'Yassou' Makes Veggie-Forward Greek Cooking Accessible

We may earn a commission from links on this page.

Welcome to Cookbook of the Week." This is a series where I highlight cookbooks that are unique, easy to use, or just special to me. While finding a particular recipe online serves a quick purpose, flipping through a truly excellent cookbook has a magic all its own.

Every time I see a newly budding tree or a daffodil leaping out of a scruffy patch of grass, it brings me a fresh moment of cheer. Spring is coming to New York. That means sun and spring fashion, but mostly I'm excited for the variety of veggies that'll be available. I'm choosing to celebrate Spring's approach with an appropriately veggie-forward Cookbook of the Week: Yassou.

About the book

Yassou is a Mediterranean cookbook, specifically focusing on Greek dishes, written by Shaily Lipa. This cookbook is brand new; just published in March. Lipa gives the reader a teeny history lesson on how Greek cuisine developed and other cultures that influenced it, and then quickly jumps into recipes.

Woven with beautiful photography, you'll get lost flipping through sections like Mezes and Starters, Stuffed Vegetables, and (my favorite section) Patties and Savory Pastries. This cookbook has classic recipes you've probably tried at restaurants, like moussaka or stuffed grape leaves, and new ones you've never heard of but are incredibly tempting, like kolokithokeftedes (fried zucchini and feta balls).

I don't usually enjoy historical interludes in cookbooks (I'm very recipe focused) but Lipa includes brief informational sections that focus on specific ingredients that are indispensable to Greek cooking, like The Cheeses of Greece, and The Path of the Olive. These sections give welcome insight into the culture, and whets your palate for the recipes to come.

A great cookbook for veggie enthusiasts who don't mind branching out

You like vegetables. You're interested in eating them often. However, you still like to have fun. (You know what I mean-raw kale salad isn't fun. I'll eat it, but fun" is not an emotion I experience when eating it.) Melitzanosalata, aka Eggplant Spread, drizzled with olive oil and served with pita bread is fun!

If you want a cookbook with lots of delicious, vegetable-centric options but you don't want to feel like you live off of salad alone, Yassou is for you. Sure, it's a Mediterranean diet, but there is no fear of bread, sugar, oil, or pastry. There are fresh salads for sure, but they're not the only venue for vegetables. There are numerous styles of cooking with produce, putting them in the background, foreground, and slightly off-stage. Zucchinis are shredded and shaped into fritters; crushed tomatoes create a simmering blanket for shrimp; onion and peppers chargrill on a skewer with juicy hunks of lamb.

Many of the recipes rely on plants, but you don't have to commit. Some days you just want bread and cheese and there are recipes for those moments in Yassou too. There are pasta dishes, fish dishes, bread recipes, and oh, the cheese. I have truly enjoyed a free pass this week to eat all the feta I want.

The dishes I made this week

One thing I appreciate about Yassou is that you can jump into these recipes with whatever cooking skill level you exist at. It's written simply, and the instructions are clear and easy to follow. There is no preamble about specialty cookware or how to replace ingredients you can't find. Most of the ingredients are things that are common to the Western grocery store. I didn't have to sift for very long to find recipes I was able to do because I didn't have to consider making any special trips or ordering unusual ingredients.

Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann

I decided to make Kassiopita (Greek flatbread) and Horiatiki Salata (Greek Salad). Yes, I essentially made Greek Olive Garden unlimited salad and breadsticks, but I don't care what you think. It's always been a great deal. Plus, these recipes made for a fabulous lunch.

On the surface, Horiatiki Salata looks like any Greek salad you might have had before-kalamata olives, cucumbers, and feta among other ingredients with a simple dressing. But there are good and bad versions of this salad being made, often in New Jersey diners and pizzerias. This version is perfectly crunchy, briny, and herbaceous with as much creamy, salty feta as you please. I knew I could count on this salad recipe as soon as I saw that the first move was thinly slicing the red onion and pickling it in the oil and vinegar dressing. This should be the treatment of all freshly sliced onions in salad.

Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann

The Kassiopita, entitled Greek Flatbread in the cookbook, might become something I make quite often. It's easy to make, loaded with feta, and cooks up quite dramatically in the oven. The batter is made with a blend of yogurt, egg, and flour, so it has the texture of a giant popover, or Dutch Baby. It's seasoned lightly and then you mix crumbled creamy feta into the batter. The mixture cooks in a casserole dish with a quarter-cup of olive oil in it.

I watched the bread bubble and fry as it puffed up in the oven, and broiled it for the last minute and a half to lightly brown the surface. I ate a piece while it was still warm (too hot actually, but I can't be stopped), and the crumbled feta made decadent melty, tart pockets of cheese dispersed in the eggy bread. Eat it with salad or eat it solo-I can vouch for both. I made the bread in the instructed size dish, but if you wanted the bread to be thinner then you could easily use a larger pan and reduce the cooking time.

How to buy it

Yassou is available as a hardcover, or as an e-book for a reasonable price. I highly suggest taking a jaunt to your nearest big box book shops or local independent bookstores to see if they have it on their new or featured cookbook displays. And if it's not on their shelves, ask if they can order it to their location (sometimes for no shipping fee).

Yassou: The Simple, Seasonal Mediterranean Cooking of Greece $16.99 at Amazon Shop Now Shop Now $16.99 at Amazon