Crispy Greek-style pie

One of my main source of inspiration is the BBC Good Food website (I'm sure you've noticed that already) and for the past few months I've bought the magazines as well. I have to say that some recipes appear both online and in the magazines, but there is nothing better than flicking through the glossy pages and earmarking everything I want to cook in the near future. And trust me, there are a lot of recipes I've marked so far.

As I bought the latest edition and went through it, the Feta pie just looked too good not to give it a go. So I got the ingredients and made the pie and I have to say it was just divine. Incredibly crispy on the outside and the filling just melted in my mouth - even my other half who's not big on Feta helped himself to a second serving! I also love the fact that there's no added salt in this pie as Feta is salty enough to flavour the whole pie.

It is a lovely summery dish and makes a great lunch or dinner or even a starter. Serve it with generous amounts of green salad for a healthy and quick meal that is guaranteed to leave you satisfied at the end.

Ingredients

(Serves 4)
- 200g spinach leaves
- 175g jar of sundried tomatoes in oil
- 100g Feta
- 2 eggs
- Green salad, to serve
- 125g filo pastry

Directions
Put the spinach in a large pan with 2 tbsp water and cook until just wilted. Place in in a sieve and leave to cool for a bit. Squeeze out the excess water and roughly chop the spinach and place it in the bowl. Roughly chop the tomatoes and then add to the spinach along with eggs and crumbled feta. Mix well to combine.

Preheat the oven to 160C (fan) and prepare the filo crust. Carefully unroll the filo pastry (let it thaw a bit) and cover it with damp sheets of kitchen towel to stop it from drying out. Take one sheet of pastry and brush it generously with the sundried tomato oil. Place it oily side down into a springform tin so that some of the pastry hangs out over the side. Repeat that until you have 3 layers. Spoon over the spinach mixture and pull the overhanging sides into middle, crunch them up and make sure the filling is covered (if necessary place another sheet of pastry on top before folding the edges) and brush with little more oil on top.

Bake for 30 minutes until the pastry is crispy and golden brown. Remove from the tim, slice into wedges and serve with a green salad.

Recipe from BBC GoodFood Asian Edition May 2013

Pepper & Feta parcels

I made those filled peppers for a BBQ we had yesterday. This was the first time I tried something different from a fresh salad to accompany the meat and I have to say that although the prepping to a bit longer than the usual tomato-cucumber-lettuce salad the result was really worth the extra effort. Although I know BBQs tend to always be about meat (and lots of it) I think it is equally important to offer something nice to go with all the meat that tastes nice both with meat and without it (this is really important if you have vegetarian friends).

After flicking through all the recipes I have under side dishes I came down to either this one or a more simple feta and tomato parcels. I know this will sound a bit too simplistic but I picked this one because it looked a lot more colourful than the other one - and they say that it is important to keep you vegetables colourful in order to get all the necessary vitamins. And to be fair, something nice and colourful looks really nice next to some BBQ meat.

All in all, these take around 15 minutes to prepare, but they are so worth the effort. I received compliments for those parcels from both my vegetarian friend as well as the meat eaters, so they must be good. So next time when you have a BBQ (or for the very first BBQ of the season which I know are coming up as soon as the snow melts and temperature becomes bearable) instead of serving a fresh green salad surprise your guests with those delicious vitamin filled parcels - trust me, they'll be a big hit with all the guests and you might even have to share the recipe afterwards :)

Ingredients
(Serves 8 - approximately 142 cal per serving)
- 1/2 red onion
- 4 baby courgettes, halved and sliced
- 16 cherry tomatoes, halved
- 16 black olives
- 2 tbsp shredded basil
- Olive oil
- 4 red peppers, halved and seeds removed
- Salt
- Pepper

Directions
In a bowl, mix the chopped onion, courgette, tomatoes and olives. Crumble over the feta and add the basil. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.

Divide the filling up between pepper halves. Cook them on a barbecue or in a hot oven until the vegetables are tender.

Recipe from BBC Goodfood

Cool cucumber salad

As the summer is approaching (and as I am currently in hot and humid Singapore), I decided to have a light and refreshing salad for lunch. This would go well as a side dish at a BBQ and because of the soothing effect of the cucumber it would be perfect companion for (very) spicy dishes.

Ingredients
(Serves 1 - 22 cal)
- 125g cucumber, sliced thinly
- fresh coriander leaves, shopped
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp sugar
- 1/4 red pepper, sliced
- fresh mint leaves, to garnish

Directions
Slice the cucumber thinly and place in a bowl or a plate and place in the fridge to chill for at least an hour or until serving.

To make the dressing, mix together the lemon juice, chopped coriander leaves, salt and sugar.

When ready to serve, take out the cucumber, pour over the dressing just before serving and garnish with stripes of red pepper and mint leaves.