Colorful Greek Recipes with Red & Green Peppers

This dish of dilled peas with red and green peppers falls into the lathera group of foods, which means "cooked with oil." The tastes of the dill, peas, and peppers are wonderfully enhanced by the taste of fabulous olive oil.

This classic stovetop dish is easy to make, and the combination of tastes is delicious. The chicken is cooked with sweet red peppers (bell, pimiento, or other), a little white wine, onion, and some olive oil until it's falling-off-the-bone tender.

This is a family favorite - both for me as the cook as well as for those who are going to eat it! It's a pretty dish - with the red and green bell peppers, and I can use parts of the chicken that are less expensive and it's always delicious.

I enjoy the taste and color of fabulous peppers, so for this recipe, I started with the traditional red sauce used in kokkinisto dishes and added sweet red peppers and green bell peppers. The resulting sauce is delicious and colorful - perfect to spoon over rice, potatoes, or pasta.

Bell peppers marinated in wine vinegar and drizzled with olive oil make a terrific appetizer or salad. The recipe is very easy, with few ingredients. I usually use green bell peppers to make this recipe because they're so easy to find, but it's delicious and colorful made with a range of colors.

Grated eggplant (the round purple ones, called flaskes in Greek) is mixed with ground beef and the other meatball ingredients to create a fabulous taste. A tomato-based sauce rich with red and green bell peppers rounds out this dish that pairs wonderfully with rice, noodles, or potatoes.

Bull's horn peppers (long, light green, mild) are stuffed with a mixture of feta cheese and finely chopped hot peppers, then roasted or grilled. This is a quick and easy recipe to make, and a delicious appetizer or meze for holiday entertaining.

Spetzofai (say: sped-zo-FA-ee) is one of those dishes where you just chop up a few ingredients, cook them together with a little wine, and the tastes blend together to create a magical dish. Country sausage lends the spiciness, and red bell peppers and tomatoes (a terrific combination), onions, and garlic bring it all together.

This is one of the prettiest dishes to serve - and delicious as well. A butterflied leg of lamb is rolled up around a filling of cheeses and peppers (red and green). Slices show off both the lamb and the filling, and the sauce is perfect with rice, potatoes, or spooned over the meat.

If you aren't familiar with bulgur (often spelled "bulghur"), it is partially hulled wheat that has been soaked, steamed, dried, then crushed - and it can basically be used wherever you might use rice. It cooks quickly - like rice - and it has a wonderful nutty flavor. Bulgur is one of my favorite grains, and if you haven't tried it, this might be the perfect opportunity.