Furman Culinary Club Samples Flavors from the Mediterranean

 This Sunday, the Furman Culinary Club hosted their first workshop for the school year featuring flavors from the Mediterranean. Special thanks to the workshop host Avery Hudson and Furman Culinary Club president Yolanda Jiang for coordinating such a fun event!

Avery (on the left in the photo below) was excited to share some of her favorite recipes from a recent trip to Greece:

Everyone was excited to get cooking:

And check out the feast!  We served pita and fresh vegetables with hummus and baba ganoush.  Baba ganoush is a delicious spread that combines roasted eggplant with hummus.

Tabouli salad typically contains a delicious blend of whole grain bulgur, fresh parsley and mint with tomatoes, cucumbers, and olives.  Our store was out of bulgur so we substituted whole grain couscous:

Chicken Soulvaki is lean chicken breast marinated in olive oil, lemon juice, and herbs such as oregano:

 

And what Mediterranean workshop would be complete without an authentic chopped Greek Salad with cucumbers, tomatoes, onion, olives, feta?:

Tzatziki sauce combines low-fat Greek yogurt with lemon, dill, and finely chopped cucumbers.  We served it with baked Falafel (chickpea patties) that were scarfed down so quickly that I didn’t get a picture of them:

Grape leaves are common in Mediterranean cuisine.  We decided to buy this rice-filled version pre-made so everyone could have a sample:

Spanakopita is a flavorful mixture of wilted spinach, herbs, and feta that is layered in between phyllo dough and baked.  This is one of my favorites:

And finally, we topped off the meal with a little bit of baklava– a sweet dessert with honey and walnuts that are layered between phyllo dough.

To see a more of these Mediterranean inspired recipes, check out our Pinterest board.

Mark your calendars for our next workshop tentatively scheduled for Sunday, November 23, 4-6 p.m. led by senior Emily Zizzi featuring Mexican (Tex-Mex) Cuisine!

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