[Bright strumming guitar music] DIANE KOCHILAS: Greens rule almost every day in the Greek kitchen.

Horta, as greens are called, are one of the most important foods in the Greek diet.

We eat dozens and dozens of different types of greens depending on the season.

Luckily for us, we have lots of different ways to cook them up, too.

Boiling them up for a nice salad, using them in an interesting tzatziki, and cooking them up as a bed for a beautiful piece of roasted salmon.

Join me on My Greek Table as I share with you some of the secrets of cooking horta.

♪♪ ANNOUNCER: My Greek Table with Diane Kochilas is made possible in part by... The Fillo Factory.

Grecian Delight Kronos, A family committed to better eating.

The National Hellenic Society.

And by the following... DIANE: I first fell in love with greens as a teenager visiting Ikaria, my ancestral island, where they are a staple in every meal: boiled, baked into pies, or stirred into stews.

My father, even in New York, would collect wild greens on family outings and drink their cooking liquid, especially from bitter varieties like dandelion and chicory.

My passion deepened during summers spent in my father's village on Ikaria, a blue zone renowned for the longevity of its inhabitants and where greens are woven into daily life, not just served as a side dish.

In Greece, wild greens, often considered weeds elsewhere, have been eaten for centuries, despite being labeled noxious by the USDA.

Greeks learn from observing animals like sheep and goats who instinctively know which greens are edible and nourishing.

Foraging remains a living tradition, especially on Ikaria, where families and friends gather seasonal greens: sorrel, wild chicory, dandelions in winter, wild fennel in spring, amaranth, purslane and lambsquarters in summer.

Greens, wild or cultivated, are central to longevity, packed with nutrients, fiber and phytochemicals that support nearly every system in the body.

Wild greens are especially rich in vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and bitter compounds that help protect against chronic disease.

Both types are high in fiber for gut health and contain plant-based nitrates for heart health.

By making greens a regular part of our meals, we connect to the land, each other, and a healthier life, bringing ancient wisdom to our own tables one handful at a time.

[Upbeat guitar music] Welcome to my little forest here.

This is a collection of a few Greek greens, some wild, some cultivated, not even the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what greens we eat in the Greek kitchen.

Greece is a country that has an incredibly rich flora.

There are over 350 edible wild greens and herbs.

And what I've got here are, these are called Radikia in Greek.

This is in the chicory family.

This is an interesting green.

This is called Zohos and it's a sow thistle.

This is called Pikralida.

It's dandelion greens.

And this was a combination of mixed mountain greens, but what I've done is separate out the mustard greens.

These are all bitter greens.

So I'm just cleaning them.

They've already been washed and in order to wash them, I basically just uh, drop them in a basin of cold water, shake them around a little bit because there might be some dirt or sand in between the leaves.

You want to clean off the root ends and I just want to get some of the tougher, uh stalks off, some of the tougher stems.

In order to cook these, it's really very simple.

All I'm going to do is boil them.

The boiling time varies depending on two things: A, depending on your personal preference, how al dente you want them or don't want them, but also depending on the thickness of the stems.

So as a general rule, somewhere between 7 or 8 minutes and 20, again depending on how thick the stems are, and your own personal preference.

All of these greens here are bitter greens and that's something maybe unique in Greek cooking.

We actually embrace the flavor of bitterness.

It's something that we associate actually with healthfulness.

So it's really easy to cook horta.

Basically we're just boiling them and I've got about half a pot of water on a rolling boil.

I'm starting with the toughest greens, Radikia or chicory, and these are going right into the pot.

I'm boiling all of these together in the same pot.

It's not typical to mix and match sweet and bitter greens.

You want to do either all bitter or all sweet.

And bitter greens are only used in boiled salads.

We don't cook with them, we don't put them in casseroles or we don't make soups with them or pie fillings.

[Sizzling] The next thing that goes in here are my Pikralides or dandelion.

And then finally the mustard greens.

I have one trick when I'm boiling them, which is to cook them with the lid ajar and I do that in order to help retain both the nutrients and the color of the greens.

So that's, you know, just a little tip.

So let me get these out of the pot, they're ready.

And I know that by looking at them, but I also know them just by you know, kind of feeling them with the tongs.

They're tender, they have beautiful color.

You see they've retained their color.

I'm going to get them in the colander so they can drain out a little bit.

Those are the thistles, the sow thistles.

Now you can eat these either hot like this or at room temperature or even chilled.

They keep in the fridge for a few days so you can make a batch and then serve them up during the week.

It's easy.

I'm going to do one thing which might come as a surprise to you and I'll talk about it in a second.

I have to let it cool first, which is to scoop out some of this liquid.

A lot of the vitamins and nutrients in the greens cook out into the water.

Vitamins A, C, K, there's a lot of minerals in horta, things like calcium, iron, magnesium, potassium.

So this is superfood.

Time to taste the horta.

Just going to get some into my dish.

This, dear friends, is a bowl of pure nutrition.

I'm going to dress them very simply.

A little bit of extra virgin Greek olive oil.

I mentioned earlier lemon juice or vinegar.

It's really a matter of personal preference.

On bitter greens I prefer vinegar, so I've got a little bit of red wine vinegar right here.

And a touch of sea salt and I'm ready to dig in.

This goes really nicely as well with a wedge of feta on the side uh with some nice good bread.

Time to taste.

Mm.

If you could taste something that makes you feel good with the first bite, this is it.

But it doesn't end here.

This is one of the healthiest things you can drink.

The cooking liquid from the greens is not only a detox tea, but it's also packed with all of the nutrients, the minerals, the vitamins that are in the horta themselves.

So when you boil greens the Greek way, it doesn't end with a bite, it ends with a sip.

Eis ygeian.

[Chatter of conversation] DIANE: Here my 96-year-old cousin Marika takes me on a walk to her garden, which she tends to with loving care every day and every season.

[Speaking in Greek] DIANE: It gives her a sense of purpose and keeps her moving and spry.

Growing and savoring greens like amaranth and others, as well as vegetables and tubers, such as taro root, historically a very important food on the island, is one of the great longevity secrets of Ikaria.

[Speaking in Greek] DIANE: In fact, the beta-carotene in winter squash is an antioxidant and may indeed lower the risk of certain cancers.

Science sometimes catches up to folk wisdom.

[Folky guitar music] There are so many different uses for greens in the Greek kitchen.

I'm making a recipe most of you are probably very familiar with, which is tzatziki, the Greek yogurt dip.

Usually made with cucumber, but today I'm using this whole rainbow of greens.

I've got Swiss chard, I've got beet greens, and I've got some nice fresh spinach here.

So this is going into the tzatziki in two different ways.

I'm going to use the stems as the garnish, and the leafy part will actually go into the yogurt.

I just want to clean off the stems.

I'm going to steam the greens.

I don't want to blanch them because I don't want them to be too wet when they go into the tzatziki mix, into the yogurt.

These beautiful fresh beet greens go next.

You want to use any green that's sweet in this dish.

And these gorgeous stalks are also going to go into the tzatziki on top as a garnish.

And next, a little bit of fresh spinach, super tender.

I just want to clean off the very tips here of the root end.

[Slicing] Ok this we're not going to eat.

So there are a lot of different versions of tzatziki, but I think this one with the greens is one of my favorite.

I want to get the leafy part of the greens steamed right now.

The beet greens go in as well.

And this beautiful tender spinach.

While the greens are steaming, I want to get the stems ready.

Think of this as a garnish, right?

So, we want really small pieces.

We're going to saute them.

They're going to be very crunchy.

And they're going to give a different twist to a very traditional and very well-known Greek dip.

Ok, let me just set this aside.

We want to get the Swiss chard stems cut next.

[Slicing] This goes into the bowl as well.

These are the spinach stems, the last of our greens.

[Chopping] I think it's time to get the greens out of the steamer basket.

These are just ready, they're perfect.

They're soft, but they're also still firm and that's exactly what we want.

I'm going to let these drain a little bit in the colander so we get as much liquid as possible out.

We're ready for the next step, which is basically to crisp up the chopped stems.

I'm going to do that in a little bit of extra virgin Greek olive oil.

You want the frying pan to be nice and hot.

[Sizzling] A little bit of garlic just to give them some flavor.

I'm using both the sautéed garlic and the raw garlic in the tzatziki because garlic is the tell-tale ingredient in a good tzatziki, you want to make it nice and robust and a little bit of a Greek sea salt.

We want them to be crunchy.

I'm not looking for softness on this.

I'm looking for crunch.

It really just takes you know almost less than a minute.

The next step is to make sure the greens are as well drained as possible.

We don't want the tzatziki to be watery, that's why we're doing this.

Okay, this you can see this cooked down to nothing.

I want to chop the greens next.

[Chopping] And I'm basically now ready to mix the tzatziki.

Just want to chop the mint.

We want the leaves.

We don't want the stems on the mint.

[Chopping] You could also use dried mint in this recipe as well.

That's one of the great things about all this kind of food, not only is it very easy to prepare, but it's also very flexible.

So if you don't have one herb, it's usually easy to switch it out with another one.

The main ingredient is this beautiful thick Greek yogurt.

I prefer full fat yogurt.

I think it tastes a lot better.

It has better texture.

Getting the greens in here next.

Fresh mint goes in next.

And then this robust mini little bowl of chopped garlic, which is the greatest flavor in tzatziki.

A little bit of Greek coarse sea salt.

The yogurt is tart, obviously, but tzatziki always needs a little bit of acid in the form of some red wine vinegar.

Just a touch of black pepper and of course a little bit of extra virgin Greek olive oil.

Just mix it all together.

This is a great accompaniment to so many different things.

Almost ready to serve this delicious rainbow greens tzatziki.

I just want to get the accompaniment done, which is a little bit of whole wheat pita bread.

You want your grill pan to be nice and hot.

While that's grilling, let me get the tzatziki served.

I'm serving this today with a few different things: with some grilled pita bread which is a classic accompaniment to any sort of Greek dip and goes really nicely with tzatziki; and then something to make it a little bit more substantial which are these beautiful falafel balls.

And I think my bread is ready here.

I can smell it.

It's got that nice grilled smokiness.

Now our beautiful garnish goes on here.

[Tapping] Let's get the pita bread cut.

You can make these as big or small as you like.

[Crunching] This is the perfect arrangement here.

A traditional dish that's gone green.

Tzatziki with rainbow greens.

A variation on a Greek classic.

Ready to taste the rainbow greens tzatziki.

Mmm, that's wonderful.

The garlic is beautiful.

The yogurt is nice and creamy.

It's pretty pungent, but it's also very earthy because of all those greens in here.

And that crunch from the stems on top gives it just that, you know, just that right finishing touch made in the spirit of all mezze dishes, which means you want to share this, especially because it's healthy, with someone you love.

[Speaking Greek] I'm making a recipe for one of the world's most beloved and common and popular fish: salmon, which is very high in Omega 3 fatty acids, and marrying that with one of the most popular ways to use greens in the Greek kitchen, which is a spinach feta Spanakopita mixture.

[Guitar music] DIANE: And they're going to be married together and baked.

I'm going to get my salmon ready first, which means I have to marinate it.

I'm making the marinade with a little bit of fresh orange juice.

Some hot sauce.

Greek ouzo.

A little bit of Dijon mustard.

[Tapping] And some gorgeous Greek pine honey, nice and thick.

It's so, so, so viscous.

Whisking all of this together.

I want to get this right over the salmon.

We're just going to marinate this for about 15 or 20 minutes in the fridge.

You don't want to marinate it for much longer because the orange juice is acidic.

We don't want to cook the salmon.

[Tray clanking] The fish is marinating so I'm going to get started on the Spanakopita filling, the mixture.

And what we want for that is red onion and scallion, a little bit of garlic, my nice leek here.

Of course, some spinach for the Spanakopita and some good Greek feta.

So I'm just going to trim the leek.

[Chopping] Getting my olive oil in the pan.

The leeks go in first because they're the biggest pieces and the toughest.

I'm just going to give that a stir.

Next in, the red onion.

[Sizzling] The scallions go in next, finely chopped.

[Sizzling] I'm not looking to cook this until it's totally soft because everything's going to bake again in the oven.

So this will continue to cook once it goes in with the salmon.

I'm gonna get my garlic in here next and then finally the spinach.

This is gonna lose most of its volume.

You want to keep it stirring so we don't burn the onion, leak and scallion mixture on the bottom so that the garlic doesn't burn.

[Taps spoon] A little bit of salt and pepper.

I'm ready to get this off the heat and add my nutmeg, which is one of the secret ingredients in a good Spanakopita mixture.

The Spanakopita mixture is almost ready.

I just want to add some fresh dill to it.

Nothing stops you from adding other herbs to this if you like.

If dill isn't your thing, you could do parsley in here, you could do mint.

You know, the palette of flavors is often really subjective and herbs are good for us in you know, in pretty much any way we use them.

This is going right into the pot.

Let me mix that around.

What do I have here?

I have real Greek feta and that's going right into my traditional Spanakopita mixture.

Time to transfer this to the baking dish.

Just a little olive oil on the bottom and we'll get this beautiful Spanakopita mixture in here.

[Tapping] Okay.

[Fridge door clicks] The salmon has been marinating for about 15 or 20 minutes and I'm just going to sear it now.

[Sizzling] We want to get a nice brown golden crusty surface.

[Sizzling] That's looking good.

I just wanted to get a little color on the salmon so just, you know, a minute or two in the hot frying pan.

I'm going to place this over the spinach next and I'm actually going to cook the marinade down a little bit and then drizzle some of it over this and get everything into the oven.

[Sizzling] So we just want to get this... In our baking pan.

So I'm just using a spatula to help me lift that.

Let's see, this one is also, that's pretty firm.

And our last one here, beautiful.

Just because this beautiful marinade is kind of waiting, to be appreciated, I'm going to cook some of that down.

[Marinade trickling into pan] DIANE: It's really just for some extra flavor.

I want to get a little salt and pepper over the salmon.

And some pepper.

I'm going to pour this over the salmon and the spinach in the pan.

That's looking really good.

One last finishing touch, a little Greek touch: ouzo, Yamas.

Just for some extra flavor.

This is going into the oven at 350 uncovered, for about 15 minutes.

[Grates rattle] DIANE: Ooh.

Wow, this looks really good.

It smells great!

And I can't wait to taste it.

Okay, time to taste this lovely creation.

A great new use of the most popular green: spinach, and the most popular greens recipe: Spanakopita with real Greek feta and a little salmon.

Mmm.

The first thing that I'm getting when I taste this is the great earthiness of the spinach but that's kind of this background to everything else.

The feta cheese perks this up.

It's nice and tart and sharp.

It has that beautiful sour flavor that balances everything.

The dill, it's a little bit perky.

The ouzo is a little bit sweet but the salmon has that lovely citrus infusion and the honey over it makes it a little bit sweet as well.

This is a delicious combination, a dish you can make on an easy weeknight or for a special Sunday dinner.

DIANE: For recipe links and information about My Greek Table , visit my website, DianeKochilas.com.

ANNOUNCER: Diane's cookbooks, "The Ikaria Way" and "Athens: Food, Stories, Love" are available to purchase online at DianeKochilas.com or call the phone number on the screen.

My Greek Table with Diane Kochilas is made possible in part by... The Fillo Factory.

Grecian Delight Kronos, A family committed to better eating.

The National Hellenic Society.

And by the following... ♪♪