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Tsoureki (sweet bread)

Greek Easter is full of drama and the food follows in the same line. Throughout the Holy Week, we are supposed to abstain from meat and dairy and on Good Friday we don’t even have olive oil (other oils are ok although many older people just eat soups boiled in water).

 Mageiritsa soup

After Easter midnight mass on Saturday, we crack our red eggs and eat mageiritsa, a special soup made with lettuce, dill and innards (blech). I actually make a vegetarian version and you can find the recipe here. Then we may have some cheese  or tsoureki (a sweet bread) and that’s it. It’s after midnight, remember? And you have to leave room for the next day.

Easter Sunday is the biggest feast of all. That is, if you are not a vegetarian. That’s when people spit roast lamb ALL DAY and also eat other kinds of offal which I’d rather not talk about.

Baklavas

Sour Cherry spoon dessert

On Easter Sunday We also have lettuce salad, greek salad, tsatziki and several homemade pies like spinach pie or cheese pie. After lunch which usually lasts till dinner, we have desserts like baklava or koulourakia (butter cookies) and tsoureki.

Nafpaktos

Giant beans eaten on Good Friday in "Petrino" restaurant, Nafpaktos

Beet salad eaten in "Petrino" restaurant, Nafpaktos

Aubergine patties eaten on Good Friday in "Petrino" restaurant, Nafpaktos

This year, we spent Easter in Nafpaktos, a beautiful seaside town and we were very lucky, foodwise. Most restaurants serve great food, but especially Maria Loi’s. She is a well known Greek chef and has opened her restaurant in Nafpaktos. It’s the sweetest place and she is kind and attentive to all. She called us on the mobile to tell us she had found a table for us (the restaurant was fully reserved) and she even made special vegetarian food for us.

Fresh pasta filled with truffle at Maria Loi’s restaurant, Nafpaktos

Rocket and greens salad with a delicious vinegraitte which had some sweet fig syrup, at Maria Loi’s restaurant, Nafpaktos

Cheese cake, chocolate coated strawberries and panna cotta at Maria Loi’s restaurant, Nafpaktos

Mum’s easter salad

We had Easter Sunday lunch at my mum’s. Think Christmas dinner. Now multiply by 10. That’s my mum’s Easter lunch. This year the vegetarian options were roast potatoes, spring salad, mushroom pie, stuffed vine leaves (dolmadakia), cheese souffle, tsatziki, greek salad, the obligatory red eggs, several cheeses, and baklava and ice cream for dessert.

Mum’s mushroom pie

Mum’s stuffed vine leaves (dolmadakia) 

These dolmadakia are so tiny, just a bite and my sister and I treat them like precious gems. My mother gave some to my mother in law and my sister and I sulked. Mum said: "But I gave you too!" Whereupon we replied "Oh, yes? How many? One hundred?"