The easiest vegan Mediterranean recipes from Greece, you can prepare in 30 minutes!
Enjoy healthy meals that won’t take a great deal of time to prepare.
Recently the U.S. News & World Report ranked the Mediterranean diet No. 1 out of 35 different diets in 2020. In fact, Mediterranean diet ranked first among the top diets second year in a row. Although there are some Greek recipes, which are bit more complicated, but generally the Greek cuisine prefers simple, easy to prepare dishes. This simplicity and healthiness makes the Mediterranean diet the perfect diet for busy people.
Apart from being mainly vegetarian (or vegan), here are some other benefits of the Mediterranean diet, based on our own experience in Greece:
- No deep frying: vegetables, fish, meat, cheese are grilled, not fried. Don’t get me wrong: you will find French fries, chips and grilled calamari. But these are offered mostly on touristy places.
- No canned food: due to the climate (how lucky), most ingredients can be found fresh. Tomatoes, cucumber, onions. All year around.
- Homemade bread. Greeks know their grains. Bread are made of all kind of nutritious grains, like oats and Zea.
- Enjoying food and social drinking together. This I find an important part of healthy eating. Greeks always order food to share in the middle of the table. Always! So don’t be surprised when the orders arrive to the table and everyone will grab a bite from each of the plates.
- No thick salad dressings. Greek salad dressings are made of olive oil and vinegar (Balsamic, red wine, white wine). And they still taste amazing. No mayo and other greasy stuff.
Below are our favorite, go-to Greek recipes, when it comes to preparing my weekday dinners.
Fava – Greek split peas dip
A ridiculously simple and tasty Mediterranean food. It is easy to prepare, and also you can get creative about what to serve it with.
Greek fava is something like hummus, however made of yellow split peas, not chickpeas.
It is a spread that you can put on bread, sourdough, toast. However, my favorite is to eat it with freshly cut carrots, California peppers and cucumbers.
The best thing is that you can keep it in the fridge for few days – it just gets more delicious.
It is quite common in Greece that they serve fava with grilled octopus (for those who are not vegetarian).
When I was searching for recipes of fava to share here, I was looking for one extra thing in those recipes: the caramelized onions. In fact, not many recipes mention this, because traditionally only fresh onions were part of this dip. I prefer caramelized onions though – it makes a grand combination with the Greek fava.
Fava is our ultimate favorite for its health benefits also. Read our post on the health benefits of this golden legume. Sneak-peak: fava is a super food!
Here is the perfect fava recipe from Lazycatkitchen.
Only one important addition, which the recipe doesn’t mention: best to soak the slip peas for a night in water, so they soften easier and cook faster.
Mavromatika – Greek black-eyed peas salad
We can’t hide our love for legumes. They are great for vegetarians and vegans, because of the vitamins and the plant protein.
The traditional Mediterranean black-eyed peas salad didn’t have many ingredients, but nowadays you can experiment with different ingredients.
Our favorite ingredients for this vegan Greek dinner include grilled paprika, avocado and onions. Avocado at least was not part of the traditional recipe, but it makes this salad even more delicious and filling.
We found a nice recipe, which infuses all kinds of veggies and herbs, on the Greekfoodie website.
Black-eyed-peas salad. The Greekfoodie
Again, this is a great dinner for the busy professionals: make more and you can keep it in the fridge for long time. The flavours will mend even nicer together with time.
Gemista- Stuffed tomatoes and bell peppers
Another vegan traditional Greek food, with which you can get creative while making. Gemista is a dish with tomatoes and peppers (sometime zucchini), filled with rice, chopped vegetables, and baked in a tomato-based sauce. Most recipes mention sugar in the sauce, however I never put sugar and it still taste heavenly.
This recipe is a bit more time consuming than the above ones. The recipes I found mention preparation time between 30 and 45 minutes. This depends on what you put in the filling and of course how skilled you are with cutting. As always, I like to be fast and effective. The base of the filling is the rice. My favorite other filling ingredients include chopped zucchini, pine nuts and some raisins. Yes, believe it or not raisins are also part of the traditional recipe, and somehow, they are great addition to the savory taste. Your choice.
Follow this link for an easy-to-understand and hassle-free Gemista recipe from Mygreekodyssey.
Note that cooking time will be around 1 hour, because the rice must soften. But the preparation is so easy, and surely you will be satisfied with the result.
Looking for other Greek vegan or vegetarian dishes? Check out here: Vegan or vegetarian Greek dishes – The Greekcompass
Easy, healthy food, and meal preparation are important to ease the everyday stress. These favorite Mediterranean recipes will lighten up your weekday dinners after a busy day.
Traditional Greek Briam
Briam is the Mediterranean version of ratatouille. If you are looking for a simple but brilliant dish that requires no effort, this traditional Greek recipe is for you. Basically, you just have to toss together a couple of fresh veggies, and voilà dinner is served! Both healthy and vegan.
Here is the recipe from us to you with love: