I have only been home from South Korea for one day, so Superdrug’s challenge to make some exciting food provided the perfect opportunity to spend some time with my Mum and Dad who I haven’t seen for a month!! However, today’s weather was not ideal for this summery task, and what I had planned to be a nice, sunny picnic ended up taking place indoors…in the dark, with rain battering on the windows….not very summery : ( But, the food was still summery! We had a Greek pie, Greek salad, Tzatziki and a mozarella, tomato and basil baguette with pink lemonade to drink. And for dessert a raspberry cheesecake brownie <3

I apologise for the big yellow dates on all the pictures, I had to borrow my Dad’s camera.

The food is so Greek themed because I have spent loads of brilliant Summer holidays in Greece with my family, and because Greek food is brilliant for vegetarians. Anyway! Here are the recipes and results:

Greek Pie

This pie is really simple to make and tastes delicious

Ingredients:

• Filo Pastry
• 2 eggs
• 200g of spinach
• 175g jar of sundried tomatoes in oil
• 100g of feta cheese

How to make:

• Wilt the spinach in pan with a few tablespoons of water. Once wilted, drain and squeeze out the excess water and then leave to cool.
• Crumble the cheese and roughly chop the tomatoes.
• Mix the cheese and tomatoes with the cooled spinach and both eggs. Mix well!
• Piece by piece brush each layer of filo pastry with the oil from the sundried tomatoes and drape over a cake-tin.
• When you have finished covering the cake-tin with pastry, fill with the cheese, tomato, spinach and egg mixture.
• Then take the edges of the pastry and bring them in to the middle, fixing it in place by squeezing it all together in the middle.
• Add a little more oil on the top, and then bake in the oven for about half an hour at about 180 degrees.

Tzatziki

Tzatziki is a Greek dip which is really easy to make and is very versatile. You can serve it with loads of  different dishes or use it as a filling for sandwiches/pita breads.

Ingredients:

• 1 cucumber
• 350g Greek yoghurt
• 2tsp lemon juice
• 2 cloves of garlic (crushed or grated)
• Half a tablespoon of salt
• a handful of mint (chopped) – optional

How to make:

• Peel and grate the cucumber, then squeeze out the excess water. This is very cold to do so if you have some rubber gloves that would probably help!
• Put the yoghurt in a large bowl, add the lemon juice, garlic, salt, mint and grated cucumber and stir it all together.
• Serve!

Mozarella, Tomato and Basil Baguette

This isn’t technically Greek, but it goes well with the rest : ) It is a bit of a cheat recipe as you don’t actually make the bread…but make it look like you have!

Ingredients:

• 1 baguette.
• 125g mozarella cheese, diced.
• 1 large tomato chopped (or cherry tomatoes)
• A sprinkling of basil to taste

How to make:

• Take the baguette and make slices all a long. Be careful not to slice right through the bread like I nearly did!
• Sprinkle the mozarella with basil and mix with the tomatoes.
• Stuff the sliced bits of the baguette with the mozarella, tomatoes and basil.
• Put in the oven til the cheese has melted.

Greek Salad

I don’t want to be patronising and tell you how to make a salad…but here are the ingredients I used. Greek salad is one of my favourite foods, and goes with nearly everything!

Ingredients:

• Any amount of the following: cucumber, tomatoes, olives, red onion and feta cheese.
• I topped mine with olive oil and oregano.

Pink Lemonade

Lemonade is the epitome of summery drinks, so here is how to make a very nice one!

Ingredients:

• 4 cups of water
• 1 cup of lemon juice
• 1 cup of cranberry juice
• 1 cup of sugar
• some lemon slices to decorate

How to make:

• Put 1 cup of water and the cup of sugar in a pan and heat until the sugar has completely dissolved. This creates a sugar syrup which is the base of the lemonade.
• Add the cranberry juice, lemon juice and remaining 3 cups of water and stir.
• Pour into a big jug or individual glasses and chill in the fridge.

Raspberry Cheesecake Brownies

I suspect these are absolutely terrible for you, but it is almost Autumn so there is no more need for your bikini body : )

This recipe comes from the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook, which I highly recommend as it contains loads of amazing recipes. It would take me hours to type out the recipe, as it involves loads of ingredients and layers…so here is a link to the recipe (I couldn’t really write it out here anyway without violating copyright!)

http://www.goodtoknow.co.uk/recipes/433316/Hummingbird-Bakery-raspberry-cheesecake-brownie

I really enjoyed this challenge as I love cooking (although I’m not too good at it) and it is my dream to one day run my own vegetarian café : ) I hope that you try out some of my recipes and enjoy them as much as my family and I did, and I hope you have a brilliant last few days of the summer!

I’d also like to thank Superdrug for all the amazing things I received in the post today, I couldn’t believe how much there was. And for the £60 to spend at www.missguided.co.uk which was extremely generous. I love all the things that I bought and will blog about them shortly.

Lots of love,

Rosanna xxx

p.s. I apologise for this being after midnight, I have had so much to do since I got back!