# Greek Cuisine: Moussaka, Souvlaki, the Real Salad and 6 Famous Dishes > Greek cooking rests on three things that recur in almost every dish: **olive oil, lemon and oregano**. Its logic is deliberate simplicity — few fresh ingredients, with flavour coming from their quality rather than from heavy spicing. And the authentic Greek salad contains **no lettuce at all**. **Greek Cuisine · 4 min read** Greece is a country of sea, mountains and sun, and its cooking reflects that literally: olive oil in everything, wild mountain herbs (oregano and thyme), fish, and summer vegetables. The Ottoman influence is clear in dishes such as moussaka and baklava, but the Greeks took them in a lighter direction, leaning far more on lemon. ## The core dishes ### 1. Greek salad (horiatiki) Tomato, cucumber, red onion, green pepper, olives and a block of feta on top, with olive oil and oregano. **No lettuce, no mixed dressing, and the feta is not crumbled.** "Horiatiki" means "village" — the name tells the story: this is peasant food made from what is in the ground. The chopping is deliberately coarse. The feta goes on as **one whole block on top** with a scattering of oregano, and you break it over the plate as you eat. ### 2. Moussaka Layers of fried or roasted aubergine, minced meat with tomato and cinnamon, and béchamel browned on top in the oven. **The cinnamon in the meat** is the Greek signature that separates it from any other aubergine dish — a small pinch that gives warmth, not sweetness. The aubergine must be **salted and left for half an hour** before cooking to draw out its bitterness and water, or the dish comes out watery and bitter. Roasting instead of frying cuts the oil without losing flavour. ### 3. Souvlaki Meat marinated in lemon, olive oil and oregano, grilled on skewers and served in pita with tzatziki, tomato and onion. The marinade is essentially **lemon, oil, oregano and garlic**, and two hours is enough — longer and the lemon starts cooking the meat and turns it mealy. ### 4. Tzatziki Strained Greek yogurt with grated cucumber, garlic, dill and olive oil. Served with almost everything. **Squeezing the cucumber** is compulsory: grate it, salt it, leave it ten minutes, then squeeze it by hand. Without that, the sauce is watery within an hour. ### 5. Greek baklava Layers of filo, walnut and cinnamon, with honey syrup poured over after baking. The golden rule: **one hot, one cold**. If the baklava is hot the syrup must be cold, and vice versa. Both hot and the filo soaks, softens and loses its crispness. The Greek version uses **honey** more than sugar, which gives a deeper flavour than the Middle Eastern equivalent. ### 6. Feta and Greek cheese Real feta is made from **sheep's milk** or a sheep and goat mixture, and stored in brine. The cheap cow's-milk versions have less flavour and more salt. If your feta is very salty, soak it in cold water for fifteen minutes before use. ## Olive oil — not an ingredient, a foundation Greece has one of the highest per-capita olive oil consumptions in the world. And the oil is not only for cooking — it is poured **raw over the finished dish**, which is a completely different use. The rule: cheap oil for frying, extra virgin for raw pouring. The common mistake is frying with extra virgin — losing both its flavour and your money at once. ## The Greek meze Like the Levantine mezze: many small dishes placed in the centre and shared. The idea is social rather than merely culinary. The best known: tzatziki, dolmades (vine leaves), spanakopita (spinach and feta pie), and keftedes (small meatballs). ## Ingredients worth buying - **Dried oregano:** the Greek is stronger than the Italian, and it is what most recipes mean. - **Extra virgin olive oil:** for raw pouring, not for frying. - **Sheep's milk feta:** a clear difference from cow's milk. - **Filo pastry:** for baklava and pies. - **Lemons:** they go into marinades, soup and salad — buy plenty. ## How a meal is ordered A Greek meal begins with meze, then a shared main course, and dessert comes after a pause rather than immediately after the food. Lunch is late (two or three in the afternoon) and dinner later still (nine or ten at night), which explains why meze matters: it bridges the gap between the two. ## Common mistakes - **Putting lettuce in a Greek salad:** at that point it is not a Greek salad at all. - **Crumbling the feta:** it goes on as a whole block on top. - **Not salting the aubergine:** the moussaka comes out watery and bitter. - **Not squeezing the cucumber for tzatziki:** it turns to water. - **Hot syrup on hot baklava:** it softens and loses its crispness. ## Where to start Greek salad is the easiest entry — ten minutes with no cooking, and it shows you the whole logic: few fresh ingredients and good oil. Then tzatziki (five minutes) and souvlaki (a simple grill). Moussaka comes last — it needs three stages and time. ## Soup and lemon **Avgolemono** is a sauce and a soup at once: egg and lemon whisked together and added to hot broth **gradually** so the egg does not curdle. That technique — tempering — is the same one used in any egg sauce, with the difference that lemon is strongly present here and gives the soup its creamy body without any cream at all. ## FAQ ### هل فيه خس في السلطة اليونانية؟ لأ خالص. السلطة اليونانية الأصلية (خورياتيكي) طماطم وخيار وبصل أحمر وفلفل وزيتون وقالب فيتا كامل فوقهم، مع زيت زيتون وأوريجانو. مفيش خس ولا صوص متخلّط ولا تفتيت للفيتا. ### ليه الموساكا بتطلع مايعة؟ الباذنجان ما اتملّحش. ملّحيه وسيبيه نص ساعة عشان يطلّع مايته ومرارته، وبعدين نشّفيه. والشوي في الفرن بدل القلي بيقلّل الزيت من غير ما يخسّر الطعم. ### إزاي أمنع التزاتزيكي إنه يبقى مية؟ اعصري الخيار. ابشريه، رشّي عليه ملح، سيبيه ١٠ دقايق، وبعدين اعصريه بإيدك كويس. من غير الخطوة دي الصوص بينزّل مية بعد ساعة. ### ليه البقلاوة بتفقد قرمشتها؟ الشربات والبقلاوة كانوا بنفس الحرارة. لازم واحد سخن والتاني بارد — بقلاوة سخنة وشربات بارد أو العكس. الاتنين سخنين معناه فيلو بيشرب ويطرى. --- Source: https://hanakoleah.com/en/article/greek-cuisine-moussaka-souvlaki-salad Edited by: Marwa Mohamed Last updated: 2026-09-13