Healthy Greek Appetizers & Meze Recipes

Surprise your taste buds with this Greek twist on the Mexican staple.

Super creamy with the nutty flavor of sesame seeds, this homemade tahini sauce recipe is a popular way to begin a meal in Cyprus. Serve with crudités and pita.

This roasted eggplant and feta dip gets a kick from a fresh chile pepper and cayenne pepper. There are countless variations on this classic Greek dip. Out-of-season eggplant or eggplant that has been heavily watered often has an abundance of seeds, which make the vegetable bitter. Be sure to taste the dip before you serve it; if it's a touch bitter, you can remedy that with a little sugar. Serve with toasted pita crisps or as a sandwich spread.

All the flavors of a Greek pizza make these savory muffins bite-size treats for adults and kids alike.

Halloumi, a firm Greek cheese, can be cooked on the grill or in a skillet without melting all over the place. In this healthy appetizer recipe, it's paired with tangy and sweet blueberry jam. The berry jam recipe makes enough so you'll have leftovers for your morning toast or for a spectacular peanut butter and jelly.

Thinly sliced radishes lend a peppery bite and pretty pink hue to this traditional Greek cucumber yogurt dip recipe. Serve the tzatziki as an appetizer with pita bread, lavash-style flatbread or vegetable crudités, or as a refreshing sauce with grilled fish or chicken.

Capers, red onion and fresh herbs give canned tuna and beans a light, fresh taste. Here we serve the tuna salad on a bed of greens. It also works well stuffed into a pita for a sandwich. Give it some extra kick with a pinch of crushed red pepper or cayenne. Serve with olive bread.

Fava is the Greek word for bean puree, almost exclusively made with yellow split peas--here it's served with grilled squid, but the simplest and most traditional is raw onion, olive oil and lemon juice; in Santorini it is topped with stewed capers and onions, a combination referred to as “married” fava in Greek. For a vegetarian topping, try a combination of arugula and caramelized onions.

In this beautiful grapefruit salad recipe we pair the salty flavor of halloumi cheese with sweet-tart ruby grapefruit and aromatic mint. Halloumi cheese has a texture similar to mozzarella, but it browns rather than melts when it is heated. Look for halloumi in tubs or airtight packs near other imported cheese in large supermarkets.

Serve this delicious cheese spread on crostini. Remember to start draining the yogurt the day before blending the cheese.

Lots of freshly chopped herbs add zing to our white bean dip. Serve with assorted vegetables, such as baby carrots, bell pepper strips, radishes, snow peas, broccoli and cauliflower florets.

One taste of this simple, rustic spread--a popular meze or appetizer throughout Greece--and you are transported to a little seaside taverna. The base of the spread is yellow split peas, a healthful legume that requires no presoaking and cooks in less than 45 minutes. Enjoy this appetizer as the Greeks do, with a generous drizzle of your favorite extra-virgin olive oil.