How to make a Greek-Inspired Feast
One of my favourite ways to treat my family and friends, is to make them a greek-inspired feast! This line-up is full of delicious Mediterranean flavour featuring lots of olive oil, garlic, and lemon!
I grew up in a small town in Ontario, and every month we’d order from the only greek place in town. The meal included a main of spanakopita, gyros, or chicken souvlaki, with sides like, salad, garlic bread, and then placed on a bed of rice or lemon potatoes! My favourite food since I was little, has been Spanakopita, which are phyllo-pastry triangles filled with spinach, feta, garlic, and fresh herbs. It’s not traditional to dip spanakopita in tzatziki, but I’ve been doing it my whole life, and I love it!
In this post, you’ll find out how to make spanakopita, chicken souvlaki, tzatziki, and a couple non-traditional (but delicious!) sides, brioche garlic bread, and greek salad! I’ll also include my favourite recipe I use for greek lemon potatoes from one of my favourite recipe-developers!
Total time it will take: 2 1/2-3 hours, and comfortably feeds 6 people with leftovers!
Tasks to do ahead of time to make everything flow smooth:
The night before:
Defrost phyllo pastry in the fridge
Defrost spinach in the fridge overnight
Marinate the chicken (optional)
Make vinaigrette for salad (optional)
Order of operations day of:
Prep & bake off the Greek lemon potatoes (recipe by FoodByMaria): They take the longest in the oven, and can stay warmed while you cook other components.
Marinate chicken: (if you didn’t do it the night before, it’s still perfectly fine 30 minutes before cooking!) Also, soak the skewers if you’re using wooden skewers, for at least 20 minutes.
Make tzatziki
Prep spanakopita filling
Form spanakopita
Bake off spanakopita
Prep garlic bread
Grill chicken souvlaki skewers
Bake garlic bread
Prep greek salad & vinaigrette, and dress right before serving!
Full recipe for Spanakopita!
Spanakopita
Ingredients
Instructions
- Transfer your frozen phyllo dough to the fridge overnight to be defrosted. It can also be defrosted at room temperature for 1-2 hours.
- Defrost your spinach (if using frozen and squeeze out as much moisture as possible).
- Heat a medium pan on medium heat, and add 1/2 cup olive oil. Add in onion and sweat out until translucent.
- Season with a pinch of salt and pepper and add your minced garlic. Cook for another 2-3 minutes until softened and remove from heat.
- In a large bowl, add your drained spinach, onion mixture, finely minced green onions, dill, parsley, feta and mix to combine.
- Crack in your eggs, season with salt and pepper, and add in your parmesan. Set aside while you prep your phyllo.
- Preheat oven to 400 F. In a small bowl, melt your butter and add 1⁄2 cup of olive oil.
- Unroll your phyllo dough and place a damp towel over them so they don’t dry out.
- Place one sheet on your work surface and lightly brush the olive oil/butter mixture, repeat this process until you have 3 sheets.
- Cut the dough into 4 equal strips and and place 1⁄4 cup filling on the bottom of each strip. Form into a triangle shape and fold the filling over in the dough until you reach the top.
- Place the pies on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Brush the tops with the olive oil mixture and sprinkle parmesan.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown and crispy.
- Serve warm with tzatziki.
Full recipe for tzatziki!
Tzatziki
Ingredients
Instructions
- Grate your cucumbers and wrap up in 2 layers of paper towel. Squeeze to drain out the moisture and discard the juice.
- To a bowl, add your greek yogurt, drained cucumber, grated garlic, olive oil, red wine vinegar and finely chopped dill.
- Season with salt & pepper to your liking. Keep covered in the fridge until ready to serve!
Full recipe for Greek-inspired Salad!
Greek-inspired Salad
Ingredients
Full recipe here for Chicken Souvlaki & Brioche Garlic Bread!
Chicken Souvlaki
Ingredients
Instructions
- Cube the chicken into large chunks and add to a large bowl. Add all marinade ingredients to the chicken and mix until combined.
- Cover with plastic wrap and place in fridge for at least 30 minutes. While you’re waiting, soak your skewers in water so that they don’t burn on the grill.
- Preheat grill to 450 F, and skewer chicken. Place skewers on grill and cook 3-5 minutes per side or until the internal temperature of the chicken is 165F.
- Serve warm with tzatziki!
Brioche Garlic Bread
Ingredients
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 F.
- Lay the brioche slices on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
- Melt butter in the microwave. Add the garlic, and parsley to the butter.
- Brush the garlic butter on each slice, then sprinkle with the parmesan.
- Bake for 5-7 minutes or until the bottom is lightly golden brown. (The brioche gets brown fast so keep an eye on it.)
- Slice in half and serve warm!
