A meat-free feast from the Mediterranean
Jamie Oliver’s protégée Georgina Hayden tells PRUDENCE WADE about the tradition for plant-based fasting food in many countries around the Med
WHEN you think about Greek and Greek Cypriot food, your mind might go to a whole lot of meat.
“There’s just so many kebabs, and we love a grill,” admits cook, food writer and stylist Georgina Hayden. “That is probably a preconception that is justified.”
But there’s another side to the cuisine she’s keen to uncover – the plant-based food eaten during Lent and other fasting times of the year. There’s an awful lot of fasting: up to 200 days a year, including the 50 days before Easter, 50 days before Christmas, and every Wednesday and Friday.
“If you’re doing it properly, that is a lot of days without meat,” says Georgina. “But it means when you do eat meat, they go hard – it’s about balance.”
Georgina, who worked with TV chef Jamie Oliver for 12 years, has dedicated her latest cookbook to ‘nistisima’ – “a Greek word, meaning Lenten food,” she explains.
“It’s the food we eat in the preparation for any big religious festival. That is the bigger meaning, but if you were presented with something that was ‘nistisimo’, or some food that was ‘nistisima’, basically that means it’s plantbased, on a more simple level.”
This food does include shellfish, but Georgina’s book is entirely vegan, “for the sake of ease”.
Georgina is keen to not tell anyone what to do – she’s not vegan and wouldn’t ask anyone to go plant-based if they don’t want to – she just wants to “empower people with a load of recipes that introduce more lentils and vegetables to their life”.
You won’t find meat replacements or vegan cheese in the book – particularly as Georgina tried vegan feta once (“I was curious!”) and calls it “honestly the most disgusting thing I’ve ever eaten”.
Instead, she found so many dishes from Cyprus and the surrounding countries that are accidentally vegan, and totally delicious in their own right. “Instead of trying to replicate cauliflower cheese and make it something it’s not, it’s about finding new dishes that have been around for centuries that just happen to be plant-based,” she says. This wasn’t a hard task, the book could have been “double the size, easily”.
Georgina grew up around Greek Cypriot food – her grandparents ran a taverna in North London – but her research took her even further afield. “I was researching not just Greek food but the food from the surrounding countries in the Middle East and Eastern Europe. There are so many dishes and so much food from these places that is naturally and traditionally vegan,” she explains.
“That just fascinates me, especially nowadays, when we’re trying to eat more veg and trying to be a bit more conscientious for the planet, whether you’re a meateater or not.”
She wrote the book when the pandemic was in full force and she couldn’t travel to meet people. She describes, with glee, WhatsApping monks in Lebanon, FaceTiming a woman in Jordan to see what she was making for Lent, and learning the trick to the most delicious kibbeh (deep-fried, stuffed pastries) – adding pumpkin purée instead of water to the batter, to amp up the flavour.
“There’s so much talk about – and rightly so – cultural appropriation in food,” Georgina says. “We really have to look at where our food comes from and where recipes come from. But it’s a really hard one – especially in a book like this – when you’re crossing so many borders.
“Everyone has their own version of pretty much the same dish.
“A lot of people are aware of stuffed vine leaves and they think of it as a Greek dish. But it’s not just a Greek dish – you go to Turkey, the Middle East, you go to Eastern Europe, everyone has their own version.”
Georgina recently reunited with her former boss Jamie as a judge on Channel 4’s Great Cookbook Challenge With Jamie Oliver, and calls him “such an amazing mentor”. She adds: “He taught me so much – he has always put the home cook at the forefront when he’s thinking about things, and he’s essentially taught me how to write a good recipe.” ■ Nistisima: The Secret To Delicious Vegan Cooking From The Mediterranean And Beyond by Georgina Hayden is published by Bloomsbury, priced £26. Photography by Kristin Perers