Buxton - Eat Greek for a week: fabulous food that will improve your health in seven days

Eat Greek for a Week

TONIA BUXTON

For Paul, for Paul, always for my Paul.

G REEK FOOD IS FULL OF FRESH, VIBRANT FLAVOURS, with vegetarian and vegan dishes that make your mouth water as well as slow cooked meats and lots of fish. The cuisine truly is the best food for your palate and the most amazing food for your body. This book is a wonderful representation of both facets of Greek cooking, so much so I have separated the book into five clear diets for you to follow during the course of a week. On the following pages you will find five diets, each with its own specific ingredient colour code and nutrition list (see key below). The colour of each diet corresponds to the ingredients contained in each recipe and you can therefore choose to follow a certain diet as you explore the wonderful recipes contained in this book. Eat Greek to get pregnant; eat Greek to manage and prevent diabetes; eat Greek to look and feel younger; eat Greek to increase your libido and eat Greek to reach your ideal weight each diet is tailor-made to suit your own lifestyle while incorporating some of the most amazing ingredients from the south eastern corner of Europe.

Indeed, the ingredients in my recipes are not set in stone; if you do not like ground coriander, then take it out and add cumin instead. If you prefer less garlic or more, go with your own taste preferences experiment with the recipes and most of all have fun doing it.

Here are a few pieces of advice that would be good to adhere to if you can: wherever you can afford it, buy organic. Unlike 20 years ago, organic produce is readily available in most products. There is no point in following a healthy diet if it is full of pesticides and fertilisers. Some things must be organic; anything grown under the ground, like carrots or potatoes, absorbs much more of the toxic chemicals, the same for anything soft-skinned like tomatoes and berries. Non-organic chicken, especially the breast, is full of hormones which really affect our bodies in a negative way, so it really must be organic. Never use anything white, it is just sugar so no white pasta, or rice or sugar, it all tastes so much better brown or wholemeal anyway, keeps you full and the fibre clears your insides of toxins too.

Only use Greek olives as they truly are the best in the world. I adore Kalamarta olives with their variation of hues from black to purple to brown, as they should look, (unlike Spanish black olives, for example, which are all pitch black because they are artificially dyed). The best olive oil also comes from Greece and Cyprus. For salads and eating raw use low acidity extra virgin, but if using to cook, virgin olive oil is fine.

The whole world knows how wonderful Greek yogurt is. I use many different brands and luckily most supermarkets stock Total Greek yogurt, it really is one of the best, and if you are on the Ideal Weight plan you have the option to use the 2% or 0% if you like.

This is a Greek recipe book, but if you dont fancy cooking, many of my recipes can be found at The Real Greek restaurants, where I am consulting executive chef and constantly coming up with seasonal choices or specials. Actually if you mention when ordering your meal you have my book you will get 10% off your food bill now thats Greek Filoxenia for you!

Key to Colour Coding:

Ideal Weight

Look and Feel Younger

Pregnancy

Manage and Prevent Diabetes

Libido

G OSH THERE ARE SO MANY PEOPLE WHO HAD A HAND IN THIS BOOK , and who I have to thank. First is my wonderful manager Vickie White. She has, over the 14 years I have known her, become much more than a manager, she is my friend, my adviser, she gives me courage and confidence, and sometimes she bullies me! Thank you Vickie for bullying me into writing this book, I am very proud of it.

Of course I would never dream of doing a book without my lovely Wendy Veale. She came with me on my first filming journey to the Greek islands and Cyprus, when I was rather hormonal, as I had literally just had a baby but filming had to start when Zephyros was 10 weeks old; she was there calm and kind. She is so much more than a food economist; she is a food stylist, an editor, always at hand to titivate and correct my terrible grammar! She is totally wonderful. Also in our merry trio is the brilliant Vanessa Courtier. She is an award-winning photographer who has the most wonderful eye for detail. She has written, edited and designed many books of her own and she willingly gave me all her knowledge on this book. These two wonderful English ladies are now honorary Greeks!

I have to say a special thank you to Kyprianos Constantinou for his wonderful nutritional advice and charts. We all know how good the Greek diet is; what is wonderful about Kypros is that he is able to explain the science behind it in a way that we can all understand.

To my publishers Blink who made this book a reality, especially to Clare Tillyer, Joel Simons and Nick Otway, for their patience! To Lisa Hoare, Lizzie Dorney-Kingdom and Tish Tilley, for all their enthusiasm, and to all the team at Blink for being lovely!

A big thank you to the lovely Nabil Mankarious of The Real Greek; I have such fun working on recipes and press events, and special thanks to Christos Karatzenis and Emily Douglas, along with the whole Real Greek team for making coming to work such a joy!

Thank you to my children Antigoni, Sophia, Zephyros and Zeno for being really quite pulchritudinous. I never tell them enough how much I love them but I do, very much. My greatest acknowledgement goes to my husband Paul, without whom I would never have achieved a thing. It has been his unrelenting belief in me and support that has given me the courage to think I can conquer all.

When a mans stomach is full it makes no difference whether he is rich or poor

Euripides