this is one of my favourite greek soups. it's simple, hearty and perfect for a cold, rainy fall day. this is the first time i've made this on my own, from my yiayia's (ya-YAH) recipe. i have to say, it didn't turn out too bad! i did change a couple things from the original recipe. i used low-sodium, low-calorie broth, i used skim milk, i added more tomatoes, and i only used a bit of feta. while i could have gone with a low-fat feta, i felt that a really good quality cheese was just worth it to splurge.
1 cup stock (i used no soduim stock, the feta adds all the salt you need)
1/2 cup diced tomatoes (i used canned cause that's all i had, and i added extra)
4-5 handfuls of trahana
chunk of feta
step 1:
add water, milk and stock into a large pot and bring to a boil
step 2:
once boiling, add in tomatoes and trahana. cook for 30 minutes, stirring often to avoid trahana sticking to the bottom or sides of the pot
step 3:
crumble in the feta cheese and cook for another 30 minutes, stirring often.
step 4:
serve in a bowl, add extra feta cheese on top if desired
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| trahana soup |
now, τραχανά (trah-hah-NAH). what the hell is that, you ask? to be honest, i'm not reaaallyy sure. it's some type of cracked wheat thing, but all i know is that it's super super tasty! you can find it at any mediterranean specialty shop, along with some really good feta. we brought back 5 pounds of the trahana made in my mum's village, Desfina, (english wiki site here) but somehow i forgot it at home. sad. so, instead, i went to Minerva's Mediterranean Deli on west broadway.
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| sweet trahana from minerva's |
anyways, at minerva's they have sweet trahana (made with milk) and sour trahana (made with yogourt or traditional buttermilk). i literally just stood there for 10 minutes trying to figure out which one to buy. before this, i didn't even know there were 2 types!? well, i'm going to save you those 10 minutes of your life by telling you to get the sweet one. i'm not really sure why they call it sweet, cause it's not sweet at all. so, without further ado, here's the recipe!
you will need:
5 cups water
1/2 cup milk (i used skim)1 cup stock (i used no soduim stock, the feta adds all the salt you need)
1/2 cup diced tomatoes (i used canned cause that's all i had, and i added extra)
4-5 handfuls of trahana
chunk of feta
step 1:
add water, milk and stock into a large pot and bring to a boil
step 2:
once boiling, add in tomatoes and trahana. cook for 30 minutes, stirring often to avoid trahana sticking to the bottom or sides of the pot
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| 30 minutes into cooking process |
crumble in the feta cheese and cook for another 30 minutes, stirring often.
step 4:
serve in a bowl, add extra feta cheese on top if desired
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| enjoy! |
Wonderful Eva. It looks as good as your grandmothers'. One option is to saute the tomatoes first, but this is not mandatory. In Greece, fresh tomatoes that were ripe and skinned would have been used.
ReplyDeleteTrahana has a fascinating history. I just googled it. Could be western or could be Iranian in origin. Strikes me that ancient Greeks would have eaten a soup such as this.
It's cracked whole wheat cured in the sun with fermented milk - either goat or sheep. I have both kinds here so we should compare when you come back. I think the goat is supposed to be fattier;-)
Also, if you have leftover lamb you can add that to the trahana. Mom did that sometimes.
let me know next time you make this - I really want to try it!
ReplyDeleteOne of the ultimate in comfort foods, especially with a torn (not cut) piece of bread. This is awesome Eva. Keep it up.
ReplyDelete