Baba Ghanoush Burrito Bowl

After enjoying plenty of baba ghanoush over the past few days I could not help but wonder about turning it into a meal, burrito bowl style. Burrito bowls are basically just deconstructed burritos served in a bowl; they usually start with a base of rice, followed by beans, meat, fresh ingredients, cheese, etc. I figured that baba ghanoush would make an excellent base for a 'burrito bowl' and I wanted to keep things with a Mediterranean theme and topped it with a seasoned ground lamb, fresh tomatoes, Greek yogurt and a hit of feta along with plenty of fresh herbs. I have to say that this baba ghanoush burrito bowl exceeded my expectations making for a really tasty meal that is both satisfying and pretty light and healthy at the same time!

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Moussaka Patty Melts

With the cooling weather I have been thinking about cold weather dishes more often like moussaka, a Mediterranean casserole consisting of layers of meat in a tomato sauce, eggplant and a bechamel sauce. During the summer I made some burgers inspired by moussaka and given my fascination with grilled cheese sandwiches I could not help but think that a moussaka patty melt would also be great! For this sandwich I start out with patties of ground lamb seasoned simply with a bit of garlic and cinnamon, topped with a layer of grilled eggplant, a simple and yet tasty tomato sauce and of course plenty of melted cheese! Speaking of cheese, I went with a Greek cheese, graviera, which melts well so it is perfect for grilled cheese sandwiches. When I made the moussaka burgers I used a bechamel sauce which is a bit to wet to go inside a grilled cheese sandwich but it does go great as a topping along with some extra tomato sauce!

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Moussaka Burgers

With the long weekend coming up I have been thinking about grilling and in particular about these moussaka burgers. Moussaka is a tasty Mediterranean dish that is typically made with layers of eggplant, meat, a tomato sauce and a cheese bechamel sauce and I have been wanting to try making burgers with these flavours for a while now. I started the burgers off by making a tomato sauce with the hints of cinnamon and allspice that moussaka often has and then I moved on to make a simple bechamel sauce with plenty of melted melted cheese. Up next were the patties which I kept nice and simple, once again seasoning with hints of cinnamon and allspice, and the last component was slices of eggplant that I grilled along with the patties.

All said and done these burgers are amazingly good and they definitely taste like moussaka, only better! These burgers take a bit of time to make but you can easily make the sauces and patties a day ahead and then just warm the sauces and grill the patties and eggplant of the day of your get together with minimal effort. I served the moussaka burgers with a fresh Greek salad.

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Gyro Grilled Cheese Sandwich (aka Gyro Melt)

April is national grilled cheese month and grilled cheese sandwiches have been on my mind a lot so it is no surprise that when I was thinking about what to do with the roast lamb leftovers, a grilled cheese sandwich came to mind. Before I knew it I was thinking about a lamb gyro grilled cheese sandwich filled with all of my favourite gyro fillings including tzatziki, feta, toamtoes and onions. With all of the ingredients pretty much decided the only real question was what cheese was I going to use and a Greek melty cheese like kasseri was definitely the way to go. I was a little concerned that with the tzatziki in the sandwich it might come out a little soggy so I used a nice thick Greek style yogurt, squeezed the excess liquid from the cucumber and used day old bread for the grilled cheese to make sure that everything turned out right and it did. These gyro grilled cheese sandwiches turned out pretty big with all of the fillings but they were oh so good! You can just imagine combining two already great things, gyros and grilled cheese sandwiches and you get something even better!

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Lamb Exohiko (Lamb, Spinach and Cheese Stuffed Phyllo Parcels)

When I made the roast lamb leg on the weekend I chose a piece of meat that was larger than I needed to ensure lots of leftovers and after making some quicky roast lamb gyros I was ready to to something more interesting. Up first on my list was this recipe for a lamb exohiko, once again from Kalofagas, which is a dish where the lamb along with other ingredients are wrapped up in phyllo and baked until it is golden brown. I really like the idea of baking things in phyllo like this! Whereas smaller phyllo pies are great for snacks and light meals and larger phyllo pies like spanakopita make many servings, these phyllo parcels contain an entire meal in single serving size! The possibilities for fillings for these are near endless and this time I went with the roast lamb, spinach, onions and peppers, tomatoes and cheese!

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Greek Style Roast Leg of Lamb with Lemon Roasted Potatoes

Easter is right around the corner and this last weekend I took the opportunity to test out a new recipe. When I think of Easter dinner I almost always gravitate towards lamb which reminds me of spring and I have had this recipe for a Greek style roast leg of lamb from Kalofagas bookmarked for a while now, just waiting for a special occasion. One of the things that I really like about Greek cuisine is the heavy use of fresh herbs and this roast lamb is marinated in a mixture of rosemary, thyme and oregano in addition to lemon juice, mustard, paprika and of course a generous amount of salt and pepper. After marinating the lamb is roasted until it is moist and falling apart tender and then potato wedges are tossed in the drippings along with more lemon juice and some oregano before being roasted until nice and crispy! What a meal!

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