Discover hundreds of new dishes with these Greek, Turkish, and Cypriot recipes.
With an emphasis on fresh ingredients and simple techniques, Greek food is undoubtedly incredibly popular the world over.
However, when we consider Greek dishes, quite often only a few staples jump to mind fresh salads with feta and olives, hearty dishes such as moussaka, dolmades, and the wide array of dips we’ve grown to love like taramasalata and tzatziki.
Perhaps you have dipped a toe into desserts such as baklava and bougatsa paired with a Greek coffee and want to recreate that experience at home or simply dig deeper into the healthy and fresh dishes that have become synonymous with Greek cooking.
Though digging into some of the less healthy but truly indulgent dishes like feta me meli is highly recommended.
Of course, you can’t delve into this learning more about this cuisine without considering the history of the region and the influences upon many of these dishes.
Many of these Greek cookbooks include Cypriot and Turkish inspired dishes and you will also discover cookbooks dedicated to the dishes of north and south Cyprus which has its own unique gastronimic culture.
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Our Favourite Turkish, Cypriot, and Greek Cookbooks
Master Eastern Mediterranean cuisine with these amazing greek cookbooks, including Cypriot and Turkish collections, showcasing this truly diverse culinary region.
1) Aegean: Recipes from the Mountains to the Sea by Marianna Leivaditaki
While the recipes in Aegean are utterly delicious in their own right, the thing that truly sets this collection apart from others is the clear love that the author has for their own recipes and culture.
Leivaditaki grew up on the island of Crete helping at a family-run taverna, with many of these recipes inspired by the dishes she learnt there from her grandparents.
The author is the head chef of a popular restaurant in London and has a reputation for providing simple and stunning dishes.
Bringing together the freshness and goodness of ingredients collected from the sea, mountain, and land, this book is sure to be popular with anyone who enjoys Mediterranean food.
As big tahini fans, we were inspired by the many recipes incorporating the sesame flavour in surprising and innovative ways.
2) Taverna by Georgina Hayden
Greek Cypriot food is a wonderful combination of a huge number of different flavours. From simple salads to beautiful ingredients like feta, you just can’t go wrong.
Throwing in a squeeze of lemon and some fresh oregano, and you’re sure to fall in love with cooking all over again.
Taverna takes the best of traditional Cypriot cooking and makes it accessible for anyone looking to dive into this special cuisine — this is helped strongly by the fact Hayden has lovingly interwoven stories and passion for each of the dishes allowing you to learn about Cypriot culture right along with the food.
There’s truly something for everyone in this book, from hearty family meals, inspired breakfast and lunches, to date-night favourites.
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3) Under the Olive Tree: Recipes from My Greek Kitchen by Irini Tzortzoglou
This book is one you will love to pick up again and again; designed to allow the cook to feverishly flick through the pages even with a spoon in their hand.
The pages are overflowing with accessible, everyday food ideal for home cooks as well as tips that are handy for cooking any number of other cuisines too.
Under the Olive Tree seamlessly jumps from light and fresh salads to huge meals ideal for those times of the year when feasting is the only thing to do.
It’s truly ideal for people of any skill level with a handy rundown of what ingredients are typically used in Greek meals, common terms, and what you should stock in your cupboard.
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4) Ripe Figs: Recipes and Stories from the Eastern Mediterranean by Yasmin Khan
This stunning book combines both great recipes and truly powerful stories. Greece has long stood as an impressive meeting point between Europe and the middle east, and that is reflected in Ripe Figs.
Throughout the book, we hear stories of people creating truly wonderful food throughout Greece, Cyprus, and Turkey tracing recipes that have spread from the time of Ottoman rule to the influence of recent refugee communities.
What makes this book stand out is that the food you make in the recipes is almost an accompaniment to the words themselves, we’re treated to an in-depth look at what goes into each wonderful dish.
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5) MAZI: Modern Greek Food by Christina Mouratoglou & Adrien Carré
Mazi is a Greek word, which means a gathering or company, usually of people. It’s that concept which gets so effortlessly explored in this book — the idea of great food bringing people together so that they can break bread and laugh uproariously while making great memories.
Mazi: Modern Greek Food specializes in presenting the reader with authentically Greek flavours, but with a delicious modern twist.
This twist is what makes the recipes stand out in your mind, and makes you keep coming back to them for family gatherings and, especially, celebrations.
6) Oklava: Recipes from a Turkish–Cypriot Kitchen by Selin Kiazim
Turkish-Cypriot food is a wonderful combination of countless influences, the big hitters including the Mediterranean, Southern Europe, and the Middle East. Oklava celebrates all of those incredible influences in a way that no other before.
The dishes are mouthwatering and you learn a little something along the way to boot.
These amazing recipes will take you on a journey from home-cooked Cypriot meals eaten in blissfully hot and slow summer to exciting twists on the classics cooked in incredible modern restaurants.
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7) Greek Slow Cooker, The: Easy, Delicious Recipes From the Heart of the Mediterranean by Eleni Vonissakou
Greek food often involves a lot of slow, long cooking processes. While standing over a stove all day might be perfect for some people, it simply isn’t practical for others.
Greek Slow Cooker is all about how classically wonderful Greek recipes can be adapted to cooking in a slow-cooker, making it possible to easily enjoy Greek food in your home.
We particularly love the incredible tender lamb fricassee with lettuce and herbs — we make it much more than we probably should, but the flavour combination is just so good!
8) The Food of the Greek Islands: Cooking and Culture at the Crossroads of the Mediterranean by Aglaia Kremezi
This book perfectly showcases a simple fact about cooking: the best cooking is done by working people, on the streets, not in castles.
Food of the Greek Islands is packed full of incredible recipes that Kremezi collected from farmers and fishermen across the Greek islands.
A good selection of these recipes are vegetarian, making the book an instant hit with any veggie friends.
As with all Mediterranean food, the dishes are stupendously light, simple and bring seasonal fresh produce right to the centre of the dinner table.
Most of these recipes have never before been written down, and yet here we are able to cook some of the best food we’ve ever eaten.
9) The Complete Book of Greek Cooking by St. Paul’s Greek Orthodox Church
This fascinating and absolute classic of a book was made for a very interesting reason.
In years gone by, the Greek Orthodox church noticed that a large number of young married couples had no standard recipes that they could use to feed their growing families.
So, the Church went to all of its congregants and gathered the recipes in this book, which serves to standardize some of the best home cooking on the planet.
The food is all hearty and delicious, with home-style Greek cooking appealing to people around the world.
10) My Big Fat Greek Cookbook: Classic Mediterranean Soul Food Recipes by Christos Sourligas & Evdokia Antginas
Every now and then a book like this one comes along. It embraces soul healing which can be utterly divine for any number of people when they eat great food made by their own hands.
My Big Fat Greek Cookbook is packed with more than divine recipes, it’s also packed with incredible recipes, beautiful photographs, traditional meals, memories, and lovely tidbits of information that draw people back to Greek tables time and time again.
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11) The Ultimate Healthy Greek Cookbook: 75 Authentic Recipes for a Mediterranean Diet by Yiota Giannakopoulou
This is a cookbook that sees the wonderful combination of a health-conscious diet with a tasty one. For years the Mediterranean diet has been lauded as an incredibly healthy one, and this book exemplifies that.
In this Healthy Greek Cookbook, there are recipes for vibrant and beautiful salads as well as speciality types of bread which are sure to delight every foodie out there.
Here we’re shown just what makes Greek food good by sharing all of the ways in which different spices and syrups have come to Greece.
This book is ideal for anyone looking for an ‘education’ in wonderful Greek cooking.