Sweeten Up Your 4th of July With These Patriotic Desserts
June 30, 2023
Posted: August 12, 2021 11:53 am
Greek cuisine is perfect for those hot summer days. It features so many vegetables that you can easily find at farmer’s markets. It is also effortless to prepare, making it perfect for those nights when you would prefer to be outside playing. Most Greek meals go together quickly, so you are not heating the house or making the air conditioner work harder.
Greek Island Chicken Shish Kebabs are easy to prepare on the stovetop, and they are also perfect for grilling outside. The secret lies in the tasty marinade that is easy to make with olive oil, lemon juice, vinegar, garlic, cumin, oregano, thyme, salt, and black pepper. While this recipe calls for chicken, you can easily substitute beef or lamb. The recipe calls for marinating the meat for 2 hours, but marinating it longer will not hurt, so get the meat in the marinade before going to work in the morning. Then, when you get home, assemble the kebabs and cook them for 10 minutes.
If you need the perfect burger to impress your guests at a pool party, serve them Grilled Lamb Burgers With Marinated Red Onions, Dill and Feta. Serve these in warm pita bread and eliminate the heavy feeling that comes from overeating bread. This is a fantastic recipe to take advantage of garden-rip cucumbers and tomatoes. Pickling the onion in vinegar with a bit of dill added provides a delicious touch to this burger. Your family is sure to love the Feta cheese on these lamb burgers. You can easily have this meal off the grill in under 30 minutes.
One-pot Greek Pasta goes together in under 30 minutes. Cleanup is a snap, so you can quickly move onto other summertime activities. While this recipe calls for whole-wheat rotini pasta, you can easily substitute it with another pasta. Therefore, if you have another pasta on the menu this week, cook a little extra and use it in this recipe too. Your family is sure to love the chicken sausage in this recipe, but you can easily substitute another type of sausage if it is not readily available. Except for cutting the sausage into bite-size pieces, this recipe does not require any prep work, making it a great option after that summertime sports practice or another event.
If you need a dish to bring to a summertime picnic, Peppers Stuffed With Feta are a perfect choice. The bright red color of sweet Florina peppers looks terrific on the picnic table, but if you cannot get them, then substitute Fresno or Anaheim chiles. Your stove’s broiler does the work in this easy-to-prepare meal. The stunning contrast between the Feta cheese and the peppers is beautiful. We promise not to tell how easy these go together in under 11 minutes if you do not want others at the picnic to know. Be sure to make plenty because once guests sample these, they will be back for more.
Yemista is a traditional Greek dish that is perfect when the tomatoes and peppers are ready for picking in your area. Of course, you can also buy tomatoes and peppers at the store, but they seem to lose some of their fresh-picked taste. When you are cooking this recipe, you must remove enough of the inside of the tomato so you can stuff it without removing too much because it will collapse. The other secret in making this recipe is to cook your rice about halfway done on the stovetop. This eliminates some of the oven time, which can also help the tomatoes hold their structure.
Slow-cooked meals are perfect for hot summer days because they do not heat up the house. It is so easy to put this in the crockpot before you head out the door for a fun day of exploring or a hard day at work. Combining the pulled pork with tomatoes, cucumbers, arugula and red onion tastes especially great in the summer. Making a tzatziki Sauce from whole-milk yogurt gives this a flavorful Greek twist. You may want to make extra meat because it tastes great on sandwiches to take to work or hiking.
When you want a fast summertime salad, Greek salad scrumptiously fills the bill. Combine cucumber, onion, bell pepper, black olives, and Feta cheese. You can easily change up the recipe to take advantage of fresh vegetables that you already have in the refrigerator or ripe ones in your garden. Instead of spending hours chopping, use your food processor. Give this recipe a surprising twist by adding avocado. It is also easy to make your own Greek salad dressing from ingredients you probably already have in the cupboard.
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