side dishes recipes

Making TABBOULEH, despite the simplicity of its ingredients : parsley, mint, scallions, tomato & bulgur grains and the dressing, is a labor of love, because it requires such precise & time-consuming chopping, but what a joy it is when it’s ready and served alongside many summer dishes, which is why I’ve chosen to explain my way...

Whether you call it shaksouka or tchoukchouka or chakchouka, this preparation has as many variations as it does names and spellings ! Many similar dishes sound the same, include other vegetables and/or meats and could be prepared with chickpeas and shredded flatbreads called chakchoukha or with eggplant called şakşuka. The original version...

A preparation that can be added to or included in almost any savory dish : quiches, omelettes, pizzas, pastas, lasagnas, sandwiches or just as a side-dish with roasted meats and fish … And with a special ingredient that we often don’t think off when we roast things : VINEGAR ! It adds just enough depth and acidity, like and alongside...

Everybody’s got their favorite version of a SUMMER POTATO SALAD and here’s mine ! Move aside mayonnaise (because you’re too fragile when it’s hot out there) and hello to a yogurt and olive oil and lemon juice dressing with a special guest star appearance of a...

SPA-NA-KÒ-RI-ZO (it just means spinach with rice in greek) . . . I hadn’t actually tried making this simple meat-less peasant dish myself that I grew up with, until a month ago and usually only having it when I visited my parents in Montreal. A friend’s wife asked me for the recipe a few months ago so I called my mother and...

For all the lovers of GREEN PEPPERS, who are so often ignored because we are so few and forced to enjoy only sweeter roasted red peppers (also great but different), here’s an easy way to enjoy the earlier, greener summer harvests for a bit longer ! I know so many people whose first reaction is to cringe at the sight of a green pepper,...

A proper way to announce spring ? A perfect accompaniment ? Vegetarian peasant food ? A healthy alternative ? All of the above. They’re great as is, as a snack or an appetizer with a drink, as a side dish with eggs (sunny-side up preferably) or simply served with a salad for a light meal. So many possibilities and easy to partly make and...

TOMATO, FETA, CUCUMBER, GREEN PEPPER, RED ONION, OLIVES, OREGANO, OLIVE OIL, WINE VINEGAR and RUSKS. I’ve convinced myself that this simple and purist GREEK SALAD recipe could like a magical spell that you can cast on the Earth, the Skies and the Sea and if you prepare it and make it today on Augusts 31st, then the goddess of...

Here’s a MEDITERRANEAN-ASIAN 'garnish' (to commemorate the Chinese New Year) that you could grate or thinly slice, the way you would with hard cheeses, on top of a preparation. 'Bottarga' is the salt-cured & dried fish roe that you may be familiar with but here we're using chicken egg yolks . It’s an...

. . . INSTEAD OF BUTTER ! Why ? Because I wanted to eat DUCK CONFIT LEGS and THIGHS (that are preserved in a lot of duck fat) that I had recently bought, so instead of preparing fries or oven-roasted potatoes with onions and garlic cooked in that same duck fat, why not seize the opportunity to make these tender melt-in-your-mouth smaller...

The easiest Italian salad (as an accompaniment or entrée or even light summer meal) to prepare, requires a fine balance of subtle flavors and adjustments depending on the ingredients used, so we’ll talk about all these little adjustments and how to accentuate the individual flavors to make them the best that they can be, before...

TRIPLE-EVERYTHING simply means 3 types of beans, 3 types of onions, 3 types of citrus juice, 3 dried spices, 3 fresh herbs and 3 additional flavors (olive oil, garlic and pomegranate syrup) to bring it all together into something nice and nourishing, in under 15 minutes ! And with this warm weather and the confinement pantry ready to explode with...

A traditional greek RUSK made with BARLEY, SPELT and WHOLE-WHEAT flours, water, olive oil, honey, salt, yeast and some malt powder is not a dry, leftover thing nor a by-product of old or stale bread. It’s a purposely planned and twice-baked preparation that many folks prepare regularly as a replacement for fresh...

This is a BREAD & CHEESE BOMB so BOOOOM !!! What could be better than  a "reinterpretation" of a CHEESE FONDUE (hot and melty) with some great BREAD (warm too), during this super-cold weather and icy winds we’re having and when you’ve chosen to experiment with not eating any meat in the past...

“IT WAS LIKE EATING SEAFOOD DURING THE HOLIDAYS & FESTIVITIES” . . . and I don’t quite know how to explain it ? Was it due to the various “BRINY” flavors invoked by the anchovies, capers, black olives, and even the crumbled feta cheese ? Maybe, but it doesn’t actually taste like seafood, it’s just...