What an honor it is to be able to present about Global Halal Cuisine, to the wonderful students, staffa nd alumni of Ohio University, my alma mater. These are the recipes presented, so that you can download and print each one, with links to additional Turkish recipes (the theme of our presentation) to enjoy and share, Afiyet Olsen!
Turkish Borek (Filo Spinach Pie) with a glass of çay (tea) by the sea in Fethiye, Turkiye.
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Truthfully, I was hesitant to dive in because I knew it would take me to a dream world I might not ever get back to in real life. When I lived in Turkiye and traveled along the Aegean Coast, I was always trying to get to Ikaria, but could never make it.
The adventurer inside of me remembered my young self..
When I was just 19 years old, I became a solo traveler through Europe, by accident. I was visiting my family in Sicily when I got the travel bug to see more and more, so I hopped on a train to Bari and took a ferry through the Adriatic and landed on the island of Corfu.
This was way back before the internet, blogs and social media hailed the glories of solo travels, women solo travelers especially, and all the hot spots to take a selfie. Instead, I was able to peacefully take photos, meet incredibly warm local villagers who showed me their gardens and invited me for fresh home-grown watermelon. I ate the purest seafood directly from Aegean, unseasoned vegetable salads that actually taught me what cucumbers are supposed to be, and spoke to village Yaiyas about their secrets to reaching old age in such a healthy way. One told me to always peel your cucumber!
While enjoying my little cup of Greek coffee and a village breakfast high up in a mountainside home for just $12 USD per night, I wrote in my diary (not a laptop or cell phone notes) a vow to myself that I would someday make a life for myself in the Mediterranean. To live in this simplicity. In this healthy air. To have neighbors, friends and family that were just as kind, happy, quiet and hard-working as the people of Corfu.
Fast forward to now and my life looks nothing like that. I broke all the promises to myself about living in the Mediterranean. I’ve tried and feel like I failed, but I have learned to cook some pretty great things.
And I’ve learned to bring the Mediterranean lifestyle with me wherever I go, as much as I possibly can.
One way I do that is to eat as many greens as possible. To get as much sunshine as possible. To keep inspiring myself with stories, books, and recipes about the Mediterranean so that I can share that with all of you.
So I wanted to bring you a recipe this week that invokes both sides of the Aegean Sea, yet shared in both Greece and Turkiye. This is my specific take on it, my version, with the greens that I could find: Aegean Village Greens Pie. It’s not a sweet “pie”. Pie in this culinary cultural context is savory.
Aegean Village Greens Pie
Serves 6
I always tell people not to be intimidate by fillo dough. It’s much more forgiving than you think. I’m not including a recipe for homemade fillo dough now, because first I want you to get used to sourcing and cooking- and enjoyably eating those greens!
First, go out and look for greens- not just spinach. I promise you, you’ll find them. Also, spring onions and leeks (leave out the leeks if you can’t find them, it’s okay):
Spinach
Dandelions
Beets (you’ll use only the greens)
Swiss Chard (any variety)
Spring onions
Leeks
Next, I want you to look for fresh herbs and onions. Please try to avoid dried herbs for this recipe, except for dried thyme.
Dill
Parsley (flat leaf, if possible)
Mint
Next, I want you to find the creamiest feta cheese possible:
For me, the best one is the Macedonian style feta cheese (more readily found in Canada). You can use other types of feta, but in my opinion most are way too dry except for perhaps the Valbreso brand French Feta Cheese, which is more easily found in the U.S. I think I may have even seen it at Costco…
*I used Sotidakis Goat Feta Chevre (from Costco) once and it was good, but not moist enough for this recipe, in my opinion.*
If you can’t find either, then so be it – just use what you can find.
Lastly, find a good fillo dough (in the freezer section of most Mediterranean and Middle Eastern markets, as well as most grocery stores). My go-tos are Fillo Factory Organic or Krinos, but you can really use any that work for savory pies. Just make sure they’re not shaped like a triangle or molded into cups- that’s for other types of fillo dishes. You’re going to bring the fillo home and put it in the refrigerator. But not for too many days (3-4 days tops), otherwise it will start to get moldy.
You’ll probably have the rest of the ingredients on hand at home, but just in case:
A really great quality olive oil (that should be part of your cooking at all times, anyway, not just for this recipe). Might I be a little bit proud and mention our beloved Oil of Anatolia from Turkiye?
Farm fresh eggs
Black seed or sesame seeds (whichever you wish to top the spinach pies with)
Milk, for mixing with oil or butter, to wash the fillo
Silicone pastry brush
Rectangular deep pan (i.e. lasagna pan is good but a bit large). Round pans are okay but you’ll have to fanagle the fillo, which can be annoying
Measurements of Ingredients:
Approximately 3 cups cooked greens mixture (see below)
Fresh or dried garlic or garlic powder (optional)
All fresh herbs, washed, dried and roughly chopped
1-2 eggs (1 large or 2 small)
3/4 cup Feta cheese
1 teaspoon crushed black or white pepper
dry thyme or oregano (1-2 teaspoons)
1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)
1 packet fillo (also spelled “phyllo”) dough, thawed in the refrigerator
Directions for Assembling and Baking:
HOW TO COOK THE GREENS
Wash and dry all the greens and onions. If using, chop the stems of any Swiss chard finely. If using spring onions or leeks, use the white parts for this recipe by chopping them finely.
In a small saute pan or pot, gently heat the olive oil. Add the onions then the stems or hardy parts of any of the greens. If you want you can add garlic (1 clove fresh) or garlic powder (1/2 teaspoon), too. Cook down until softened and set aside to cool completely.
ASSEMBLY & BAKING DIRECTIONS
To a large bowl, add the greens. Add the herbs, eggs, feta, pepper and dried oregano or thyme and mix well. If necessary, add salt. Set this bowl aside.
Prepare one cup of warm milk and add a generous drizzle of olive oil to it You can also/alternatively add a tablespoon of melted butter. This will be your wash for each layer of the fillo dough. Preheat the oven to 425 F.
To the bottom of the baking pan, brush it generously with olive oil only.
Open the packet of fillo dough. It will be large and rectangular. Cut it in half vertically so that you have two sections. Keep one out to work with and cover the other half with a damp towel. These pieces should fit the size of the pan with which you’re working.
Brush the first layer with the milk-olive oil/butter. Continue to do this with each and every layer of this first half of fillo sheets. When you have finished the first half, pour the cooked greens/feta/egg mixture on top and level it flat with a spatula. Drizzle olive oil on top generously.
Continue to use the other half of fillo sheets and brush each layer with the milk-olive oil mixture until you get to the very last layer on top. Drizzle the top generously with olive oil. Sprinkle sesame or black seeds on top and bak in the oven for 30-35 minutes.
Let cool a few minutes before cutting. Serve with a fresh cucumber-tomato-olive salad, if desired.Καλή όρεξηKalí órexi / Afiyet olsun! Share Everyday Mediterranean by Yvonne Maffei if you’d like to subscribe to my culinary newsletter on Substack.
Çoban Salata (Cho-ban Suh-la-ta), also known as Turkish Shepherd’s salad is by far the most well-known Turkish salad outside of Turkiye. You’ll find very similar and versions and some exactly the same being served in Middle Eastern and Mediterranean restaurants because it’s also common in those cuisines, as well- particularly Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria. I’ve also seen it in the breakfast buffet at a hotel in Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt.
Because it goes well with all meats and fish (or can be a meal on its own, with some crusty bread and fresh cheese), it really is one of the most versatile salad recipes around- and it couldn’t be easier to make.
One variation that is super-interesting and tasty and is common to the Southeastern region of Turkiye is to add pomegranate molasses to it. All the same ingredients, just add about one tablespoon molasses if you’re using the same recipe below.
My version of Çoban Salata, served for lunch at the World Bank Group in Washington, D.C. (May 2023)
This is the most popular Turkish salad, one which you’ll find all over Turkiye, but also very similar versions throughout the Middle East and Mediterranean region. It goes well with all meats and fish or can be a meal on its own, with some crusty bread and fresh cheese, which is what makes it one of the most versatile salad recipes around.
Ingredients
3-4 medium size Persian cucumbers, cut in half lengthwise and roughly chopped
3 medium tomatoes, roughly chopped
3 spring onions, finely chopped
One handful of flat leaf or curly parsley, roughly chopped
Have you ever come up with a dish that is so tasty you think you invented it yourself, only to find out later that it’s actually one of the great national dishes of not one but many different nations?
Well, that happened to me when I thought I was a culinary genius for coming up with the most delicious breakfast egg dish I’d ever eaten. I was simply using leftover ingredients that I had on hand from my mostly Italian/Sicilian/Mediterranean cooking. Well, little did I realize that everywhere from Palestine to Turkey to Lebanon and Algeria, everyone has been making this dish, or something very similar to it: Shakhshouka (also spelled Shakshuka).
In Turkey, the same ingredients (onion, peppers, tomato sauce) are used but the eggs are scrambled and the dish is called Menemen. An Italian version might use leftover tomato sauce, and in Algeria or Morocco they spell it Chakchouka. In some Middle Eastern recipes they add nutmeg; I do not ever put nutmeg in mine.
I recently worked on a video project for American Muslims for Palestine called Turning Tables, so watch out for that to be published in the near future. I was asked to make a Palestinian recipe or one that was inspired by Palestinian cuisine, so I decided to make my version of Shakhshouka, inspired by the cookbook, The Gaza Kitchen by Laila Al-Haddad, which now has a new and updated version.
Gently warm the olive oil in a large saute pan. Add the onion, green and red peppers and jalapeno. Cook until the peppers have softened. Add the sea salt and ground pepper as they cook.
Add the tomato paste and swirl around the pan to dissolve it as much as possible. Add 1-2 teaspoons of water to thin it out. Add the paprika. Cook until the water has mostly evaporated.
With a wooden spoon, carve out 4 round spots in the pan and crack one egg into each spot. Reduce the heat to medium-low and let cook until the white membrane of the eggs have cooked and whitened.
Remove from heat and drizzle the dish with olive oil, the crumbled feta and chopped parsley. Serve family style on a hot plate on the table, with fresh and warm pita bread.
Bismillah and Sahtein!
You can see a slightly different, faster version that I made for breakfast recently and posted on my Instagram page:
This recipe seemed to be buried under my nostalgic ode to Ohio in a post I wrote years ago after a memorable trip to visit my family. I spent a lot of time with my late Sicilian grandmother and my aunts on that trip. It was a fantastic time of year because so much of the summer harvest was still bearing fruit and everyone was happy and generous, eager to cook and enjoy the rustic countryside of Ohio that I grew up with and have loved and missed over the years.
This recipe for Sicilian Swiss Chard is one that my aunt made in just a few minutes. I never really knew that it was something my grandmother liked to make and eat because it wasn’t one of those things she made for the Sunday dinners, which were more family-style meals (think lasagna or pasta with meatballs), so I learned something new about her during this visit- and I also learned that I had unknowingly inherited a love of greens and that learning how to make something this simple would be one of the healthiest types of dishes in my repertoire to date. It’s something I have made over and over again, with spinach or kale instead, and it saved me many times when I lived in Turkey and there was an abundance of greens to cook. I hope you’ll enjoy it and prepare it for yourself and your family, too.
Sicilian Swiss Chard Recipe
Serves 2
Ingredients
1/2 pound ripe tomatoes, peeled and cut into small pieces. I recommend this Italian boxed variety if you don’t have fresh tomatoes on hand.
1 bunch red or green-stemmed Swiss chard, cooked and drained of all water. Substitute spinach or kale if you don’t have Swiss chard. (Always choose organic/pesticide-free on the greens, if possible).
One of my neighbors passed on some of their long garden green beans to me, which I relish so much- anything from home gardens, without chemicals and given with a warm heart and smile is absolutely golden.
Since real organic, super fresh foods tend to break down quickly, I processed them the same day by immediately boiling them in salted water for 20 minutes. While they were cooking, I peeled and chopped fresh tomatoes (if you only have canned chopped tomatoes, use those but drain the juices), added a healthy dose of really good olive oil, crushed up 3-4 garlic cloves, and some super fresh chopped parsley.
Divine on its own as a salad, it’s also an absolutely lovely side dish to meat or fish. With it being so super simple to make (especially in this heatwave) it also tastes nice cold, too. I’ve been making this type of salad for years, always thinking it was a “Sicilian” way of making these summer beans, but maybe it’s just a common Mediterranean style because I’ve seen a lot of Turkish recipes go pretty much the same. Either way, wherever it originated or wherever it’s most common just doesn’t matter- it’s simple, healthy and delicious. That’s what matters….
