https://www.youtube.com/embed/rSDzqwVVjgI
Hi everybody from my kitchen in iKaria Today I
want to talk to you about the main ingredient in every single recipe and it's corny and maybe
kitchens that might sound the main ingredient is love Whenever I cook I always cook with love and
that kind of means things on different levels it means love of self thinking about nourishing
yourself with good things with healthy food um with flavor with you know with tasty food
that's also good for you the Mediterranean diet and the Greek diet is they're packed with great
recipes that are all about that many of them plant-based so that's also something to think
about um it's also about cooking with love of others for example I'm a mom so when I cook
I always think about what my kids would like to eat even though they're adults and half the
times they don't even eat at home but it doesn't matter they always appreciate it when there's food
here especially cooked from mom's hands, but it's really also about the idea of giving and you know
every every cook appreciates will appreciate that thought because when we cook we do think about
how to please others and that's I think one of the main ingredients in a good cook or a great
chef, it's really, you know it's about the food of course but it's also about giving pleasure
giving nourishment giving love to others um I'm also talking about love of our environment
which here in Greece right now is a very literally no pun intended Hot Topic and in that night I
always try to cook seasonally and that's a really important lesson because when we eat and cook
seasonal ingredients seasonal vegetables seasonal fruits seasonal produce greens you know whatever
we are actually showing love for our environment by reducing our carbon footprint because usually
what is in season is grown locally but it's also about understanding that what is in season is at
its peak in terms of flavor and nutrition so this morning I went into my garden which I love very
much and I'm very fortunate in that respect I hear on the island to have a little pot of land that I
can farm from when I'm here and what's in season right now are tomatoes and peppers and zucchini
and I had a few potatoes I had a basket over there so I decided to use that as well and I made what
is one of the great masterpieces of a Greek summer and one of the great vegan and vegetarian
dishes of a Greek summer which are gemista stuffed vegetables in this case stuffed tomatoes
peppers and a few of the potatoes I mentioned um and I'm about to put them in the oven and
I want to say one last thing which is when you cook with love it's not exactly about following a
recipe with accuracy and it's certainly not about following a recipe with anxiety, it's really about
looking what looking at what's in front of you kind of understanding of how things work together um this this beginning start today or packed with
herbs because I have a lot of herbs growing in the garden with rice and some Greek currants
and of course, olive oil and it's really about appreciating um the food that we have and
preparing it once again as corny as it might sound with an extra dose of love.
So that's my those are
my pearls of wisdom for today these are going into the oven and I'll show you a picture of them
when they come out um if there's anything left and if you do want to follow the
recipe you can go to the link in my bio you can find the recipe on my site
for gemista or stuffed summer vegetables
