Spicy giant beans soup served with country-style sausages

Instead of the commonly used for this traditional Greek soup, haricot beans, try the giant beans to give extra flavour to the recipe. Serve along with some sauté country-style sausages and you'll have a super filling and delicious Winter-time dish

Spicy carrot and corn soup

This tasty, nutritious and good looking soup is a great idea to open a nice dinner or to be served as a quick evening main meal

Velvety chicken-broth soup - A hearty traditional soup for the cold Winter days

This is a rather unusual (for our times) recipe for a soup but it shows one more time that the housewives from the long past were well aware (and smart) of how to invent ways to make a simple dish look more "rich" and "plenty" on the plate with just a few ingredients... In this recipe it is the humble flour that makes things so rich and tasty! The flour thickens the broth and turns it into a hearty soup like those our grand and great grandparents had the joy to taste especially in the Cretan cuisine or the gastronomy of the Greeks of the Black Sea (Efxinos Pontus). If you find it a loss of time to prepare your own chicken broth then feel free to substitute with store-bought broth (from cubes or canned) but be sure that the taste will not be the same. Just be careful with the salt if you use a store-bought broth

SOUP WEEK 1: Creamy trahana soup served with fried Feta cheese cubes

A creamy and very filling traditional soup which will make the upcoming cold days more tolerable! Trahana soup is a staple in the Greek cuisine for generations and in this case along with the feta cheese and some fresh crusty bread you'll end up with a such delicious and nutritious meal. As I've mentioned to you before in Greece we have two types of trahana, the "sweet" and the "sour". In this recipe the sour trahana is required but of course if you can not find any you can substitute with the classic "sweet" one 

SOUP WEEK 1: Creamy pumpkin, celery and leek soup with a twist

Another tasty and filling soup to expand your choices and enjoy this hearty dish during the Winter months! The main star is the pumpkin but the rest of the ingredients work together well so to give an extra flavour and make this soup even more luscious! And in the end for some colour contrast but also for a nice subtle sour & sweet flavour to the dish, the addition of a berry jam

SOUP WEEK 1: Creamy walnut soup with herbs

Autumn is back already and soon Winter will smile at us... It is time to get prepared for tasty and hearty dishes like the soups. Here is a rather unusual recipe but very tasty and nutritious with the walnuts as the main ingredient. Nuts are not only to keep us company while watching a game or having drinks with friends, they can become a special ingredient in various sweet or savoury dishes. They have an intense taste and a rich texture and they give an extra flavour in savoury dishes like this thick, velvety soup 
 

SOUP WEEK 1: Spicy tomato soup with fennel to warm you up!

Tomato soup I think is one of the most popular soups for a lot of people and quite versatile since it can be cooked either in the Summer or Winter season. Since, as I've mentioned before, I've never been a crazy fan of these kind of dishes tomato soup would not be my first choice but this doesn't mean that I can not appreciate a good recipe when I try it. And this tomato soup here, without having anything exceptional to gloat about,is a really tasty and very easy dish to make for the whole family. Following the same steps and just adding a couple of dollops of thick Greek yoghurt it is a great dish for the Summer months too

SOUP WEEK 1: Potato and leeks soup flavoured with Kozani crocus (Greek saffron)

Potato with leeks is one of the most classic combinations for a soup and it is one of the few soups I actually like. I was never a fan, it was my nightmare when I was a kid and mum was cooking some kind of soup in the classic Greek way... Eventually I started compromising a bit but that was all, a bit! But then (years later) I discovered the "other" soups and things changed... Creamy and thick, that's the thing I like about them and the specific combination is my favourite. In today's recipe the addition of the saffron not only gives that beautiful colour but also adds extra flavour creating a really hearty and delicious meal. The Kozani Crocus (from up-North Greece), famous all over the world under the name “Krokos Kozanis”, grows from a small rounded bulb which is planted in late summer or early fall and produces small purple flowers, with three red-gold stigma strands in each flower and the saffron spice is actually made from these dried strands. Put a bit more colour and flavour in a classic soup to enjoy it even more

SOUP WEEK 1: Mushroom soup with Winter-time vegetables

A tasty soup which can warm you up during the Winter months. The rest of the vegetables give an extra flavour to this easy soup and along with the pitta breads you'll have a very hearty dinner

SOUP WEEK 1: Creamy lemon soup with chicken meatballs

The ultimate kind of Winter-time soup! Lighter than the classic "Yiouvarlakia" soup, thanks to the chicken we use for the meatballs, this is such a tasty, filling and hearty dish for the whole family!

Summertime celeriac and fennel soup with red grapes

You would think "who would ever like to eat a bowl of soup in the middle of the Summer" (and a hot one really where I come from) and I would not disagree with you! But that's not the case with this one not only because it is light and very tasty but also because it is served chilled. So, don't hesitate to serve it to your guests as a first dish on a warm night and you will see how pleased they will be. The celeriac with the fennel work together in harmony and the refreshing crunchy grapes balance the whole thing in the best way!

Oil-free lentils soup for Good Friday

For the Greeks around the world this is the Holy Week and this weekend the Greek Orthodox Easter is celebrated. On Good Friday one of the most common dishes people might have is the lentils soup. Usually cooked in the classic way but without any oil in and in some cases not even tomatoes are added. Here today we have a different version of this soup but still very filling and tasty
 

 

Easy and fast chicken soup with angel hair pasta

Just a few ingredients are enough to prepare this very tasty and filling soup. There is no chicken as such involved in the recipe but if you have any leftovers from a previous meal then you could add it onto the plates in the end

Onion soup with red wine

The weather is  still quite cold and the soups have plenty of time before they say goodbye for this season... So, what do you think of having a tasty, filling and so aromatic soup at your table to enjoy with the family? Onion soup is one of the most favourite around the world with the French version probably the most popular but there are others which are equally delicious

Chicken soup with potatoes, leeks, carrots and celery

A delicious and filling soup for the Winter months. A bit different than the classic Greek chicken soup regarding the method but still a staple in the Greek households for a hearty meal. The type of soup that only mothers know how to cook best!



Creamy lentils soup with feta cheese

Perhaps I have mentioned it before but it doesn't matter:-) I was never a big fan of dried (or fresh) pulses but lentils are probably my favourite! Especially (and probably only) when cooked in the classic Greek lentils soup recipe. And this is strange because I was never a big fan of soups either!... What a contrast eh?? But when it comes to creamy, velvety soups, then things change... And that's why today's recipe is so special to me and I believe you will appreciate it as well. I would like to add that the same recipe  can be transformed into a special dip! You only need to increase the amount of Feta cheese in it and sprinkle with some finely snipped fennel fronds on top. Try it out in this way too and you'll remember my words

Velvety mushrooms and chestnuts soup "shots"

This is a great idea to serve at your buffet table among other nibbles and finger food dishes on New Year's Eve or any other party occasion. Who said that soup could not be served in small quantities? Here we have a delicious recipe and impressive at the same time if served in small shot glasses to be easier to handle

Creamy celeriac soup with homemade herbed croutons

I wouldn't say that celeriac was so popular in the Greek cuisine up to some years ago. In Greece the common type of celery comes in two forms: that, which in Greek is also referred to as “celery”, with the long thick hollow stalks and the more commonly used “small” (or wild celery), with thinner stalks and rich leaves which in Greek is known as “selino". Selino is the more popular of the two and its leaves are also used beside the stalks and it looks like this:

Going back to celeriac and our recipe, I would like to mention that it is a rather sensitive root vegetable and it should be used in the recipe right away after you clean its hard outside peel otherwise it will get bruised and black

A special cauliflower and yoghurt soup

This is really a special soup with an unusual combination of ingredients which in the end surprises us in the best way! Very hearty and rich in ingredients and taste! Thick and velvety in texture! Along with some toasted bread it will become one of your favourite Winter-time soups!

Spicy carrot and potato soup with wine

The soup season is here again and those who are big soup lovers they must be thrilled! Always hearty, filling, nutritious and delicious the soups we make at home and when we give a bit of time using fresh ingredients they are even better! Here we have a nice version of carrot soup which will warm you to the bone! The original version includes curry powder but we are not big fans of it at our house so the coriander and the paprika took its place