Ten Dishes to Add That Greek Flavor to Your Christmas Dinner

Greece is a country with deep religious traditions, a strong sense of family, and a very festive spirit. And those are all the necessary ingredients to make Christmas one of the most important celebrations of the year.

As with any Greek tradition, the essential elements will include a joyful gathering of family and friends, and a delicious table with dishes that have been passed down from generation to generation.

Here are some holiday dishes that will add a very Greek flavor to any Christmas dinner.

Greek meze for Christmas

No dinner can begin better than with a selection of sauces and spreads from different areas of the country.

From the traditional tzatziki, made with fresh yogurt, to the rustic skordalia, with potatoes and garlic, add some hot pita bread, with a generous amount of olive oil, and let the dinner begin.

Avgolemono chicken soup

Egg-lemon sauce, or avgolemono goes with practically everything; Avgolemono chicken and rice soup is often the first meal after Christmas Eve church services.

This consists of a chicken and rice soup made with the very Greek sauce featuring lemon juice and eggs.

Yiaprakia

Yiaprakia is a dish from northern Greece which can be found in every corner of the country during the holiday season. Yiaprakia are cabbage leaves stuffed with minced pork, or minced pork and rice.

The Christmas variation of the more famous Greek dolmades (stuffed vine leaves) is often served with a generous amount of avgolemono sauce.

Pork

Pork is the number one meat to eat in Greece at Christmastime, part of an ancient tradition when families would raise a pig to slaughter on Christmas Eve and serve it as the main dish on the following day.

However, not all the pork would be eaten on Christmas day, so the meat was also prepared to preserve it for the rest of the year. Sausages, smoked pieces of pork (apakia) or pork in gelatin (pithi) were some of the ways to preserve it.

Today, things are less complex, but the pork tradition remains. Pork is commonly served in stews, baked, or roasted, and it is even found inside puff pastry. However, pork with celery and avgolemono sauce still plays a leading role during the holidays.

Turkey

Turkey has rightfully made it onto the list of traditional Christmas foods from Greece. It has recently become a choice for many families who serve it as the main Christmas dish.

In Greece, the holiday turkey is made special by adding a rich stuffing which includes rice and raisins, nuts, along with mincemeat and a generous quantity of wine.

Roasted lamb

A lamb that has spent over 5 hours inside the oven (or better, inside a wood-fired oven) roasting and absorbing aromas of thyme, oregano and rosemary can only turn out to be a Christmas favorite.

It is also served with traditional potatoes that have been roasted in the oven alongside the meat.

Greek Christmas Veal Stew

Veal is another delicacy bound to be served at the Greek Christmas table. Tender bites of beef, stewed, are even better when roasted and served together with cognac, apricots, and plums.

A rich pan gravy from the slowly cooked meat matches perfectly with potatoes that have been roasted with olive oil and thyme.

Baklava

Not as traditional as Greek Christmas cookies (melomakarona and kourabiethes), baklava is still one of the sweets many Greeks love to have during the winter holidays. Baklava is best described as crusty layers of phyllo dough combined with walnuts, pistachios and lots and lots of honey.

Krasomelo

Mulled wine from Greece will get anyone into the right Christmas spirit. Ingredients include a bottle of a red wine (better if it’s semi-sweet or sweet) as well as spices like cinnamon, cloves, peppercorns, cardamom, and nutmeg.

In some regions, they add star anise and dried fruit or orange zest as well. The krasomelo also requires a few spoonfuls of authentic Greek honey.

Rakomelo

For those in need of a stronger spirit to warm their soul and heat their body as well, the best idea is the Cretan rakomelo (made of the liqueur raki with honey and spices added).

Rakomelo is served warm, and is quite similar to mulled wine. According to tradition, to make rakomelo you need a clove, a teaspoonful of honey and another one of cinnamon for every four shots of raki. A perfect combination for those cold Winter days!