How to Cook a Healthy Greek Dinner

If you hadn’t already noticed by my incessant tweeting about it, I’m currently on a pre-holiday diet. This is how I feel about it -_-

I love food, but all the food I love, is bad for me. I’m a massive emotional eater; I eat to celebrate when I’m happy, and eat to console when I’m sad. Having food that tastes good, and that I enjoy eating, is really important to me, so I’m always on the lookout for recipes and meals that taste as good as all of my junk food, that also don’t require a stupid amount of complicated equipment/processes.

Part of my new ‘Food and Drink Simplified’ series on Blonde Vision, with inspiration taken from Greek influences, I recently cooked a low fat, massively filling meal for Luke and I, which included, homemade flatbread, grilled chicken kebabs, tzatziki sauce and a Greek salad, so I wanted to share the recipe with you guys!

This is literally the easiest meal to cook because it doesn’t involve any skill or precision. I don’t tend to cook using measurements, it’s more of a throw it all together and hope for the best, but hey, it tasted amazing, and I didn’t waste my time measuring out each individual ingredient.

I’ve spilt the ingredients down into what you would need per item just in case you don’t want to make it all at once!

You will need:

Skewers

Chicken – I usually do one breast per person but it’s totally up to you!

Wooden skewers

1/2 lemon

Olive Oil

Oregano

Parsley

Coriander

Salt

(I have seen recipes which include red wine vinegar, black pepper and garlic included too but 1. I don’t like either of those three, and 2. I didn’t want to buy them just to make this dish any way! It’s totally up to you if you want to include them if you’ve already got them lying around at home, but if not, they taste just as good without it)

Flatbread

Plain flour

Non-fat Greek yoghurt

Tzatziki Sauce

1/2 cucumber

Non- fat Greek Yoghurt

½ lemon

Dill

Salt

Oregano (this wasn’t in the original recipe but I put it in any way!)

Greek Salad

½ cucumber

Lettuce

Red onion

Tomato

Feta Cheese

Oregano

Olive Oil

With the herbs, you can of course but them fresh but I found they come in big packs and go off quickly so I bought the bottles of dried herbs instead as they last so long and are perfect in the cupboard for adding flavour to quick meals.

Instructions

Skewers

Soak the wooden skewers in water before use to ensure they don’t catch on fire under the grill

Preheat the grill to a medium heat

In a large bowl, squeeze the juice from ½ a lemon, add a small splash oil and then about ½ teaspoon of parsley, coriander and salt, and two teaspoons of oregano and mix together.  The measurements of the herbs don’t have to be exact at all, put as much or as little in.

Add in the diced chicken breast and mix together to coat. I usually prick the chicken with the knife which helps the mixture soak inside giving the chicken flavour inside and out. For extra flavour, do this part the night before, cover over and leave in the fridge overnight. The longer the meat has to marinade, the stronger the flavour will be.

Thread the chicken on to the skewers and place under the grill turning every 3-4 minutes until cooked through

Flatbread

*warning: this gets VERY VERY messy!!*

Mix together equal parts yoghurt and plain flour in a bowl

Sprinkle a bit of plain flour on the worktop so the dough doesn’t stick

Grab a fist size (approx.) piece of dough from the bowl and either roll/pat/squash it down to until very thin. Thin dough will make flatbread and thicker dough will create a pitta/nann type bread. It depends on personal preference, I prefer thicker ones but technically flatbread should be really thin!

Once in the size and shape you want, place the dough on a griddle pan on a medium to high heat. Turn every 30 seconds or so until cooked and browned

Tzatziki Sauce

Depending on how much sauce you want to have, put about 50g of yoghurt in a bowl and add the juice from half a lemon, a tablespoon of dill and oregano and about ½ a cucumber peeled and diced into a bowl and combine

Greek Salad

Combine about half cucumber diced, lettuce, chopped tomatoes and diced red onion in a bowl. Add a few pinches of oregano, a splash of olive oil and then sprinkle with feta cheese

So there we are, so simple, and literally a case of getting the ingredients, throwing them all in a bowl and mixing together! For an even healthier meal you can remove the cheese and the flatbread, but in my opinion, they make the meal!

If you’re interested in other ‘food and drink simplified’ recipes, don’t forget to check out the other posts in this series:

Homemade Chicken Nuggets and Sausage Rolls

A Simple Passionfruit Martini

Let me know if you give any of these recipes a go at home! 

Love Lauren xx