Fast Diet Recipes For Vegetarians

Cauliflower really is your friend when you're trying eat a diet that's loaded with healthy vegetables.  Through the years I've shared lots of tasty cauliflower recipes, but I'm guessing Twice-Baked Cauliflower, Ham and Cauliflower Casserole Au Gratin, and Pureed Cauliflower with Garlic, Parmesan, and Goat Cheese must be the most popular cauliflower recipes on the blog.  The combination of cauliflower + cheese usually guarantees a winner, so when thoughts of a cauliflower dish with Feta cheese and other Greek flavors popped into my head last spring, I thought it would be easy to come up with a recipe.  But by the time Jake and I had tried four versions of this Twice-Cooked Greek Cauliflower with Feta, Green Onions, and Dill to get the one we both loved, the weather was getting so hot I knew you wouldn't want to turn on your oven.  I've been saving the recipe since May waiting for cooler weather so I could share this for a Meatless Monday dish; hope all the other cauliflower fans out there will like it as much as we did!

Greek Egg-Lemon Soup (Avgolemono Soup) is traditionally made with rice, but it was also delicious with cauliflower rice!

Greek Avgolemono Soup or Egg-Lemon Chicken Soup is one of those dishes I've been passionately in love with ever since the first time I tried it, probably back in college, so that's a long time I've been loving this chicken and rice soup that's thickened with eggs and lemon.  I'm guessing I first tasted Avgolemono Soup at The Other Place, a Greek-American restaurant in Salt Lake City, and I still like their version of this classic Greek soup.  I first made this soup for the blog in 2006, and my version has dried parsley and dried thyme added to the stock, plus a little lemon zest, an idea that came from The Frugal Gourmet Cooks Three Ancient Cuisines, a very old cookbook with lots of good ideas. 

What makes this soup special is the Avgolemono sauce that you mix into the soup to thicken it, a mixture of beaten eggs, and fresh lemon juice and zest that's mixed with some of the hot soup and then gently stirred back into the rest of the soup. The egg-lemon sauce that thickens the soup isn't really that difficult to make, but you must be careful not to let the soup boil after it's been added or it will curdle.

I've been a pretty devoted Greek Salad fan for years, as well as being seriously addicted to Peperoncini, so it's no surprise that I'd be crazy about a salad combining these two flavor favorites.  I think the combination of tomatoes, cucumbers, olives, and Feta that define Greek Salad are pretty amazing no matter what you put with them, but in this salad I really kicked it up by using the brine from the Peperoncini in the dressing and adding sliced Peperoncini to the salad.  I used Mezzetta Greek Peperoncini, a product I've had lots of fun experimenting with since it first appeared in two-packs at my Costco.  This type of slightly-spicy Peperoncini is often used as a garnish on restaurant salads, and if you like them at all you'll probably love this salad.  When the weather really heats up, I'd eat salad like this any day for lunch or dinner; hope you enjoy!

Have you tried Cauliflower Rice yet? I've been having fun experimenting with it as a carb-conscious substitute for rice or other grains, and I'm especially liking it in dishes like this Slow Cooker Cauliflower Rice Greek Chicken Bowl where the cauliflower rice gets a flavor boost from slow-cooked lemony Greek chicken and a Greek salsa mixture that's layered over the chicken.  This is a perfect crock pot dish to start in the afternoon on a busy day.  The chicken cooks in about 3 hours on high and when it's time for dinner you make the cauliflower rice, chop the Greek salsa ingredients, and assemble the bowl.

This can easily be a cook-once/eat-twice slow cooker recipe.  The chicken can be stored in the fridge for a day or two; then you chop up more Greek salsa ingredients and make more cauliflower rice and you've got dinner again.  (For a Paleo or Whole 30 version of this dish, just use an approved dressing and omit the Feta cheese in the salsa mixture.)