🌞 📖 MODERN MEDITERRANEAN DIET GUIDE https://carolinelfranco.gumroad.com/l/jedrp
Ciao and welcome to my channel! In this recipe video, I am sharing 4 Mediterranean Diet Snack Ideas that highlight seasonal whole foods, with simple, quick, and easy ingredients and steps. These recipes are incredibly flexible and can be adapted to fit your specific diet and preferences, such as vegetarian, gluten-free, or vegan, providing well-balanced meal ideas designed for an achievable and sustainable long, healthy, and zestful life.
I hope you enjoy this video. Please leave a comment below with anything you want to see, questions you’d like me to answer, etc. Thank you so much for watching, and I hope you create a zestful week!
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RECIPES
☼ Greek Fava https://carolinelfranco.com/greek-fava-warm-lemony-yellow-split-peas-dip/
☼ Tahini Honey Crisp Bars https://carolinelfranco.com/tahini-honey-crisp-bars/
☼ Pistachio Orange Apricot Agrodolce Fried Halloumi https://carolinelfranco.com/pistachio-orange-apricot-agrodolce-fried-halloumi/
☼ Double Chocolate Raspberry Olive Oil Cake https://carolinelfranco.com/double-chocolate-raspberry-olive-oil-cake/
TAGS
⋒ #MediterraneanDiet #SnackIdeas #HealthySnacks
TIMESTAMPS
0:00 → intro
0:36 → Greek Fava
9:25 → Tahini Honey Crisp Bars
14:09 → Pistachio Orange Apricot Agrodolce Fried Halloumi
20:28 → Double Chocolate Raspberry Olive Oil Cake
CIA welcome back to my channel thank you so much for clicking on this video in today’s video we are going to be doing four Mediterranean diet snack ideas recipes just some inspiration to get you in the kitchen and make some really good high quality wholesome delicious simple
Recipes so they’re perfect as a snack but you can also really kind of J them up add some fun things to them to kind of make a complete meal I have two Savory and two sweet I try to make my recipes as flexible as possible so they
Can fit your preferences so let’s go ahead and hop in to recipe number one the first snack idea is going to be Greek fava 2 years ago I went to Greece and it’s one of my most favorite places that I have ever been to the food was
Sensational and I had fava in sorini and it was wonderful and it’s so simple and such minimal ingredients again the Mediterranean diet it may take some time to make some of these dishes because they believe in making such homemade wonderful dishes but the ingredients are always such high quality and you want to
Taste every ingredient and so there’s so few ingredients starting off with fava it is not actual fava beans fava is the Greek word for yellow split peas and I have one cup of them rinsed really well I’m just going to set that off to the side and now we’re going to work on
Building the base of aromatic flavors so I’m going to go in with some high quality I have Greek olive oil today this is probably my favorite brand of olive oil not sponsored at all in this video specifically so I’m going to coat the bottom of the pot say about three
Tablespoons now that I put the pot on the stove I’m going to turn it on to medium low heat because one we never want to burn olive oil but also we’re going to do some softening of some shallots and garlic here I’m going to do a super duper rough chop of the shallots
Thyme is one of the woodsy herbs almost lemony kind of and that’s great because we’re also featuring a whole lemon in this recipe bringing out some zestful you can use kind of maybe any woodsy herb you want an herb that can cook for a long time but still retain so much of
That flavor and woodsy herbs are are stronger type of herb can really get their flavor out of them even after being cooked a long time and then the last like really big layer of flavor going in in this little tiny container cuz I had to pack everything before coming here vegetable broth concentrate
It’s beautiful flavor concentrated so you don’t have to buy containers of Veggie broth so I have vegetable broth is the mor Ral of the story is what I’m trying to say is going to be the liquid to really cook down the yellow split piece however if you just want to use
Water just use water the other reason why I want to keep them pretty rough and don’t want to spend too much time fussing with prepping the veg for this dish is because it’s all going to be Blended up that is what this dish is it’s it’s a dip it’s a nice beautiful
Warm inviting citrusy nutritious dip oh here we go my eyes are starting to hurt a little bit I know there’s a bunch of tricks I know there’s like you can keep like a wet cloth by you like if you do it by a burner but my eyes so now we’re
Going to move on to the garlic as I literally can’t see anything my eyes are watering so bad probably would say two giant ones or three mediumsized ones I’m just going to give them a good smash so you do your garlic level that you want
Um I will always go for Less garlic than more garlic and the Smashing part actually helps break them a little bit so that they will release some of that flavor and do a good job infusing it into the oil my nose is running because my eyes watered this is not good for the
Camera we’re going to put the garlic and the shallots into the pot with a little bit of salt and the Thyme the shallots and the garlic have been sautéing with the thyme a little bit of salt and red pepper flakes for about 10 minutes now and they’re just starting to develop color on very low heat that means they’re nice and softened they’re kind of almost looking
A little translucent it’s time to do the next step which is going to be add in the yellow split pce they’re not super duper popular in the states in fact they they’re kind of hard to find so if you cannot find yellow split peas you can use yellow lentils they are totally
Different but they can be replaced there’s going to be a taste difference if you can’t find yellow split peas you could look on Amazon I went to my local Mediterranean grocery store and I found them for a really really good price because those grocery stores tend to
Have like really good prices so if you just like Google Mediterranean grocery stores near me you should find like a Middle Eastern grocery store I’m going to start off with 2 cups of water or broth and now I’m going to add in the vegetable base so I’m just going to put
A lid on it and let it simmer for like I said 30 to 45 minutes really low heat you definitely want to make sure that there is some residual water so if you’re noticing too much of the water cooking off and the split peas aren’t all the way cooked through yet which
You’ll know you can taste them and they’ll be nice and and smooth and creamy you can add in another four a cup or half a cup of water it is time to pull the beautiful Mash yellow split peas from the stove they finish cooking and they become so soft they already start
Mashing like crazy depending on your preferences and your textures and what you like you could Mash this up with a back of a wooden spoon add that lemon juice and lemon zest in here and you could have a really thick delicious dip that’s very textur the beautiful thing
About time part two because it’s a woodsy herb all the leaves fall off the stem go in and find all the stems of the time to the blender to the food processor if you’re blending this or just straight in to mash it into I’m going to use a whole lemon zest and
Juice I want the really really lemony flavor I think it just is going to pair well with everything that’s gone in here and for something that’s been cooked for a long period of time something that was dried like those split peas were dried bring this back to life the lemon juice
Is also going to add a little bit of liquid that we’re going to need to probably blend this I might be adding in a little bit more water as well just to help get this super smooth and creamy but it’s supposed to be a pretty thick spread this dip is best enjoyed warm
Super easy dip super inviting goes with just about everything I’m pairing it today with some cucumbers cuz I honestly forgot something to to dip with it there’s so many ways to use this dip as well by now if you’ve watched at least like two or three of my recipe videos
You had to have seen this coming you could also use it as a sauce thin it out with vegetable broth a ton of water and it’s a sauce a pasta sauce a sauce to put over your chicken or your grilled Meats your baked Meats a sauce to put
Over rice couscous spread on top of bread for sandwiches about two more tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil I don’t have different types of olive oil I just use always super duper high quality olive oil I don’t have one for cooking one for finishing one for no
Just high quality stuff I’m just going to be adding Spoonful by spoonful of the beautiful spit pea mashed cooked goodness to the blender again you want to be doing it while it’s still pretty warm because this is a delicious luscious warm dip so good so I have all the
Ingredients ready to go to be Blended up like I said it’s probably going to need like a splash or two of water if it’s biting if it’s not blending go ahead and add that the consistency is of your desires it is the Moment of Truth which I’ve already tasted it it’s incredible
It’s lemony and thick Olive oily you can taste the thyme the onions and the garlic ever so slightly slightly warm cuz we just blended it so now it’s time to Plate It Creamy full of protein and fiber yellow split peas are such a good nutrient dense ingredient and if you are subbing the yellow split peas for yellow lentils those are also incredibly high in protein and fiber let’s talk about longevity the blue zones absolutely so popular right now blue zones is so
Similar to the Mediterranean lifestyle and diet but they talk so much about like a superfood that the blue zones eat is legumes nutrient dense food and this dish is it this is delicious this fava is the dip that you need to be making for the rest of winter it’s delicious
Year round but a warm dip cozy yet so fresh I topped mine off with a little bit more lemon zest some sumac and zatar Tac is like a lemony Berry spice that you guys by now if you’ve been watching my videos for a while now know that I
Absolutely love and then zatar is a spice blend but it has some thyme in it some of the times if not it tastes very similar to thyme so it’s almost like a dried enhanced version of thyme and because we had that thme in the actual fava this fava is fabulous one more
Spoonful and then we are going to move on to recipe number two so so good for the second recipe I am going to be doing an updated recipe I’ve been doing this a lot lately and I plan to do it for the rest of the year I wanted to
Take any recipes that I made in 2020 2021 most of them need a refresh an update remake it again make sure it’s kind of perfect so I made these baklava Rice Krispie treats baklava inspired they are not baklava I do not want to disgrace one of the best desserts of all
Time but I love the flavors of baklava so much I take that inspiration to make other things I made a baklava granola last year one of my favorite recipes of all time crunchy crispy nutty citrusy spicy and I want to remake The baval Rice Krispy Treats because when I made
Them people love them on Tik Tok on Instagram on YouTube people really really love that recipe so I wanted to make sure that I really loved that recipe it’s basically kind of a mix between like a granola bar and a Rice Krispie Treat it’s like sweet but not
Over the- top sweet lots of Rice Crispies because I love that the Rice Krispies really give that flaky Airy crunch that get so much from that filo dough and so for a more buttery nutty flavor the base is going to be tahini going to add into the bowl heini is one
Of my favorite ingredients of all time I use it all the time it’s Pantry staple another like really neutral tasting Nut Butter you could use if you didn’t want to use tahini would be cashew butter and I’m going to sweeten it up just a little bit and also will help make these bars
Stick so I have the honey and the tahini in there I’m going to do a splash of vanilla vanilla extract I I always use Real Deal real vanilla it is the good stuff I never use imitation anything and we’re going to give it a little stir so
Now we’re going to build some more flavor I’m going to do just a dash of cinnamon cardamom totally optional the cardamom is pretty strong and then seen a lot in uh baklava as cloves so I’m also going to do just a dash of clove
And then I’m going to do a pinch of salt just to bring out all the flavors so now I’m going to stir all the spices in in the honey syrup mixture that is poured on top of the gorgeous baked baklava is a little bit of lemon juice so if you wanted to
Add a little bit of lemon zest or lemon juice or orange dust or orange juice you could add orange blossom water almond flour it’s a super absorbent flour so it’s going to help absorb the liquid or the wet ingredients it’ll help make the bars a little bit more firm nuts are
Huge into Baka that’s like the most important part and to give it good texture and lastly I’m going to do the rice crisps and give everything a really big stir stir I mean these couldn’t be easier it’s like 10 ingredients or less and you just basically stir everything
Together you could just eat them straight from the bowl so good you want to keep stirring until you’ve reached like this really thick ball it all balls up like this you know you’ve reached the perfect consistency I recommend definitely storing these in the fridge the mixture Has Come Together perfectly but it’s quite
Soft quite delicious the cardamom adds such a good note and I’m just going to of evenly place it in this parchment lined loaf pan you could do probably a 9×9 and they would be like thin like normal granola bars but I kind of wanted that like thick baklava esque height to
These so I have the mixture just lightly in the pan right now I’m going to take the parchment and kind of place it over like this use an extra sheet of parchment and use this cup kind of press down and really pack it in so they hold
Together better I’m just going to pop this in the fridge or the freezer for an hour and then we’ll cut them I have the beautiful tahini bars I’m just going to flip it upside down and right off onto the pan to make this more reminiscent of
Baklava I’m going to cut these at a diagonal you can hear the Crispy Crunchy rice crisps they’re so pretty you can just see all the toasted pistachios and walnuts running through the center soft yet crispy you get the honey all those spices these dipped in chocolate so rich
The rice crisps give it a beautiful texture and then you get all the flavor from the nuts and the spices and the tahini it’s not too sweet these are decadent Yet full of nutritious healthy fats absolutely utterly delicious you have to try these nutty tahini bars they’re going to be your new favorite
Delicious snack you could easily add some protein powder into these they would honestly be even a little bit more firm so I’m going to enjoy this last bite and we’re going to move on to the next recipe so so so good I love all the recipes in this recipe video so much but
This is going to be I just know the best one so the third recipe is going to be a seared fried halumi with a citrusy Agro Dolce I made scallops aggro doce last year in the winter and I wanted to recreate that and add some variations
Because like I always say my recipes are so flexible variations possibilities are endless first we’re going to work on the Agro Dolce Agro Dolce comes from Sicily comes from Italy Agro sour Dolce sweet vinegars are a Mediterranean diet staple I love balsamic white balsamic I love red wine vinegar white wine vinegar one
Of my favorite salad dressings at my favorite restaurant uses champagne vinegar this is a crushed Tangerine vinegar they have a whole line of crushed fruit vinegars Citrus is in season in the winter so I thought a wintry fun dish would be this Agro dulche olives traditional and Agro Dolce crunchy nutty toasted salty
Deliciousness pistachios we have a caracara orange kakara oranges are sweeter than Naval oranges more robust in flavor in my opinion and for more sweetness some dried fruit I have some cut up apricots here apricots apricots they’re super meaty dried fruit texture no added sugar there is sulfur to retain
That golden color to start off we’re going to be doing the 1/3 cup of apricots going in oh gosh spilling spilling everywhere half a cup of pistachios going in for a beautiful color and texture next I’m going to drain off the olives and add those in just take off the entire zest smells
So good the smell of oranges remind me of Christmas because being Italian we use Clementine peels for tum um Ola which is a game we play at Christmas so whenever I smell like a peeled orange or orange zest reminds me of wonderful memories so I’m going to give the
Vinegar a good Shake because vinegar has that great must in there it can kind of sometimes settle at the bottom going to open it up just a moment for the packaging on the side it is so cute I have my cute little honey bear so
Honey is in and then last last but not least I’m going to do half of the orange because I really just want to snack on the other half but you could do the whole if you wanted to like I said car car oranges are a little bit different
So notice that the color is a little bit darker almost dropped that in there it almost splashed up at me thank you God for that not happening today especially with the white pans okay in we go so now I have liquid and I’m going to
Pour it into the jar with all the the fun stuff hopefully it fits just barely take the lip and we’re going to shake this bad boy up until everything’s really well combined moving on to the second part now that we have the gorgeous agaro
Dolce done ready to go the first 2 or 3 days it’s actually developing and soaking up so much flavor so that’s why I love making this big jar cuz instant like salad enhancer with the olives and the nuts and the dried fruit incredible I put it on top of seared scallops you
Could do it on top of any fish chicken meat tofu you could literally just dump this into like freshly made rice freshly made couscous you’re making like a peel off without like having to do any of the work besides cooking the rice so a great meal prep staple great sauce great all
Around so let’s move on to the halumi I love halumi so much I found this one at Costco great price at Costco you got two for the price that I saw it at Kroger you just have to go to like the specialty cheese section of your grocery
Store and you will find halumi I promise it’s really becoming way more popular but not any easier to open up so annoying to open halumi is a beautiful cheese from Cypress if I haven’t already said that coated in dried mint I’m just going to do some pretty thick Cuts so
Like 3/4 of an inch maybe I’m going to go ahead and try it you can eat it raw like seriously the best freaking cheese ever but it’s definitely better when it’s G seared baked any of those it’s definitely best warm so from one halumi block with a bit of snacking I have six
Slices I’m going to appreciate my pan oh my gosh it’s so good about a six you don’t want it like piping hot that you’re going to burn the cheese but you definitely want it nice and warm and we’re simply going to sear the halumi on both sides dous it with the beautiful
Agra doce and enjoy cheese is so often really well enjoyed by itself as a snack or as a course on its own full of pro protein amazing source of a lot of great nutrients and so this is just a great snack they go together so well sweetness
And the vinegar with the saltiness and the chewiness and all the Crunch and the texture snacks I feel like you want them to be very satisfying cuz you don’t want to eat a lot of it for me a snack would have been two or three slices of halumi
Seared up really quickly in the pan Stir It Up and pour it on top and then you have a snack but you could also make it a meal you could pair this with some vegetables on the side you could do some crackers some baguette you could you can
Make this a meal but I like cheese sometimes as a snack there was a show on Food Network I used to love watching when I was in grade school called the best thing I ever ate if I could go on that show now and talk about a dish I
Made myself this would be the best thing I’ve ever ate do you hear the squeakiness you think you loved every ingredient going into this dish you love orangey citrusy olivey pistachio e fruity honey chewy delicious oh my gosh so good you have to try this this gorgeous seared halumi with a beautiful
Orange pistachio Olive Agro doce guys I could go on and on and on and on and on I don’t think I could ever stop describing how incredible this dish is so many flavors but you taste all the flavors they complement each other so well I’m going to enjoy a few more bites
And we are going to move on to the fourth and final recipe M so good for the fourth and final recipe I have a gorgeous fail prooof olive oil cake a double chocolate raspberry olive oil cake I’ve been making olive oil cake for four or 5 years now and I’ve tried a
Bunch of different recipes a bunch of different variations and I’ve figured out the perfect recipe for olive oil cake and I changed the recipe a little bit by adding in cocoa powder chopped up chocolate some raspberries a gorgeous gorgeous easy One Bowl stir everything together with
You could use yogurt as well and if you’re dairyfree you could always use coconut yogurt that’s my favorite yogurt for dairyfree options when you taste the batter it’s going to taste kind of terrible because the olive oil is really really really strong but I promise once
It’s baked that olive oil flavor is so much less and it just adds a light fruity flavor to the cake the moistness the beautiful health benefits of the olive oil so it’s not overly sweet it’s a perfect balance so this is like the perfect snacking cake cuz there’s no
Frosting really that goes with this I am going to make something to go with this today because why not but for the most part it’s a snacking cake because it’s not quite a muffin but it could be and it’s not like over-the-top decadent dessert but you could make it dessert
With some ice cream some whipped cream some Jam so many ways to make this more of a dessert or more of a snack you can eat cake as a snack the Mediterranean diet is about balance moderation wholesome Whole Food foods and quality so desserts are seen all over the
Mediterranean as a snack this cake is still filled with a wholesome amount of carbs and delicious goodness to level it up and give it a little fun Decorative Touch I have some leftover raspberries here I’m going to go ahead and add them to a jar I’m going to do about 2 tpoon
Of Honey because the Greek yogurt I’m using is plain I always buy a giant container of Greek yogurt or maybe like a tablespoon of honey I always buy a giant container of plain two % or 5% Greek yogurt I use it for so many Savory things if you’re wanting more of like
The fruit flavored Greek yogurts this is also a great hack for flavoring your own Greek yogurt at home you can control the sugar sugar is not bad it’s just again you got to was the moderation of it so I’m taking that tablespoon of honey splash of water and probably like a half
A cup of raspberries into the microwave you could make a really big batch of this on the stove um I’m going to do like 30 seconds to start heating up the raspberries so that they break really easily and then they Infuse with that honey okay quick pause the raspberry as
You can see the raspberry and the water and the Honey like they bursted and all became a liquidy goodness start off with about A4 of a cup at a time and it just turns it to a beautiful color if you didn’t know I made this cake specifically because the holidays coming
Up my favorite holiday I’m going to do a little splash of vanilla oh it’s so fudgy oh oh my gosh looks so good I just got a hunk of chocolate drizzle of The Gorgeous raspberry yogurt sauce a the colors are so pretty looks absolutely incredible I’m so excited to
Try this gorgeous chocy raspberry olive oil cake so dense and moist on the center it’s nice and chewy because of the little bit of almond flour that goes into this recipe swe it makes it a little bit crumbly but at the same time gives it really good like texture which
Of course love me some texture oh my God this is so good it’s a very not too sweet cake which is why it’s perfect for a snack have to try this cake or any variation you’d love to make of olive oil cake seriously it’s such a simple
Easy cake to make if you’re like going to a party and you need to make a recipe really quick or a brunch or you’re just bored on the weekend and want something easy but like showstopping to make this olive oil cake there’s so many variations to this
Olive oil cake whether you wanted to do chocolate I have I think a citrus version I have an apple version I have a plum version there’s so many versions of this cake but this was a really really fun one you have to try this double chocolate raspberry olive oil
Cake that concludes this recipe video thank you so so so much for watching please leave a comment below what recipe you’re most inspired to try what idea you got from this recipe video if you did like this video please give it a thumbs up and if you aren’t already
Please subscribe thank you again so much for watching and until next time I hope you create a very very zestful day Ciao