slice of cheddar, American, Swiss, Havarti, or other cheese
2 slices bacon, ham, or sausage, (skip or use veggies or avocado if you prefer)
1 or 2 slices of tomato
Lettuce, sprouts, or skip if you prefer
Mustard if you like

Put Some Ham And Cheese On It egg sandwich — Put Some Ham And Cheese On It

Directions

1. Heat a non-stick skillet on medium.

2. Cook bacon, sausage, ham, or other meat according to directions, if desired. Clean the skillet before using for bread and eggs.

3. Butter both slices of bread on one side, or if using bagel or roll, toast in a toaster or toaster oven if you want toasted.

4. Place bread butter side down in pan. Place a slice of cheese on one side of toast and toast until bread lightly golden brown and cheese is slightly melted.

5. Remove and set on a serving plate.

Egg Sandwich On Kaiser Roll With Avocado And Scrambled Egg

For A Fried Egg Sandwich

6. Add 1 Tablespoon of butter or olive oil to the skillet and reduce heat too medium-low.
7. When butter is melted or oil is hot, crack the egg on the counter, then hold over the skillet and spread two sides of the shell to let the egg yolk and white fall into the pan. Do this for two eggs if you are hungry.

You Can Make Your Egg Sandwich Open Face

8. Heat the egg until the white becomes solid white and the clear white around the yolk is no longer clear. If you want your egg more done, you can also flip your egg and heat slightly on the other side for “over easy.” If you prefer not to have a runny yolk, you can cook for a little longer to make it “over medium.” Be sure to keep an eye on the yolk, which you will see change from a darker yellow to lighter yellow through the cooked egg white. The lighter the color, the more cooked the yolk is.

9. Use the spatula to place the egg on the slice of bread without the cheese.
10. Add tomato, lettuce, vegetables, avocado, mustard, or whatever you like on top of the egg.
11. Turn over the slice of bread with the cheese and gently top the sandwich, taking care not to break the yolk (it’s more fun to do this when you bite in!)
12. Serve with your choice of sides, such as French fries, green salad, fruit salad, potato or tortilla chips.

That Biscuit Looks Goodegg sandwich — That Biscuit Looks Good

A Few Other Ideas

Now that you know exactly how to make a fabulous egg sandwich, you can try a few other options if you want. Here are some ideas.

Feel free to scramble the egg for a scrambled egg sandwich if you prefer.
Add some slices of smoked salmon and use cream cheese. Top with capers and chives.
Serve inside a pita pocket with lots of delicious grilled vegetables.

Use some peppery fresh arugula with shaved radishes, carrots, Parmesan cheese, and pickled beets on a rustic roll.

English Muffins Are Yummyegg sandwich — English Muffins Are Yummy

6. Make a garlic aioli with mayo, garlic, and lemon to use instead of mustard.

7. Add a slice of smoked turkey or fried chicken beneath your egg.

8. Top with some homemade gravy and serve on a buttermilk biscuit.

9. Use an English muffin with Canadian bacon and cheese.

Broken Yolk Is Tasty And Fun egg sandwich — Broken Yolk Is Tasty And Fun

There are so many ways to make and enjoy your own ultimate egg sandwich. Let us know what you decide!

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In Food

Shawarma Or Gyros Pita

By Diana Laskaris

Greeks and people all over the world love the classic street food gyros pita. Some of the best Greek gyros we’ve had were in Paris! Traditional Greek gyros come from a combination of meats put together on a vertical spit that is then sliced off. But you can easily make homemade gyros with a little creativity and some good spices. You can also make chicken gyros, pork gyros, or use beef, lamb, or even veggies with our flexible gyro recipe.

Shawarma vs Gyro

Sometimes you might like a little different taste, so you can shift just a little to create shawarma ingredients. The question of shawarma vs gyro really amounts to different shawarma spices. We’ll give you some combinations for both a gyro recipe and shawarma ingredients so you can make one or both whenever you like.

To make it super easy for you, we skip using a marinade and rely on spices to flavor your main ingredients. We often find that we may have some leftover meat like pork or chicken that we can simply spice and heat to make a crispy yummy chicken gyro or pork gyros for a quick, easy and delicious leftover meal.

Traditional Gyros

Traditional Greek gyros pita sandwiches are often served with a tzatziki sauce like the one we showed you with our Keftedes Greek meatballs recipe.

If you want to change gyros pita into shawarma, using some tahini sauce instead will help finish it off right. Tahini is a ground sesame paste. If you don’t have any tahini on hand, you can substitute a little hummus and that will taste great too. Or, you can always just use some tzatziki sauce. It’ll be our secret.

Eat Your Veggies

For vegetarians, you can spice your veggies with the same seasonings, shawarma vs gyro. The spices you choose will give your veggies those delicious Mediterranean flavors. You can also use any veggies you have on hand to top your gyros or shawarma. Tomatoes, onions, cucumber, lettuce, mixed veggies of all sorts go great. Use whatever you like or have available.

And, if you don’t have pita bread, you can use a tortilla or wrap to make a gyros wrap or shawarma wrap sandwich instead.

No Pita, No Problem- Use A Tortilla Or Wrap

If you want to cut down on the bread, just tear a pocket pita in half, the whole round way, and use it to place your Greek gyros or shawarma ingredients on top.

Split A Pocket Pita If You Want Less Bread

Or skip the bread altogether and make a delicious gyro or shawarma platter.

We learned a special treat in the Latin Quarter of Paris from Mason Du Gyros. Extra Pita Greek is a gyros pita that comes with French fries stuffed inside along with everything else. If that’s something that appeals to you, give it a try. You won’t be disappointed!

Homemade Gyros

Homemade gyros are much easier than you may think. Our gyro recipe goes for the basic flavors saving you tons of time and ingredients to use what you have for a tasty meal. We’ll show you a quick and easy way to make tasty Greek gyros.

Make Your Choice

We’ll also show you how to make shawarma just by changing over to shawarma ingredients and shawarma spices with small changes.

Don't Forget to Warm The Pita — Don’t Forget to Warm The Pita

Chicken shawarma is a favorite recipe and a great way to use up some leftover rotisserie chicken.

Gyros pita is a crowd-pleaser and an easy way to make a fast meal that tastes like it took much more time.

Shawarma Or Gyros Pita

This recipe is more of a guideline than a specific recipe. Use whatever meat or veggies you have on hand.

Ingredients And Greek Gyros Spices

1 pound of meat or vegetables, sliced, cubed, or ground meat
Extra Virgin Olive Oil for cooking meat or vegetables
Pita bread, tortilla, wrap or fresh veggies on a platter
Tzatziki sauce

For the spices, use 1 teaspoon each of the following dried herbs and spices:
Granulated garlic
Granulated onion
Oregano
Marjoram
Rosemary
Parsley
Paprika
Ground pepper to taste

Shawarma Spices

If you’re going to make shawarma vs gyros, use this spice combination instead:

1 teaspoon of each of the following:

Ground allspice
Ground cinnamon
Dried parsley
Ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
Ground pepper to taste

Tahini sauce for serving

Directions

Make your spice mix and put it into a plastic bag. Then slice or cube your meat and put it in the plastic bag and massage spices into the meat. This works whether your meat is fresh or pre-cooked. We like to slice ours thin so some get a little crispy on the outside. Add a little olive oil to the spice mix to help it stick to the meat. Do the same if you are cooking vegetables.
Heat oil in a skillet on medium
Add seasoned meat or vegetables to skillet and stir fry until cooked all the way through.
Warm pita in the oven.
Place cooked meat or veggies in the center of pita. Top with tomatoes, onions, feta, tzatziki, or other veggies of choice for gyros pita. Top with veggies and tahini or hummus for shawarma.
Fold sides of pita to the middle and wrap in foil or parchment or serve flat or on a platter of fresh veggies, as you prefer.

Easy Shawarma Or Gyro Recipe

That’s pretty much all there is to this easy gyro recipe. Play with it based on the ingredients you have and like. We’d love to know whether you prefer shawarma vs gyros, or if you’re a fan of both, like us.

For other easy recipes with an ethnic twist, try our Cheese Quesadilla Recipe, Traditional Cuban Rice Moros Y Cristianos, and Easy Shakshuka Recipe.

And don’t forget to catch our daily Facebook videos where we show you how to make these recipes and give you even more ideas. Just follow @FoodTravelist on Facebook and share your requests!

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In Food

Easy Eggplant Parmesan

By Diana Laskaris

Eggplant Parmesan is total comfort food. It’s delicious and flexible. There are lots of different ways to make this wonderful Italian dish.

You can bake eggplant parmesan in the oven for a baked eggplant parmesan casserole.

Individual Servings Using Small Eggplants

You can make parmesan eggplant stacks using breaded eggplant.

Or if you’re looking for something with fewer calories, you can grill the eggplant.

You can make baked eggplant stacks without using breaded eggplant and just sprinkle some cheese for a lighter version too.

You can make an easy eggplant parmesan recipe with just a few ingredients like mozzarella and parmesan cheese and a prepared marinara sauce.

Or you can go all out baking eggplant parmesan casserole in your oven.

Our easy eggplant parmesan recipe gives you plenty of options. We love eggplant recipes that provide some ideas and then let you put your own spin on it. So that’s what we’re offering you here.

Easy Eggplant Parmesan

You can pan-fry the eggplant breaded or not, grill it, or bake it in the oven. This is one of the most flexible eggplant recipes we know so make it the way you like best. We’ll show you the traditional method and you can take it from there.

Ingredients

1 large eggplant, sliced into rounds about 1/2 inch thick
1 cup bread crumbs, plain or Italian spices. If you like extra crispy, use Panko bread crumbs. You can also add your own spices like mixed Italian herbs or basil, oregano, and garlic.
2 eggs, beaten
Marinara sauce of your choice
1-2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded or fresh mozzarella, sliced
1/2 cup grated or shredded Parmesan cheese
Salt for sweating eggplant
Salt and pepper to taste
Fresh herbs for garnish like basil or parsley, optional
Olive oil for pan-frying

Directions

1. Slice eggplant into rounds. Sprinkle lots of salt on both sides of the eggplant and place on paper towels or in a colander. Let sit for 30-45 minutes to allow the salt to “sweat” the eggplant. When moisture has formed beads of liquid on the eggplant, rinse and dry.
2. Heat oil about 1/4 inch deep in a large skillet over medium
3. Put Parmesan cheese into breadcrumbs and mix until incorporated evenly
4. Place herbed breadcrumbs with Parmesan in one low bowl and beaten eggs into another.
5. Dredge eggplant slices first in the egg, then in the breadcrumbs to coat.
6. Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
7. Place breaded eggplant into pan and fry until soft and golden on each side, about 4 minutes each side.

8. Drain the eggplant on paper towels then place them in one layer in a 9 x 13 baking dish.
9. Top the eggplant with marinara sauce.
10. Then sprinkle mozzarella cheese over the sauce.
11. If you have extra eggplant make a second layer and cover again with sauce and cheese.
12. Place in preheated oven and bake for 30 minutes or until cheese melts and gets some slightly browning bubbles.
Garnish if you like with fresh herbs and serve.

Eggplant Parm Sandwich Or Breaded Eggplant Burger

Have Fun With Eggplant Recipes

If you want you can make eggplant stacks and rather than baking eggplant Parmesan casserole in the oven, you can use just melt some of the cheese in a toaster oven or microwave. As mentioned, you can grill the eggplant rather than fry. Or use the eggplant to make an eggplant Parmesan sandwich or eggplant burger. Have fun making this eggplant parmesan recipe however you like.

For other easy recipes check out our Keftedes Greek Meatballs or Vegetable Pasta Primavera.

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In Food

Keftedes Greek Meatballs

By Diana Laskaris

Keftedes is one of the all-time classic Greek recipes to make at home. Some families have a meatball recipe that has been passed down from generation to generation as ours has. Each generation may make adjustments to their recipe for Greek meatballs, such as changing the spices or the meats. Using different elements in the meatball recipe or adding different serving options.

Favorite Greek Recipes

In my family, we have made keftedes as comfort food. My dad usually makes it with beef or lamb or a combination of both. We make ours typically with turkey or chicken.

While our easy meatball recipe calls for pan-frying the meatballs in olive oil to get that nice crispy crust all around, we have made them in the past by cooking in the oven. You’ll want to make the keftedes a little moister, but other than that, the recipe doesn’t need much adjusting.

Use Olive OIl For Cooking — Use Olive Oil For Cooking

Flexible And Easy

As with all of our recipes, this easy meatball recipe lets you adjust to suit your taste. Our traditional meatball recipe uses lots of garlic and onion. When we cook the keftedes in the oil, some of the garlic and onion fall out into the oil. We then use this to make a nice sauce to stir into some angel hair pasta, which we serve with our Greek meatballs. We top it off with shredded parmesan and it’s just divine.

Greeks love French fries, so its no wonder that many people serve their keftedes with those on the side.

You can make keftedes big or small. We make ours the size of a small ice cream scoop, which is what we use to make them in our meatball recipe.

Keftedes is an easy meatball recipe to make and you can serve them on their own, as an appetizer or for a whole meal with a side salad and some crispy garlic bread.

You can choose the spices you prefer too. We like parsley, oregano, and basil. But you can choose dill, marjoram, thyme, or other spices within the realm of other Greek recipes. Use fresh if you have them, but dried work perfectly fine too.

Greek Meatballs

Keftedes goes well with a nice tzatziki sauce. Tzatziki is a great condiment for many meat and vegetable dishes or used as a dip with pita bread. You often see it served with Gyros (pronounced yeer-ohs). Simple Greek recipes for tzatziki combine Greek yogurt with grated cucumber, dill, mint, and garlic. You can delete the mint or dill if you don’t like them. And skip the cucumber if you prefer or substitute grated celery or zucchini. Some recipes add vinegar or lemon, salt, and pepper to taste. We have some tzatziki sauces that are more like Greek yogurt with garlic. And that’s fine if that’s what you like.

For us, one of the important things is making sure that you get at least a little of the nice brown crust on the outside of the keftedes by pan-frying in olive oil. That gives them a nice little crunch. As always, you can make adjustments to suit your own tastes. This easy meatball recipe will give you one of the classic Greek recipes, but make it your own so you can enjoy Greek meatballs just the way you like them!

Keftedes

This is our family’s recipe for Greek meatballs. You can enjoy it as is or adjust it to make it your own.

Ingredients

1 pound ground meat (beef, pork, veal, lamb, turkey, chicken, or a combination as you prefer)
2 eggs
1 cup finely chopped onion
5-6 cloves fresh garlic, minced (or 1 Tablespoon granulated garlic)
Dried or fresh herbs of your taste, typically parsley, oregano, and basil. Use dill, marjoram, thyme, sage, cilantro, rosemary, or other herbs you like.
Extra virgin olive oil, or any oil for pan-frying. If you want your ketedes even crispier try Mapleleaf Farms duck fat
1/2 – 1 cup bread crumbs, enough to hold into balls
Salt and pepper, to taste
Shredded Parmesan or fresh herbs for garnishing, optional

Directions

Heat 1/2 inch of olive oil in a skillet on medium.

1. In a large mixing bowl combine meat, onion, garlic, herbs, salt, and pepper.
2. Add bread crumbs and egg, and mix all ingredients together until evenly distributed.
3. Use hands, meatballer, or ice cream scoop to create and shape meatballs in the desired size. We typically create 1 to 1 1/2-inch balls.
4. Place Greek meatballs into the skillet, leaving enough room around each to turn fully. Cook in batches if necessary.

You Can Use Gound Turkey Or Pork — You Can Use Ground Turkey Or Pork

5. Brown on all sides, turning to be sure that the keftedes cook thoroughly all the way through.
6. When each one is finished, place on paper towel to drain.
7. If serving with pasta, add several Tablespoons of pan drippings, including any garlic and onion that have come off of the keftedes to cooked pasta.

Serve Greek meatballs on top of the pasta. Or serve with fries, a side salad, vegetables, garlic bread, and tzatziki.

Kali Orexi!

We hope you like this easy meatball recipe for keftedes as much as we do. It’s one of our favorite Greek recipes of all time. Serve keftedes as an appetizer or, like us as a version of Greek meatballs and spaghetti. Or put them in some pita with tzatziki and tomato for a great sandwich.

If you like this easy meatball recipe, check out some of our other great recipes that you can make at home like Easy Fried Rice, Easy Shakshuka.

As we say in Greek, Kali Orexi! (Have a good meal, or as you may know from French, Bon Appetit!)

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In Food

Crispy Sweet Potato Fries

By Diana Laskaris

Crispy sweet potato fries are pure heaven. Even better when you can make them yourself at home. We love to make oven baked sweet potato fries.

They make a great side dish with just about anything like a burger, tuna melt, or chicken breast.

You can also use them as a base for building loaded sweet potato fries, which can serve as an entire meal at any time of day.

If you want more sweet potato goodness in every bite, you can cut them into wedges.

Using a little olive oil and placing the sweet potato fries in a single layer not touching is the key to making crispy sweet potato fries. If you want to really make them super crispy, you can also coat them with a little bit of corn starch.

We like making oven sweet potato fries crispy and serving them with any sauce you like. You can season them as you like too. They are really versatile.

Whether you enjoy them on the side or as the main event, oven baked sweet potato fries are easy to make and so delicious.

We’ll give you some ideas for blowing out the crispy sweet potato fries in this recipe as well.

Crispy Sweet Potato Fries

Ingredients

1 extra-large sweet potato, peeled and cut into fries or wedges
1-2 Tablespoon olive oil
Dried herbs and spices of your choice. Some good options include garlic, onion, thyme, rosemary, sage, oregano, basil, marjoram, curry, cumin, chili powder, cilantro, or a blend like Italian herbs or no salt mixed blend. You can use fresh herbs but they tend not to stick as well to the crispy sweet potato fries.

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

1. Peel the sweet potato and cut into fries or wedges, as you prefer.
2. Place pieces into a mixing bowl.
3. Add olive oil to coat. You want enough to cover all surfaces of the potatoes, but do not add any extra onto the pan or they will not get crispy. If you want your fries to be extra crispy, you can put cornstarch in a flat bowl or plate and lightly coat the fries after oiling them.
4. Sprinkle whatever herbs and spices you like and toss potatoes to be sure they are all covered with them.

5. Place potatoes on a baking sheet, separated from one another and in a single layer. If one baking sheet is not enough for them to stay separated use two. If they touch or overlap, they will not get crispy. Also, do not pour any excess oil onto the pan or they will not get crispy.
6. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes or until they begin to get darker.
7. Flip potatoes onto the other side so that the top sides are now touching the baking sheet. Don’t worry if you don’t get every one, just try to flip most of them. Using a spatula or tongs can help.
8. Bake for another 8 -10 minutes or until they look cooked and darker. Be careful not to burn the ends.
9. Remove from oven, let cool for 2 minutes. Sprinkle with salt or seasoned salt if desired, then serve.

You can serve crispy sweet potato fries with ketchup, barbecue, spiced mayonnaise, honey mustard, or any sauce you like.

It’s also fun to make loaded sweet potato fries with your favorite toppings. Anything goes here. You can top with cornbread, black beans, bbq sauce, and shredded cheddar cheese. Add a fried egg on top. Or use sour cream, avocado, salsa, corn, and pinto beans for a Mexican version. Add sloppy joe sauce and dill pickle chips or chili and cheddar cheese. The possibilities are endless. Just use your imagination, what you have in your pantry, and let your tastebuds be your guide!

We hope you like this super simple recipe for crispy sweet potato fries. If you’ve got other items around your kitchen or in your pantry that you’re looking to use, check out our other Pantry Cooking recipes like our Baked Italian Rice Balls, and Easy Butternut Squash Soup.

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Diana Laskaris

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