Blue Zone breakfasts are a big deal, but a typical Blue Zone breakfast, Ikaria included, is about quality over quantity. Healthy choices and local foods rule the table, but regardless of where you live it’s easy to adapt a Blue Zone Mediterranean diet breakfast mentality and choose the right foods to jumpstart your day.
Here are a few easy Blue Zone breakfast options that are delicious and nutritious, but most importantly accessible wherever you are.
In the Blue Zone Greek island of Ikaria, breakfast tends to be light but nutritious, relying on certain ingredients that can make any ordinary breakfast a wow-worthy moment. Mediterranean diet breakfasts are usually nutrient-dense, making for the perfect meal to kickstart your metabolism and support overall health. And with the right combination of ingredients, they can also be quite tasty! Below, I break down the 3 essentials for a good Blue Zone breakfast: tahini, nuts, and dried fruits, along with the endless combinations you can use them in!
Blue Zone Breakfast & Tahini
Tahini is the dark golden colored cream made from soaked, peeled, roasted then, finally, pounded sesame seeds that usually replaces olive oil during the most austere fasting days of Lent. But beyond its role as a nutrition-packed Lenten ingredient (filled with protein, vitamin B, calcium, phosphorus, and iron), tahini is also one of the most versatile and easy to use ingredients in the kitchen.
I load up with tahini in all kinds of Mediterranean breakfast recipes – for instance, this roasted apple and tahini smoothie, or a super simple (and satisfying!) tahini honey toast. You might want to check out my youtube video for that tahini smoothie, too!
Nuts as part of the Blue Zone Breakfast Palette
Nuts have been an indispensable part of the Mediterranean-Greek Diet for millennia. They grow abundantly throughout Greece, and their high fat and protein content makes them both accessible and satiating—not to mention delicious! As we know well by now, nuts are immensely nutritious. In Greece they are enjoyed raw or roasted as a snack, a crunchy addition to salads or pilafs, and definitely sprinkled on yogurt or incorporated into any of a number of breakfast dishes. They’re delicious over oatmeal, or mixed into Greek yogurt with a little raw honey. They’re a great addition to a fruit salad, too. Pistachios, walnuts, and almonds are just a few that I love to use daily – and you can find some great pistachios online at my shop!
Dried Fruits Pack Flavor and Texture into a Blue Zone Breakfast
Dried fruits are a nutritious way to enjoy a little natural sweetness in your breakfast and I use them all the time. One of my personal favorite Blue Zones breakfast options is a teaspoon of tahini mixed into a couple of tablespoons of Greek yogurt, a little honey, then sprinkled chopped dried fruits and almonds. I stir dried fruits into breakfast porridge, too – they’re great with oatmeal and also with trahana. There are so many options: raisins, dried figs, prunes, apricots, dates…the list goes on and on. Dried fruits, particularly raisins, have the potential to regulate cholesterol levels and stabilize blood pressure. Moreover, they lower the likelihood of heart diseases and stroke.
These fruits are abundant in proteins, calcium, and various micronutrients that contribute to bone health and fortification. If you’re looking for dried figs, I carry an excellent option at my online shop! And if you’re looking for an on-the-go breakfast treat you can grab on your way out the door, you might want to make a batch of my honey-oatmeal cookies with raisins or some of these yummy muffins studded with raisins!
