Gyro Salad

I love gyro sandwiches and crave them every once in a while. I love lots of green flavors, but they are usually so strong that I only want them occasionally. Well, gyro meat is a creature all in itself and I don't think it'd be too easily recreated in the home kitchen, but I decided to use the main flavors of the dish and make a salad. I was going to make some soaked wheat pita bread, but well, I'm back on a low-carb kick today so I skipped the bread and just served up a salad. Okay, this looks complicated, but it literally took 15 minutes to cook! You can make the spice mixture ahead of time.
-Amanda

Gyro Salad

Meat:
1 lb of ground lamb (I got mine from Sloane Creek Farm.)
2 tbsp Greek Spice Mixture*
1/2 lemon

Spice Mixture*

1 tsp salt
1/2 tbsp paprika
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp curry
1/2 tsp rosemary
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp onion powder

Tzatziki Dressing:

1/2 cup Greek yogurt, strained to thicken
1/2 juice of a lemon
3/4 of a cucumber grated
1 tbsp fresh mint, minced
1 small garlic clove, grated
1 tbsp olive oil
salt

Salad:

Lettuce
feta cheese
cucumber
tomato
red onion
kalamative olives

Mix spices together. Use 2 tbsp and sprinkle on raw lamb meat. Squeeze in 1/2 a lemon. Mix well and let marinate in fridge for 1-2 hours. Saute in a pan on medium high heat until done. It was pretty greasy, so I just drained a bit of juice out when I scooped onto the salad.

While meat is cooking, mix up the tzatziki dressing and chop up vegetables for the salad.

Greek Chicken Wraps

Well these were really great, even if they were a bit kludged together. And by that, I mean instead of the cucumber I wanted to use, but didn't have, I used zucchini. And the olive jar that was in the door of the fridge ended up being jam instead. The jars look similar I guess and I didn't look close enough. I forgot that the garlic was going to be used raw and I was visiting while prepping the dressing so I used three cloves instead of one. I added a touch of honey to balance out the heat of the garlic. All this is to say that, do try this recipe because it really is good! (Even my two toddlers ate it!) And that feel free to sub as necessary, it seems to be pretty forgiving! And if you don't have any tortillas, make it a big salad.
-Amanda

Greek Chicken Wraps

2 chicken breasts
1 cucumber (or um... zuchinni as the case may be!)
handful of olives
2-3 oz fresh feta cheese
1/4 red onion sliced very thin
chopped lettuce
tortilla wraps

Dressing:

1 tbsp anchovy paste
1 clove of garlic, minced/mashed
zest of one lemon
juice from half a lemon
1/4 cup really good olive oil
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
2 tbsp fresh oregano or 1 tsp dried
1 tsp of honey if needed
salt (careful, the anchovies are salty)
fresh cracked black pepper

Cut the chicken into scallopini. That is, when they are partially frozen (it is easier that way) take your knife and carefully cut down the thickness of the chicken to make thin big pieces. I did each breast twice this way resulting in 3 pieces of chicken from each breast. On a very hot grill pan, grill the chicken until cooked through and remove to a plate to cool.

Mix all the ingredients for the dressing in a large bowl and whisk well. Taste and adjust as necessary. Slice chicken into thin strips and add to the dressing bowl. Add sliced onion and thinly sliced cucumber. Crumble up the feta cheese and add olives. Cover and set in fridge for 1hr all the way up to 24 hours. Just before serving chop up some lettuce and put it in your tortilla. Add cold chicken mixture on top, wrap and serve!

Marinated Greek Steak Salad

I decided to make a salad for dinner. Usually when I do this it is a last minute meal thrown together with ingredients from my refridgerator. So grilled chicken with carrots, cucumber over iceberg lettuce is our usual "main dish" salad of choice. But I found this salad in a cookbook, appropriately named "SALADS" by Carrie Holcomb. I set out with a grocery list and a plan. This was a very good salad. My husband who said he doesn't like Greek food even liked it! That's a win!
-Amanda

Marinated Greek Steak Salad

(adapted from Salads by Carrie Holcomb)

10 oz sirloin steak, cut one inch thick
1, 7oz can of artichoke hearts
1/2 of a red onion, cut into thin rings
1 red bell pepper, cut into thin rings
1/4 cup pitted greek olives
10 cherry tomatoes, halved
1/3 cup olive oil
3 tbsp red wine vinegar
2 tbps of lemon juice from 1 lemon
1 tbsp oregano (or 1 tsp dried oregano)
1 tbsp anchovy paste
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 large garlic clove
3 cups torn ice berg lettuce
1 cup torn spinach
 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese

Place steak under broiler 3 inches from heat for 6 minutes. Turn steak. Broil to desired doness (6-8 minutes for medium.) Cool slightly. Cut into thin slices. Place meat in a deep bowl along with artichoke hearts, onion, olive, bell pepper and tomatoes.

Make the marinade: whisk in a medium bowl, oil, vinegar, lemon juice, oregano, anchovy paste, pepper, grated garlic. Pour marinade over meat mixture. Cover and marinate in the refrigerator for 6-24 hours, stirring occasionally.

In a large mixing bowl, combine lettuce and spinach. Top with meat mixture. Sprinkle with feta cheese.
Makes 4 servings.

One Pot Greek Chicken Bake

Sorry the photo didn't come out that great, I had really bad lighting the night I made this. I wanted to make homemade pita bread and hummus so I needed a "main" dish to go with my Greek sides. I also wanted something super easy because I figured the hummus and pita would be messy enough for one meal in the kitchen. So I came up with this one pot Greek Chicken Bake.
-Amanda

One Pot Chicken Bake

3 large chicken breasts
1.5 cups white rice
3 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup chopped Kalamata Olives
3/4 cup frozen chopped spinach
zest one lemon
juice of one lemon
salt and pepper

Place rice in the bottom of a baking dish. Add chicken broth, lemon zest and juice and frozen spinach, salt and pepper. Bake covered at 350º for 40 minutes. Then remove from the oven, place chicken breasts down in the rice and add the kalamata olives. Bake another 30 minutes or until rice and chicken are cooked through.

Greek Inspired Turkey & Spinach Pockets

The idea for this dish was to make something in a large quantity that I could freeze to pull out for my toddlers to have for lunches that was healthy and tasty. I think I found a winner for this round! I gave these to the girls for lunch today and they gobbled them up. I will note however, that this isn't a hard dish to make, but it is time consuming!

Greek Inspired Turkey & Spinach Pockets

1 lb ground turkey (beef would work great too!)
1 package frozen spinach
1 large onion
1 lemon
3 oz feta cheese
1 tsp dried oregano
1 (60) pack of wontons (I ended up making about 50)
cooking spray

Dice onion into small pieces and saute in a large skillet. Add ground turkey working with the back of your spoon to break the meat up into small crumbles. Defrost spinach in the mircrowave. Add dried oregano, salt a pepper to meat. With a microplane, add just the zest of one lemon. Add defrost spinach and mix well. Place meat mixture in a large bowl and allow to cool completely. After it is cool, stir in feta cheese.

Lay out wonton, working with 6-8 at a time. Place a tablespoon of the meat mixture in the center of each wonton. With a pastry brush dipped in water, lightly wet each edge of the wonton. Bring two opposite corners together. Bring up the left side, pressing the edges together tightly. Last, bring the right side up. You should have a square. Just before putting in the oven, spray each wonton very liberally with cooking spray. Bake* in a preheated 375º oven for 15 minutes or until golden brown and crispy.

Let leftovers cool completly and freeze on cookie sheet. Once frozen, transfer to a freezer safe ziptop bag. Reheat in microwave or toaster oven.

*These can be fried or boiled if you prefer. Just make sure you push the extra air out of your wontons if you choose these methods.
-Amanda