Category: Breakfast

Strawberry ricotta cake with olive oil

~ miakouppa ~ 10 Comments
Strawberry ricotta cake with olive oil

An Italian-inspired dessert full of summer strawberry goodness

Have you ever heard of philotomo? Even if you have never heard the word, if you have had the joy of visiting Greece, or known any Greeks, you have experienced it we’re sure. We’ve wanted to write about philotomo for a while, but have been hesitant because we suspect that anyone unfamiliar with the term would not be able to appreciate its significance by simply reading about it. Alas, that’s all we can do for now, so we’ll do our best. We’ll also somehow link it to this strawberry ricotta cake with olive oil, we promise!

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Blueberry almond cake

~ miakouppa ~ 8 Comments
Blueberry almond cake

A dairy-free coffee cake loaded with blueberries, almond flavour and a subtle hint of orange

It’s not quite blueberry picking season here in Quebec; that activity usually begins in August, but we like to plan ahead. Having experienced days under the hot sun, with legs stiff from squatting down for hours plucking berries off of low bushes, we know that it can be exhilarating, but overwhelming to face baskets of blueberries, with no clear idea what to do with them all. This blueberry almond cake is one delicious option.

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Orange muffins with dates and figs

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Orange muffins with dates and figs

Delicious muffins filled with dry fruits and bursting with citrus flavour

Our mother used to make a citrus bundt cake when we were young and she would puree an entire orange, peel and all, and then add it to the batter. One day we had a neighbourhood friend over while she was getting ready to bake this cake and we all decided to keep her company in the kitchen; our motivation being to lick the batter from the bowl and spoon before they got tossed in the sink for washing. As we settled in to watch her progress, we were surprised by our friend’s reaction to watching her blend the orange. She leaned over and whispered, “You’re not supposed to eat the peel!”.

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Banana and chocolate tsoureki french toast

~ miakouppa ~ 2 Comments
Banana and chocolate tsoureki french toast

Tsoureki french toast stuffed with chocolate hazelnut spread and banana

Whenever we go out for breakfast or brunch with our family one thing is certain; if there is a menu option which combines bananas and chocolate, someone will be ordering it. Everyone else will try to sneak a taste between bites of their own fruit cup and egg white omelet.

This winning combination of flavours can be enjoyed in so many ways. And in this post-Pascha period, when we are lucky enough to have some tsoureki left over, it only seemed natural to come up this!

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Vegan oatmeal cups

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Vegan oatmeal cups

Baked oatmeal mini-muffins filled with healthy, vegan goodness

Who doesn’t want a healthy snack that satisfies a need for something sweet, a bit of crunch and just the right amount of chocolate? We certainly think that a recipe which checks all those boxes should be in everyone’s repertoire.

What we love most about these vegan oatmeal cups is that they can be whipped together in only a few minutes, require very little baking skill, and can be enjoyed by almost everyone. Vegan? These are good for you! Gluten-free or Celiac? These are good for you too! Extremely picky? Well there’s no guarantee, but we think you’ll find these pretty okay!

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Tiganites (Τηγανίτες)

~ miakouppa ~ 16 Comments
Tiganites

Fried dough, sometimes called Greek-style pancakes, topped with honey

How fitting that we are posting this recipe for tiganites, sometimes referred to as Greek pancakes, in early November. Fitting, because November is when much of the olive harvesting in Greece is occurring. Our mother remembers that when the men of the village set out to begin their long and hard days of manually picking olives from the trees, they were sent off with their satchels loaded with tiganites. These disks of fried dough helped to sustain them and nourish them for the day. Tiganites, she explained, were a great option when options were limited as they are made from ingredients that even the poorest family likely had on hand.

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Sugar doughnuts (Ντόνατς με ζάχαρη)

~ miakouppa ~ 7 Comments

Sugar doughnuts

A traditional Greek doughnut: large, light, and perfectly sweet

Do you know how excited we are to share this recipe with you?  We’re not sure you can fully appreciate our glee; we are so proud that we are finally including this classic Greek dessert (and often breakfast), into our repertoire of Mia Kouppa recipes.

Large, light, and perfectly sprinkled with crunchy sugar, these are the classic Greek doughnut.  Confused?  Curious?  Maybe, and we don’t blame you.  It seems that often, when someone refers to Greek doughnuts they are talking about loukoumades, those  fried balls of dough that are typically covered in honey.  Loukoumades are delicious!  But, just like pastitsio is not Greek lasagna (we’re practically begging you to get on board with that) we argue that referring to loukoumades as Greek doughnuts does a disservice to both.  Loukoumades are loukoumades, and Greek sugar doughnuts, are these!

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Zucchini bread (Κέικ με κολοκύθι)

~ miakouppa ~ 4 Comments

Zucchini bread

A wonderful, sweet way to enjoy summer squash

Zucchini bread

 

If you’ve been following Mia Kouppa since the beginning you’ll know that most of our recipes are inspired by our parents and their humble, authentic, and delicious traditional Greek cooking.  Of course, our parents don’t use actual recipes and so our job has been to painstakingly and with great attention to detail,  measure, document, photograph, video and share their wonderful way with food.  We know that we owe much, if not most, of our success to them and we are so grateful.

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Citrus platter with pomegranate

~ miakouppa ~ 2 Comments

Citrus platter with pomegranate

A delicious and beautiful way to present blood oranges

One of us was fortunate enough to spend part of our honeymoon in Morocco, in what will soon be 20 years ago! We still remember that trip so well, the souks, the snake charmers, the welcoming and lovely people…and the food.  The food in Morocco was nothing less than phenomenal.  From the tagines, to the couscous,  and the homemade nougat in the Jemaa el-Fnaa, we happily ate our way through weeks of North African adventure.  Over the years we have often tried to recreate some of the delicious meals we had while in Morocco.  After much trial and error we had some great success, like this lamb tagine, but other recreations allude us (we still haven’t mastered pastilla, although this recipe looks promising and we just might try that!)

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Vegan rizogalo / Vegan rice pudding (Νηστίσιμο ρυζόγαλο)

~ miakouppa ~ 2 Comments

Vegan rice pudding

A simply perfect non-dairy rice pudding

When we first posted our parents’ rizogalo recipe we explained that this was a food which was so deeply connected to our childhoods that we couldn’t help but find comfort in a bowl of warm, creamy, simply delicious rice pudding.  And that is still so true; rizogalo, the way our parents make it (and the way we now make it), is comfort in a bowl.

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