Meatless Meals and Vegetable Dishes

I think the most interesting part of Greek cuisine is the many different ways we cook vegetables, legumes, and grains. Many Greek vegetarian recipes are so well balanced that the dishes seem to be conceived by modern nutritionists, but in fact the roots of these combinations lie far back in our history and folk traditions.

Greeks were not vegetarians by choice, although abstinence from meat was a doctrine of the philosopher Pythagoras of Samos, in the 6th century B.C. Later, the Greek Orthodox Church laid down strict dietary rules, prohibiting all foods derived from animals for forty days before Christmas and Easter, fifteen days before the Assumption of the Virgin Mary (August 15), and on many other occasions. Also, good Christians were not supposed to eat any food that came from animals on Wednesdays and Fridays.