Ivy Liacopoulou

Ivy Liacopoulou grew up in Limassol, Cyprus, a beautiful island in the eastern Mediterranean, where her passion for cooking began as a child, helping her mother in the kitchen. Ivy belongs to a new generation of home cooks who loves to experiment and create new recipes of her own. She is the author of two cookbooks and she owns and manages Cooking Classes, in Nafplio, Peloponnese.

The first time I tasted quinoa I must admit that I wasn’t really enthusiastic but there are a lot of things that I didn’t like the first time and now I love them. I gave it a second and a third chance but with the fruit and the yoghurt and honey we loved it. After …

Hortosoupa (pr. chor-TOH-sou-pah) or The Bing Bang Vegetable Veloute Soup, as I call it, is a Greek hearty velouté vegetable soup with star shaped pasta, which can be adapted with more vegetables.

Fig preserve called Glyko sykalaki in Greek, (pr. glee-KHO sy-kha-LAH-kee), is one of my favourite fruit preserves. It is perfect to eat alone as a dessert with a few calories or use it in other desserts. In order to make the fig preserve, the figs should not be ripe. Living in Athens it’s not easy …

Kreatosoupa is a Greek soup made with veal and lots of vegetables. I also call this soup clean up your fridge soup, as you can use any or all optional vegetables in the recipe.

This easy to make peach tart is made with a buttery pie crust, a cream cheese filling and baked peaches on top.

Moustokouloura, pronounced Moo-stoh_KOU_lou-ra, are Greek cookies made with either fresh grape juice or petimezi, which is concentrated grape syrup.

Yesterday I didn’t know what to prepare for lunch and remembered that I had some lasagna in my pantry which were there for quite a long time. I had some vegetables, bell peppers and mushrooms and some spring onions, carrots, parsley and eggplants from last week’s visit to the farmers’ market, which needed to be …

Blackforest, Foret Noir or Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte, as is the original name (literally “Black Forest cherry torte”) is one of my favourite cakes.

I really loved the last pesto I made recently with fresh wild oregano, which we picked from the mountain. You can use it not only in pasta dishes but also on grilled food or as a topping in many other dishes.

In Greece they say that we make pies out of anything. Almost anyone who has eaten Greek food is familiar with that wonderful Greek specialty spanakopita, or spinach pie, or the most renowned of Greek sweets, baklava. While one dish is savory and the other sweet, both are recognizable from their baked-up, golden, crispy appearance, …