41 Greek-Inspired Recipes That'll Transport You To The Mediterranean (2024)

Known as horiatiki, this traditional Greek salad is made with cherry tomatoes, cucumber, kalamata olives, thinly sliced red onion, and feta. Simply said, it's the best. Especially considering this Mediterranean side dish only takes 15 minutes to prepare and goes perfectly with grilled chicken and baked Greek salmon.

Get the Greek Salad recipe.

Hummus is a Middle Eastern dish made of chickpeas and tahini. We love adding plenty of garlic or roasted red peppers and other spices (like everything bagel seasoning) for more flavor. Carrots and cucumber spears make a crisp, refreshing snack, especially when you pair them with a dip that can withstand the heat, like hummus.

Get the Creamy Garlic Hummus recipe.

We love this meal because it comes with lots of veggies and is perfect over orzo or rice. If you want to be extra-healthy, serve the salmon over a bed of arugula salad or spinach.

Get the Greek Salmon recipe.

It's always a thrill when you can take two mainstays of different cuisines and mash up them up into something wholly unique and delicious. After you try this, you'll realize that spanakopita and stuffed shells were always meant to be.

Get the Spanakopita Stuffed Shells recipe.

Eggplant is infinitely better grilled, and this one comes with a simple yet addicting tahini dressing too. These are best served fresh off the grill when they are still warm, but you won't have to wait long—slices that are about 1/4" to 1/2" thick grill up perfectly in roughly 6 minutes!

Get the Mediterranean Grilled Eggplant recipe.

The flavors in this recipe take their cues from shawarma, with a spice mix that's a quick shortcut to those delicious flavors, including coriander, smoked paprika, red pepper flakes, and cinnamon. Each bite of flavorful chicken is nicely balanced by the tomato-cucumber-feta salad and chewy orzo. For an interactive dinner, serve this with extra sauces on the side, like tzatziki, tahini sauce, or baba ghanoush.

Get the One-Pot Shawarma Chicken and Orzo Skillet recipe.

Although nothing's faster than picking up a sandwich from your favorite falafel joint, we promise that making these falafel balls at home is a cinch. These are herby and savory, and the crispy outside gives way to a perfectly tender and spicy interior that's perfect tucked into a pita.

Get the Homemade Falafel recipe.

Loaded with cucumbers, tomatoes, and feta, this dip was inspired by Greek salad. (Though it's missing the olives, onion, and oregano.) For a smoother, fluffy consistency, we added yogurt and cream cheese. Full disclaimer: This recipe makes a lot of dip and can easily be halved. But we've never had a problem demolishing it with some fluffy pita bread.

Get the Greek Feta Dip recipe.

Tangy and bright from generous amounts of lemon, a batch of these flavorful potatoes are great served with any number of Greek-inspired dishes. Looking to bring the flavors of your Aegean vacation home? Try these potatoes served alongside chicken souvlaki, vegetarian moussaka, or Greek shrimp.

Get the Greek Lemon Potatoes recipe.

On its own, chicken breast is sort of a blank canvas. But stuff it with Greek salad-inspired ingredients, and you've got an insanely flavorful and fun weeknight dinner. As for the technique? We looked to one of our all-time faves: primavera stuffed chicken. The trick to both is cutting the veggies super thin. If you've got a mandoline, now's the time to use it!

Get the Greek Stuffed Chicken recipe.

Souvlaki is a classic Greek street food consisting of tender pieces of marinated meat that have been skewered (in Greece, “souvla” means skewer) and cooked on a grill. We love it whether we’re serving it on skewers at a BBQ (no picnic tables? no problem!), or tucked into a pita with veggies for a yummy weekday lunch.

Get the Greek Chicken Souvlaki recipe.

Moussaka is a Greek eggplant-based dish that's traditionally made with ground beef. Here we swapped the meat with lentils to make this an even heartier vegetarian dish. The creamy béchamel sauce on top of this is INCREDIBLE.

Get the Vegetarian Moussaka recipe.

This lamb sandwich is found in casual shops and restaurants all around Greece. Pronounced YEE-roh or ZHEE-roh (it rhymes with hero), gyro sandwiches are packed with delicious spiced lamb, crunchy fresh lettuce, tomatoes, and a tangy herb-and-cucumber yogurt sauce called tzatziki.

Get the Gyro Sandwich recipe.

A simple sauce that goes well on chicken shawarma, served with more cucumbers and pita, and everything else you want it on. It's the condiment we always keep in our fridge—just in case.

Get the Best-Ever Tzatziki recipe.

Pita bread is a yeast-leavened flatbread common in Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cuisines. And once you know how to make your own, the possibilities are endless—stuff them with falafel, use it for sabich, or layer slices of shawarma with tzatziki.

Get the Homemade Pita Bread recipe.

Whenever we're craving a salad, we want something super-fresh and crisp with lots of flavor, a salad that won't leave us hungry in 30 minutes. This gorgeous salad is hearty enough to be dinner. While the salmon is cooking, you can get all of your veggie chopping done. An easy dinner with big reward!

Get the Greek Salmon Salad recipe.

These are delicious as is, but you can also stuff them into a wrap or pita your favorite veggies for a more substantial meal!

Get the Baked Falafel Bites with Spicy Tahini Dip recipe.