Healthy Mediterranean Foods – inspired by restaurant notes

Healthy Mediterranean foods is my world and a healthy diet way as in what you eat.

Off and on my hospitality career, I worked behind-the-scenes in food catering planning and event management for Spanish, Italian, and Lebanese restaurants and fine hotels in the Washington, DC area… a foodie hub.

During that time, I picked up many great healthy Mediterranean foods inspirations and also visited Italy and Spain.

Some of my fondest food event memories were the large corporate and bridal events that started out in my hotel days and then in restaurants. 

And where I could be table setting pops of color with the festive food dishes. …I know where my today-brunch table roots came from.

In alignment, I was also co-hosting brunches in some of the foodie-st restaurants near the ones  I represented and worked in… like Jose Andres’ fun DC restaurants and many American farm-t0-table ones that stand out.

From all those experiences, I learned to create balanced menus for preferred and customized tastes around specific seasons, daily occasions, and special events.

I got to make input and taste-test delicious foods, recipes, and dishes. With the Spanish, Italian, and Lebanese chefs, I was thankful they were much easier to work with than the ones that came from Ritz Carlton type-hotels (that give chefs their edge and what-you’d-expect in a chef fiery reputation 😊).

Today, the Spanish and Italian chefs stick out for me.

…Which btw, Spanish and Italian cuisines are having a moment (yes?) with Stanley Tucci’s Tucci in Italy and Eva Longoria’s Searching for Spain.

Have you seen?

They’re great for sparking food travel. If only you and I had  smell-o-vision… 💭

But without, those countries had some of my favorite inspired healthy Mediterranean food dishes that can be prepared and made at home. 

For starters, these are 3 healthy Mediterranean recipes soups and salads that also help to balance Vata and especially tame Pitta imbalances that are common in hot months.

One of my favorite plates was the fresh watermelon feta salad that many people love around the world.

Salt and watermelon are great pairings because the coarse salt stops the juicy in watermelon and gives a nice balance.

Salt added here is a lot like when you add a coriander seed and you bite into one and you get a strong burst of favorable flavor. 

And when you add mint, you get a super-refreshing salad. Cooling mint added to juicy-ripe summer watermelon with salt and then finished off with a drizzle of balanced olive oil is a balanced salad or dessert. 🍉

Feta cheese is often added but I prefer a sweeter goat cheese crumble that’s less salty. That way you get an overall sweet taste. Or you can add a dollop of Greek yogurt that’s more creamy like an Icelandic yogurt.

You could serve with lightly toasted pita chips where you can also make your own easy pita bread chips.

Spanish food dishes:

Planning parties and marketing at a Spanish restaurant chain called La Tasca allowed me to experiment with many Spanish food tastes and healthy Mediterranean foods.

The menu was full of variety… and never-ending like a Cheesecake Factory menu.

And in the Spanish restaurant version, one of my faves was a seasonal freshly-prepared gazpacho soup that traditionally is served cold and without tomato overpowering as the base. 

But I like the sweetness of tomatoes that are abundant in hot temps when you want a cold soup.

So for this gazpacho, the blend I like is: blended watermelon (or cucumber if watermelon isn’t available), fresh diced tomato, cumin (that’s also cooling), and a drizzle of olive oil and garlic.

There’s enough water in watermelon to make a soup.

Minced pimiento sweet peppers are also great to add. They’re anti-inflammatory healthy and the bright fire engine red is striking. 🌶️

No heat in this gazpacho!

Then I like to add balancing fresh cilantro and salt & pepper.

…I remember ingredients used to always end with “salt and pepper to taste” and somehow that got dropped, maybe ‘cause of all the other great ingredients that we have access to.

I think S&P still are the two that often are the final balancing flavors if you can’t quite put your finger on what’s missing. 🧂

Coarser kosher or sea salts are star ingredients for certain healthy dishes, like a gazpacho, Brussels sprouts, edamame, watermelon salad, and pasta water.

Btw, Brussels sprouts are actually named after Belgium’s capital, Brussels. So that’s how you can also remember.

Food is simple in that the name often gives its origin away, but is complex because you don’t know what’s inside until you’ve had a taste.

And a gazpacho is one taste you can’t forget and named after “soaked bread” from Andalusia… I love how that region name (An-da-loo-see-ah) just rolls off the tongue like interesting music notes.

Traditionally, a gazpacho is served with a spongy white, unsalted bread that doesn’t have much taste (like Wonder Bread you would feed the ducks with at a lake 😊). 

…This also reminds me of the bread served at Tuscan meals and with my favorite Ribollita soup served warm and great for wet and cool days (in early spring, late fall, or winter)… or if you’re feeling a bit over-Vata and need some comforting balance food.

You can also try a gazpacho inside a bread bowl.

Italian food dishes:

I started working in restaurants in my teens. The first one with servers was an upscale all-marble floor Italian restaurant chain. There I got in the habit of dipping bread in olive oil with cracked black pepper.

This was before that was common to do in restaurants.

The bread was served by a server who came around with black pepper mills who asked if you wanted to have fresh black pepper in your dipping olive oil and on your entree when it was served.

Serving butter with bread before and during the meal was still the American restaurant norm those days. Not olive oil.

The restaurant I worked in also had the first cappuccino machines in America (…those were exciting times!).

I wasn’t a coffee drinker then but I thought the machine was so cool and I was happy to make the drink! 

Funny how these little Mediterranean healthy foods and drink (olive oil and cappuccino) intros stuck… many American restaurants customarily serve bread with olive oil because of these Mediterranean-influenced restaurants.

And we know what happened with cappuccinos as they’re everywhere.

And it was that restaurant experience where I also came to love this salad plate 🥗 (and you may too!):

Tomato Mozzarella Basil Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette. It’s a work of food art with balsamic vinaigrette dotted around the plate for each bite (like a paint palette…  “a little dab will do you.”).

In summer, tomatoes on the vine are abundant and if you grow tomatoes, you may not know what to do with all of them.

Besides making a pasta sauce or gazpacho, a shrimp cocktail sauce is an idea. And salads of course! 

Plum or Roma tomatoes are great for most salad recipes. They don’t squirt everywhere and they have a strong taste, unlike tomatoes for burgers.

San Marzano tomatoes were common in Italian restaurants and are now the rage in home cooking…

And so are heirloom tomatoes (organic). The tri-color yellow, purple, with orange give a visual pop of color too!

Also green tomatoes that aren’t as common anymore.

And for a tomato mozzarella salad, all tomatoes will work.

Then ontop of the tomatoes, add some sliced buffalo mozzarella cheese that’s the star of this recipe.

Buffalo mozzarella (white color) on its own doesn’t have much of a flavor, but paired with these ingredients… is scrumptious and anything but mild.

Sometimes people who have dairy sensitivities can eat this kind of cheese from buffalo.

Ontop the cheese, don’t forget the fresh basil and it’ll look like an Italian flag.

And for the zhugh? Pine nuts were popular and people who have tree nut allergies can sometimes eat the nut that comes from pines.

If you toast them, be sure to watch them as they can burn quickly.

Today, you can also sub in walnuts or sunflower seeds if you like.

So that’s it for this week.  Good Eats, Buono Apetito, and Bon Appetit!

Hope you like that culinary healthy Mediterranean foods trio! 🥗