This Vegan Chocolate and Chestnut Cream Cake not only tastes great but is perfect when you cannot eat any dairy or eggs!
Main Dishes
Kalamaria (pr. kah-lah-MAHR-ghia), is a very popular dish in Greece and Cyprus, especially during Lent when seafood is allowed to be eaten.
Although we can eat all sorts of delicious food during Lent I find it difficult to cook dried legumes or just vegetables on Sundays as Ι have always connected Sunday cooking with meat dishes.
This vegan moussakas (nistisimos) is as delicious as the real one. It is layered with eggplants, potatoes and zucchini, with a vegan vegetable filling and a delicious vegan faux bechamel sauce.
Tashi is a Cypriot vegan dip made with tahini, garlic and lemon juice. It goes well with almost any food and this appetizer is served in all Cypriot restaurants.
Pastitsio nistisimo (pr. Pah-STEE-tsio Knee-STEE-see-moh) is a vegan pasta casserole dish made with tubular pasta, vegetable filling and topped with a vegan faux béchamel sauce. The same dish can be made vegetarian using the same filling but adding a real bechamel sauce on top.
Indian style chicken curry includes a variety of aromatic spices simmered in a coconut milk-based sauce and served with rice.
Daktyla, also called daktyla kyrion (meaning ladies fingers) is the most popular Cypriot dessert made with phyllo which is very crisp and very juicy, filled with almonds, cinnamon and sugar. They are fried and then drenched in syrup, scented with anthonero (orange blossom water), which make them irresistible.
Greek Orthodox Easter is just around the corner. For those who want to fast during the last weeks, I have compiled a list with over 100 Lenten Recipes (most of which are also vegan).
Pantzaria Xydata (pronounced pan-TZAh-rhia Ksee-DAH-tah) are beets preserved in vinegar, which are one of our favourite vegetables to preserve.
Kollyva, is a sweet dish prepared with boiled wheat berries, nuts, raisins, pomegranate and spices, which is taken to church to commemorate our deceased during funerals or memorials.