Vegetarian Cookery Holiday

29 June — 6 July €425

Joy of Greek Vegetarian Cooking

Greek cuisine is known worldwide for its wide variety of tastes and delicious dishes, of which many of the outstanding are vegetarian. Moreover, there is a philosophy around eating and sharing food, reflected in the ancient word "symposium", meaning a convivial gathering of friends and company centered around food and drink. For the Greeks, eating with friends at a tavern or at home is a social affair dating from antiquity.

The ancient Greeks were one of the first to discover the advantages of adding herbs and spices to their food. This process was used not only to enhance the flavours, but also provided medicinal benefits. Archestratos wrote the first known cooking book in 330 B.C. Greek food is still to this day, a unique amalgamation of fresh, seasonal ingredients and a generous blend of these herbs and spices eg. thyme, dill, rosemary and oregano - which grow all over Greece.

The secrets that have made Greek cuisine popular are the abundant fresh ingredients of high quality, a time-honored use of fresh and home dried herbs and spices and Greek virgin olive oil. Moreover, its basic simplicity in the way of cooking adds to the charm of Greek cuisine, creating many mouthwatering delicacies, both savory and sweet.

We will be using the produce of the region of Pelion and Volos, bought fresh most days, taking our inspiration from the classic and local Pelion dishes of the region. In our mountainous area replete with history, vegetables have long been one of the mainstays of the local cuisine.

Here at Kalikalos, one of our mottos is “Work is Love in Action”. And we take this seriously. Preparing a meal for the community here is always a group effort, engaging everyone's creative talents and skills. We cook with care, love and enthousiasm!

To ensure that everyone in the group is brought into the the process of each meal, each cooking session starts with an attunement where we check in with each other, to the day, to our task and to the community that will be enjoying our efforts. Do bring any recipies that you want to try out, and we'll include them in the week's menu. We love adapting classical Greek recipes, such as mousaka or stuffed peppers, for vegetarians. Did you know that mung beans, if soaked and baked in a mousaka, taste amazingly like ground beef?

Kalikalos' affordable (€250 per week, inclusive) Living-in-Community programme invites you to stay on a week before or after your retreat to relax and enjoy this special, unspoiled region of Greece. Book now!

This Week's Leader

Kathy Freeman (shown below with pizza) is head chef and coordinator for this week's course. Kathy's experience includes 8 years in the Omega Centre (upstate New York) kitchen. She has recently joined the Findhorn Community Park kitchen group.

This weeks' group will be limited to six participants so that confident cooks can increase their repertoire of techniques and recipes whilst those with less experience can learn more basic techniques.

We will cook some mainstays of Greek vegetarian cuisine but also some less usual dishes such as feta and roast garlic turnovers and sun dried tomato fritters, using tomatoes which we will bake for two days on the marble stairs in the Aegean sun.

We will do some baking in our old fashioned wood-fired oven. It's perfect for a variety of whole meal breads; and once in the week we'll do home made pizza in it. Not authentically Greek, but loved now by all Greeks!

Every workshop group here has its own character and rhythm but usually recipe research and discussion, plus quite a bit of food preparation takes place in the cool morning hours. After lunch the afternoon is free to enjoy as you please. There is a daily lift down to and from the gorgeous local beach at Ag. Ioannis.

In the cool of the evening we reconvene about 6 pm to complete the meal which is served at 8:30 pm. As we have done the cooking, dinner cleanup is done by other community members, allowing us to eat leisurely and relax after dinner knowing that our work is done for the day.

One evening in the week we will invite our local Greek neighbors into the kitchen to join with us and show us some authentic recipes from this region. The meal that evening will be part of our yearly open day when our patio (see left) becomes a taverna where the locals get a chance to meet us and learn what we do here at Kalikalos.

Book this workshop online now.