Home » Food Treats for Greek Clean Monday (Kathari Deutera)

Food Treats for Greek Clean Monday (Kathari Deutera)

Written by Published on Updated on February 19, 2018 in Uncategorized

This post is about our Greek Clean Monday otherwise known as Ash Monday or Pure Monday, which is actually today in Greece.  This is the start of Lent which  begins on the 7th week before Easter Sunday for the Orthodox Church. 

Each year on this day we get together as a family and celebrate the day outdoors, either spending the day at the countryside, at the beach (depending on the weather of course), and  enjoying  the traditional food treats that we don’t usually eat on normal days.

Since we are not in Greece and as many Greeks who live abroad are not able to go back for these special feast days, we try to celebrate the best we can, so since it is a working day in Europe we celebrated our Clean Monday a day earlier yesterday.  🙂  

This was our table of  treats, 🙂  Taramosalata, (Fish Roe Dip) Dolmades, (Stuffed Vine Leaves) Black-eyed bean salad, Cucumbers, grilled Octopus, Olives, Shrimp, Halvas, Gigantes (Big Baked Beans) and of course this special bread that is only made on this day called Lagana, a flat oval bread topped with sesame seeds.  Meat is not eaten today, anything that consists Red Blood is not eaten. 

I wasn’t able to make Lagana, but I will some time soon and post the recipe.  🙂  I will also be posting a recipe for Taramosalata (Fish Roe Dip) the next couple of weeks.

Wishing everyone a great week…..:)

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Xronia Polla se olous kai Kali Sarakosti!! 🙂

 

 

Welcome to a small corner of my Greek Heritage. Growing up in New York from Greek parents, was a challenge of its own...but the traditional food, tastes and aromas that my mother cooked always travelled me back to Greece. My mother is a wonderful cook, our house would always have that smell of home cooked food. I remember very clearly that we were only allowed fast food, once a week, that was a huge day for myself and my brother. Jumping up and down in the back car seat, laughing, just being kids. It is true that we all like to eat different foods, taste, smell, even try food that looks different than our regular meals at home and I think that is so natural. In my teens, I was not really into cooking, I enjoyed my magazines after school, listening to music, and just taking a breather. There were times that I would glance at some of my mom's recipes, more out of curiosity than to actually try to cook them. At that time I did not realise that cooking would become my passion one day. Slowly, I would start to look into my mom's recipes a bit more each day and I started to find it interesting as a hobby. Each month I would go into our neighborhood bookstore and pick up my monthly book, until one day I decided to stroll over into the cooking section. That summer was the first time I actually bought a cooking magazine....and I loved it. Cooking and baking started out as a hobby, but now after many years it is my passion. Exploring the cuisines, the spices, the oils, the scents, the variety of smells and tastes that exist. It was and still is an amazing journey without limits. So, come along with me on this adventure, and I hope you enjoy my recipes. Sophie

19 Comments

  1. foodzesty
    February 19, 2018 at 11:01 am  ·  Reply

    Thank you Ben…tried my best with what I had 😉

  2. Vero and Canito in the kitchen
    February 19, 2018 at 12:21 pm  ·  Reply

    Your treats look great, Sophie! I believe it is nice celebration for you. You have beautiful photos! 🙂 <3

  3. mistimaan
    February 19, 2018 at 4:49 pm  ·  Reply

    Loved it

  4. dtills
    February 20, 2018 at 12:08 am  ·  Reply

    What a fun celebration! Looks like a lot of tasty treats too 🙂

    • foodzesty
      February 20, 2018 at 7:08 am  ·  Reply

      We also fly a kite on Clean Monday..Traditions.:) Thanks Dee dee. Your back in AZ good for you!!! in the warm weather….will send you an email look out for it. Huge hugs

  5. Diana Tyler (Eccentric Muse)
    February 20, 2018 at 1:30 am  ·  Reply

    Lovely photos and I enjoyed learning about Greek traditions. A great week to you, too. 🙂

  6. annika
    February 21, 2018 at 2:49 am  ·  Reply

    Enjoy your celebrations dear! Love reading about your traditions.

  7. xchinks
    February 21, 2018 at 10:58 pm  ·  Reply

    Lovely recipe! Love the detailing too, you’ve taught me quite a bit about the Greek culture, thank you.

  8. jyo
    February 22, 2018 at 5:58 am  ·  Reply

    Whoa kinda presentation ✌✌

  9. Margaret from soulfood101blog
    February 25, 2018 at 4:01 pm  ·  Reply

    Wow your spread looks amazing and sooooo tasty mmmmm

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