Ingredient
25 Greek Recipes with Feta and Other Greek Cheeses
Feta is a protected designation product, made from sheep's milk with up to thirty percent goat, and brined in barrels or tins. It is in more Greek dishes than any other single ingredient. The other Greek cheeses are here too: halloumi, kefalotyri, graviera, mizithra and manouri.
Feta is a protected product, made from sheep's milk with up to thirty percent goat and brined in barrels or tins. It is in more Greek dishes than any other single ingredient. This page takes in the other Greek cheeses as well.
Feta is eaten three ways. Raw, as a slab on a Greek salad. Baked, with honey and sesame, with tomato, or with peppers the way Thessaloniki does it. And cooked inside something else: courgette fritters, bifteki, stuffed peppers, a long line of pies.
The other cheeses mostly meet a hot pan. Saganaki is made with a hard cheese such as kefalotyri or graviera, not with feta. Halloumi is the cheese of Cyprus. Manouri is grilled and served with honey. Soft mizithra and anari go into sweet pies and onto pasta.
Every recipe on Kalliopi's Kitchen carries the dish's Greek name and a pronunciation, its region where that is meaningful, ingredient quantities in both metric and imperial, and an honest note on what commonly goes wrong. Nutrition figures are calculated estimates and are labelled as such.
1. Greek Salad
Horiatiki salata · Χωριάτικη σαλάτα · hor-YAH-tee-kee sah-LAH-tah
Horiatiki means village salad: what was growing outside, chopped and oiled. There is no lettuce in it. The feta goes on top as one thick slab, never crumbled, and you break bits off as you eat. The dressing is olive oil, a splash of red wine vinegar, salt and oregano, straight into the bowl.
Yiayia’s tip: Room temperature, not fridge cold. Cold blunts tomato flavour badly. Take the tomatoes and feta out of the fridge half an hour before you build the salad.
Make Greek Salad2. Saganaki
Σαγανάκι · sah-ghah-NAH-kee
The name is the pan's, not the cheese's. A small two-handled frying pan is a sagani, and anything cooked in one is a saganaki, prawns and mussels included. The cheese must be firm and low in moisture, usually kefalotyri or graviera, or it runs into a puddle. Three minutes, then straight to the table.
Yiayia’s tip: Thick slices only. Under about 1.5 cm the cheese has melted through before the outside has coloured. Thickness is what buys you the contrast between crust and molten centre.
Make Saganaki3. Grilled Halloumi
Halloumi · Χαλλούμι · hah-LOO-mee
Cypriot, protected, and made from sheep and goat milk. The curd is heated in whey before it is brined, which is why the cheese browns and softens on the heat and still keeps its shape. Mint belongs to it from the start: a dried sprig is folded in before the brine. Cook it last.
Yiayia’s tip: No oil, hot pan. Halloumi releases its own fat. Oil just makes it greasy and encourages it to spit.
Make Grilled Halloumi4. Courgette Fritters with Feta
Kolokithokeftedes · Κολοκυθοκεφτέδες · ko-lo-kee-tho-kef-TEH-des
Every Greek island has its own version: grated courgette, feta and herbs, fried crisp and eaten hot with tzatziki and lemon. A courgette is over ninety percent water. The whole method is a fight against that, because water left in the mix means more flour, and more flour means a heavy fritter.
Yiayia’s tip: Squeeze twice. Once after the salting, then again just before mixing. Courgettes keep releasing water and the second squeeze always yields more.
Make Courgette Fritters with Feta5. Cypriot Easter Cheese Pastries
Flaounes · Φλαούνες · flah-OO-nes
Easter baking in Cyprus, done once a year and in huge batches, because every relative expects a share. A yeasted dough scented with mahlepi and mastic is folded around grated hard cheeses, egg, dried mint and often raisins, then topped with sesame. It is a project that fills most of a day.
Yiayia’s tip: Make the filling a day ahead. It firms up overnight in the fridge, which makes shaping far easier and lets the mint and cheese flavours settle together.
Make Cypriot Easter Cheese Pastries6. Spicy Whipped Feta Dip
Tirokafteri · Τυροκαυτερή · tee-roh-kaf-teh-REE
The dip with heat in it. Its name translates as spicy cheese, and on a meze table it sits beside the cooler tzatziki and melitzanosalata. It is feta whipped with roasted red pepper, olive oil and chilli, in about ten minutes. How hot is up to the household. Start low: chilli cannot be taken out.
Yiayia’s tip: Use good feta. There is nowhere for a bland, watery feta to hide in this dip. A firm, tangy, well-made feta makes a genuine difference.
Make Spicy Whipped Feta Dip7. Bifteki
Μπιφτέκι · bif-TEH-kee
More a steak shaped by hand than a burger, and it takes a knife and fork, not a bun. Grated onion, herbs and, in some kitchens, a little soaked bread make it softer and juicier than plain beef. Many versions hide a core of feta. Medium-high heat, not fierce, so the centre cooks through.
Yiayia’s tip: Seal the edges properly. A poorly pinched seam lets the feta leak out onto the grill as soon as it melts. Press and smooth the whole edge firmly closed.
Make Bifteki8. Pontic Boat-Shaped Cheese Bread
Peinirli · Πεϊνιρλί · peh-nir-LEE
An open boat of leavened bread, brought to Thessaloniki and other northern cities by Pontic Greek refugees after 1922. The top stays open so the cheese bubbles and colours in the oven's heat. Cheese alone is the classic filling, though ham, sausage or an egg are common. It wants the hottest oven setting there is.
Yiayia’s tip: Pinch the ends firmly. A loose seal at the points lets the melted filling leak out during baking. Press and pinch properly to close them.
Make Pontic Boat-Shaped Cheese Bread9. Mykonos Spicy Whipped Cheese
Kopanisti Mykonou · Κοπανιστή Μυκόνου · koh-pah-nee-STEE mee-KOH-noo
The real thing is fermented on Mykonos, has protected status, and is nearer in strength to a strong blue cheese than to feta. Fermenting it is dairy work, not kitchen work, so this version whips soft cheeses with chilli and a splash of ouzo or tsipouro. Spread it thickly on bread or a barley rusk.
Yiayia’s tip: Taste and adjust the chilli as you go. The heat is meant to be genuinely noticeable, not a background note, but it is easier to add more than to fix an overly spicy batch.
Make Mykonos Spicy Whipped Cheese10. Makarounes Karpathou
Μακαρούνες Καρπάθου · mah-kah-ROO-nes kar-PAH-thoo
Karpathos makes its pasta by hand: flour and water, rolled into short, thick pieces. Three things go on the plate: the pasta, onion cooked down dark and sweet, and a heavy grating of hard cheese. The cheese is the third essential part of the dish, not a garnish. Humble food, and filling.
Yiayia’s tip: Do not rush the onion. A genuine thirty to forty minutes over low heat is what gives it the deep, sweet, jammy quality the dish depends on. Higher heat browns it unevenly and bitterly instead.
Make Makarounes Karpathou11. Epirus Hand-Rolled Cheese Pie
Tyropita Ipirou · Τυρόπιτα Ηπείρου · tee-ROH-pee-tah ee-PEE-roo
No region of Greece is taken more seriously for its hand-made pies than Epirus. Its cheese pie reverses the usual ratio: two or three thick sheets around a deep filling of feta, egg and milk, nearer to baked custard than to crumbled cheese. Rest it fifteen minutes or it will not cut cleanly.
Yiayia’s tip: Layer several sheets thick to approximate hand-rolled phyllo. Genuine Epirus phyllo uses far fewer, thicker sheets than a standard pie. Stacking shop-bought sheets gets you closer to that structure.
Make Epirus Hand-Rolled Cheese Pie12. Leek Pie
Prasopita · Πρασόπιτα · prah-SOH-pee-tah
Spanakopita's winter cousin. Leeks are at their best in the cold months, when spinach is not, and they get the same treatment: bound with feta, egg and herbs inside layers of phyllo. It freezes well unbaked, so one can be built ahead for a winter weeknight.
Yiayia’s tip: Do not rush the leeks. A genuine fifteen to twenty minutes over low heat is what turns them soft and sweet. Undercooked leeks give the filling an unpleasant, sharp edge.
Make Leek Pie13. Cheese Triangle Pastries
Tiropitakia trigona · Τυροπιτάκια τρίγωνα · tee-roh-pee-TAH-kyah TREE-goh-nah
A full cheese pie scaled down for the party tray and the lunchbox, with the same feta and egg inside. The skill is the fold: a long strip of phyllo turned corner over corner into a triangle, like a paper flag. The first few take practice. They freeze raw and bake straight from frozen.
Yiayia’s tip: Keep unused phyllo covered. It dries out and cracks quickly once exposed to air. Work with a damp tea towel over the rest of the stack.
Make Cheese Triangle Pastries14. Spinach and Cheese Pie
Spanakotyropita · Σπανακοτυρόπιτα · spah-nah-koh-tee-ROH-pee-tah
At home, this is arguably the pie Greeks eat most, more than the all-spinach one people outside Greece picture. It has more cheese than spanakopita and far more spinach than tyropita, and it is its own dish, not either one in disguise. The cheese rounds the flavour and makes the filling more forgiving.
Yiayia’s tip: Squeeze the spinach properly dry. Any leftover water makes the filling wet and the finished pastry soggy. Work in batches and squeeze hard.
Make Spinach and Cheese Pie15. Orzo Pasta Salad
Kritharosalata · Κριθαρόσαλατα · kree-thah-roh-sah-LAH-tah
A modern dish, not an inherited one. In recent decades cold orzo salad has become a fixture of Greek barbecues and picnics, built from the vegetables and dressing of a horiatiki. Make it ahead: the pasta wants a few hours in the fridge to take up the dressing. It lasts for days.
Yiayia’s tip: Rinse the orzo after cooking. This stops it cooking further and cools it quickly, which matters for a cold salad.
Make Orzo Pasta Salad16. Fried Smoked Cheese from Epirus
Saganaki Metsovone · Σαγανάκι μετσοβόνε · sah-gah-NAH-kee mets-oh-VOH-neh
Most saganaki is fried from whatever firm cheese is in the house. This one insists on Metsovone, the smoked cheese of Metsovo, a mountain town in Epirus, and frying concentrates both the smoke and the salt. The method is the usual one: flour, a hot pan, lemon at the end.
Yiayia’s tip: Watch the heat closely. The flour coating can burn quickly at the temperature this dish needs. Keep an eye on it rather than walking away.
Make Fried Smoked Cheese from Epirus17. Baked Feta with Honey and Sesame
Feta psiti me meli · Φέτα ψητή με μέλι · FEH-tah psee-TEE meh meh-LEE
Warm feta without the frying. The cheese is in the oven only until it is warm and the edges give, with none of the hard crust of saganaki. Then come honey, toasted sesame and a little chilli: salt against sweet is the whole idea. It is a recent arrival on the taverna table.
Yiayia’s tip: Use a whole block, not pre-crumbled feta. This lets it hold its shape and soften at the edges rather than collapsing into a puddle in the oven.
Make Baked Feta with Honey and Sesame18. Stuffed Courgette Flowers
Kolokithoanthoi gemistoi · Κολοκυθοανθοί γεμιστοί · koh-loh-kee-thoh-an-THEE yeh-mee-STEE
Only possible in the short stretch of summer when courgette plants are in flower. Each flower is filled with rice, herbs and feta and steamed gently, nearer a small dolma than the crisp fried flowers some tavernas serve. Filling dozens by hand is fiddly work. Fill them loosely, because the rice swells.
Yiayia’s tip: Use the flowers as fresh as possible. They wilt within hours of picking, so plan to fill and cook them the same day you get them.
Make Stuffed Courgette Flowers19. Potato Fritters
Patatokeftedes · Πατατοκεφτέδες · pah-tah-toh-kef-TEH-thes
The keftedes family is a wide one, with courgette and chickpea versions and this: mashed potato bound with egg and feta, with fresh mint or dill through it. Fluffy in the middle, crisp at the edge. Twenty minutes in the fridge keeps the patties whole in the oil. Eat them hot, not reheated.
Yiayia’s tip: Boil the potatoes whole and unpeeled. This keeps them from absorbing extra water, which would otherwise make the mash too wet to shape properly.
Make Potato Fritters20. Pasta with Fresh Mizithra Cheese
Makaronia me mizithra · Μακαρόνια με μυζήθρα · mah-kah-ROH-nyah meh mee-ZEE-thrah
Pasta from the days before Greek kitchens went in for elaborate sauces. One cheese does the work in two forms. Fresh mizithra, a whey cheese from Crete and elsewhere, mild with a slight tang, is folded through with butter, and the aged, hard kind is grated on top for salt and sharpness.
Yiayia’s tip: Toss the butter through while the pasta is still steaming hot. This is what helps the fresh mizithra soften and cling properly, rather than sitting as separate crumbles on top of cooling pasta.
Make Pasta with Fresh Mizithra Cheese21. Baked Feta with Tomato
Feta psiti me ntomata · Φέτα ψητή με ντομάτα · FEH-tah psee-TEE meh doh-MAH-tah
The savoury baked feta, not the one with honey and nuts. A block bakes with cherry tomatoes, oregano, garlic and chilli until the cheese is soft and the tomatoes have burst. It is a modern meze and needs almost no skill. It spreads best warm, a few minutes out of the oven.
Yiayia’s tip: Use a good amount of olive oil. It combines with the tomato juices as they blister to form the light sauce this dish depends on. Skimping leaves it drier than it should be.
Make Baked Feta with Tomato22. Cypriot Halloumi and Mint Ravioli
Ravioles · Ραβιόλες · rah-vee-OH-les
Cypriot, not Italian, whatever the shape suggests. The half-moons are filled with halloumi, egg and dried mint, boiled in chicken broth and eaten in it, with no sauce. A household makes dozens at the kitchen table and freezes them raw, which is why they belong to Sundays and name days.
Yiayia’s tip: Use fresh halloumi, not a hard brined block. Fresh, young halloumi softens and binds properly and is not overly salty once enclosed. A hard, heavily brined block stays rubbery and can turn the whole dish too salty.
Make Cypriot Halloumi and Mint Ravioli23. Thessaloniki Baked Feta with Peppers
Bougiourdi · Μπουγιουρντί · boo-yoor-DEE
Practically every ouzeri in Thessaloniki has this on the menu. Feta is layered with tomato, green pepper and plenty of hot chilli in a small clay dish. The name is Turkish in origin and means branded or burnt, so the top should catch and blister. Without the heat it is only a baked feta.
Yiayia’s tip: Do not add salt. Feta brings all the salt this dish needs and then some. Season with pepper and oregano only, and taste before you consider anything else.
Make Thessaloniki Baked Feta with Peppers24. Stuffed Florina Peppers
Piperies Florinis gemistes · Πιπεριές Φλωρίνης γεμιστές · pee-peh-ree-ES floh-REE-nees yeh-mee-STES
The red pepper of Florina, in Greek Macedonia, is thin-walled, sweeter than a bell pepper and less bitter. Filled with feta and herbs and baked, it makes a meze of two or three bites. Good jarred roasted Florina peppers are a respected shortcut, not a compromise. The feta is salty already, so taste before salting.
Yiayia’s tip: Handle roasted peppers gently. They are delicate and tear easily once skinned. Support each one in your hand while spooning in the filling.
Make Stuffed Florina Peppers25. Hand-Rolled Courgette Pie
Kolokithopita Epirou · Κολοκυθόπιτα Ηπείρου · koh-loh-kee-THOH-pee-tah ee-PEE-roo
No region of Greece matches Epirus for pies, and this courgette, feta and herb one is among the most common. The hand-rolled phyllo is thicker and more rustic than supermarket sheets, in fewer and larger pieces, and bakes into a heartier pie. Rolling it takes practice. Extra layers of shop-bought phyllo are a fair substitute.
Yiayia’s tip: Drain the courgette properly. This filling carries more water than a spinach pie. Salting and squeezing thoroughly is what keeps the finished pie from turning soggy.
Make Hand-Rolled Courgette Pie
More Greek Recipes with Feta and Other Greek Cheeses
29 more, 54 in all.
SpanakopitaSpanakopita ΣπανακόπιταBreads and Pies · 1h 30m · serves 8
Cretan DakosDakos ΝτάκοςSalads · 12m · serves 4
TiropitaTiropita ΤυρόπιταBreads and Pies · 1h 15m · serves 8
Prawns with Feta and TomatoGarides saganaki Γαρίδες σαγανάκιMain Courses · 37m · serves 4
Scrambled Eggs with Tomato and FetaStrapatsada ΣτραπατσάδαBreakfast Recipes · 23m · serves 3
Cypriot Fresh Cheese with HoneyAnari me meli Ανάρι με μέλιDesserts · 5m · serves 4
Cretan Sweet Cheese Hand PiesKalitsounia ΚαλιτσούνιαDesserts · 1h 10m · serves 8
Baked Aubergine with Feta and TomatoMelitzanes me feta Μελιτζάνες με φέταMain Courses · 1h 5m · serves 4
Aubergine and Feta PieMelitzanopita ΜελιτζανόπιταBreads and Pies · 1h 35m · serves 8
Sifnos Honey CheesecakeMelopita Sifnou Μελόπιτα ΣίφνουDesserts · 55m · serves 8
Pan-Fried Halloumi with Honey BreakfastHalloumi me meli Χαλούμι με μέλιBreakfast Recipes · 13m · serves 2
Soft Fresh Cheese SpreadKatiki Domokou Κατίκι ΔομοκούDips and Sauces · 15m · serves 6
Grilled Manouri Cheese with HoneyManouri me meli Μανούρι με μέλιMeze and Appetisers · 20m · serves 4
Mussels in Tomato and Feta SauceMydia saganaki Μύδια σαγανάκιMeze and Appetisers · 40m · serves 4
Ionian Rusk with Tomato and OreganoRiganada ΡιγανάδαSalads · 10m · serves 4Browse other ingredients
Get one proper Greek recipe a week
No round-ups, no filler, no fifteen-ingredient shortcuts. One dish, written out in full, with the reasoning included.
One email a week. Unsubscribe from any of them.