The Ikaria Way

Diane Kochilas' new cookbook that brings the plant-based cuisine of Ikaria to your dinner table.Ikaria is an island in Greece where people live to a ripe old age, sometimes living well past 100. Diane Kochilas, host of the television series My Greek Table, is a daughter of Ikaria. The Ikaria Way is her latest cookbook and is filled with easy, contemporary recipes rooted in her background and steeped in the ancient Greek traditions of plant-based cuisine.As Diane says, Greeks are almost vegan, but they'd never call themselves that. The array of plant-based dishes in the Greek diet is unsurpassed anywhere else in the Mediterranean. Diane's pantry, and the one she suggests for readers, is culled from the traditions of the Mediterranean and is full of ingredients that have long given food its flavor: herbs, olive oil, nuts, and more. The recipes in The Ikaria Way are simple, almost entirely plant-based, prepared with real food and almost nothing processed, save for the occasional can of tomatoes. Readers will love meze like smoked eggplant with tahini and walnuts or baked chickpeas and pumpkin patties. There are wonderful salads combining strawberries and asparagus and robust mains like white bean stew with eggplant.The Ikaria Way brings the healthy-eating recipes of an ancient island to readers everywhere. It is destined to take its place alongside Diane's other books on the shelves of all good home cooks who want healthy eating and robust, delicious flavors on the same plate.