Search
More results...
182 SEARCH RESULTS FOR: Longevity
21 September 2021
Lentils are a kind of miracle food. They calm us down and fill us up with good nutrition. They've been part of the Greek diet forever and are, indeed, one of the indigenous pulses of the Eastern Mediterranean, around forever. I am paying homage to the humble Greek lentil soup in several variations, peppered with a little nutritional info, too!
10 September 2021
Highly nutritious sweet potatoes, rich in antioxidants, were a really important longevity food on the Blue Zone Greek island of Ikaria. Indeed, they were once the dessert of choice, simply baked and savored by children who are now well into their 80s and 90s, who probably didn’t know way back when that consuming them actually helped raise the vitamin ...
31 July 2021
Yogurt, octopus, lamb, olives, oregano. These foods “belong” to the Greek kitchen in the world’s eye. Not so corn. Yet this American staple has been part of the Greek table for several hundred years, most likely introduced and disseminated by the Ottoman Turks, who may have encountered it first in Africa. The Turkish word for corn, misir, is the same ...
20 May 2021
Here’s a Greek recipe for iced tea made with ancient herbal classics like sage and mountain tea. It’s the perfect quaff for a Mediterranean diet frame of mind! Herbal tea is one of the secrets to longevity on Blue Zone islands like Ikaria, but truth be told, people all over Greece drink herbal teas, usually made with herbs they ...
9 May 2021
Shining a spotlight on many people’s favorite beverage reveals a few healthy surprises! If Greek coffee is not on your radar when it comes to a healthy Mediterranean diet, you may want to take a closer look. In fact, a 2013 study in Vascular Medicine[1] found that Greek coffee may hold the key to a longer life!
31 December 2020
This Greek recipe is inspired by a traditional recipe from the Blue Zone Greek island of Ikaria, renowned for its longevity and home to some amazing green Mediterranean cooking. Pretty much everything in the cabbage family – brassica – figures prominently in the local cuisine and the original rendition of this calls for something called papoulies, very much like ...
29 September 2020
Before rice became a common grain in Greece, wheat and all its manifestations, in the form of bulgur, trahana, the local pasta, matsi, and more were the staples by default. Today all over Greece, Greek recipes for fish soup almost universally call for rice. This old Ikarian recipe, from my Ikaria book , however, calls for a handful of trahana. It’s ...
30 July 2020
Pasta Flora doesn’t sound like a Greek recipe for dessert, but it is and one of the classics, too. This lattice-topped tart, adopted from my Ikaria book , is made with many of the fruit jams and preserves that are part of the Greek tradition. The most common is apricot, but it’s great with plum, tangerine or fig jam, too. You ...
1 July 2020
Vegetable cookery on Ikaria, as throughout the greek countryside, is really varied. This recipes is an old one, which I wrote down while sitting with Myrsina Rousso, 80 or so, in her garden in Manganiti while she recounted numerous recipes and details about the life and food on the island in the 1940s. It’s a simple and filling dish: whole ...
30 June 2020
A healthy green bean stew from my next book: Ikaria, Lessons on Food, Life and Longevity from the Greek Island Where People Forget to Die.
11 May 2020
Herbs are an integral part of both the traditional Greek diet and the broader Mediterranean Diet. They have been lauded for their medicinal use since antiquity, if not longer. In Greece, herbs aren't used just to flavor food; they are used as folk medicine, and their importance is now corroborated by science.
8 January 2020
I have made this dish in other versions, with my favorite Ikarian pine honey and fresh orange juice. Petimezi, the subtle, sweet syrup made by cooking down clarified grape must, is one of the world’s oldest natural sweeteners. In this dish, it lends balance to the already earthy beans and it pairs beautifully with tomatoes and herbs.
