''Ladera'' (

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

λαδερά), ''zeytinyağlı (yemekler)'' ( Turkish), or ''bil zayt'' (

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

بالزيت) is a category of vegetable dishes cooked in

olive oil Olive oil is a vegetable oil obtained by pressing whole olives (the fruit of ''Olea europaea'', a traditional Tree fruit, tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin) and extracting the oil. It is commonly used in cooking for frying foods, as a cond ...

, Turkish, and

cuisines. The name in all these languages means "with (olive) oil". Ladera consist of vegetables, plain or stuffed, cooked in a tomato, onion, garlic, and olive oil sauce, and usually do not contain meat. Formerly,

lemon juice The lemon (''Citrus'' × ''limon'') is a species of small evergreen tree in the ''Citrus'' genus of the flowering plant family Rutaceae. A true lemon is a hybrid of the citron and the bitter orange. Its origins are uncertain, but some ...

was used when tomatoes were out of season.Aglaia Kremezi, ''The Foods of the Greek Islands'', p. 177 They may be stewed on the range-top or baked in the oven. Ladera can be served on their own, typically with

feta Feta ( ; ) is a Greek brined white cheese made from sheep milk or from a mixture of sheep and goat milk. It is soft, with small or no holes, and no skin. Crumbly with a slightly grainy texture, it is formed into large blocks and aged in brin ...

cheese and bread, or with potatoes,

bulgur Bulgur (; ; ; ), or Borghol (), is a cracked wheat foodstuff found in Egyptian cuisine, South Asian cuisine and West Asian cuisine. Characteristics Bulgur is distinct from cracked wheat, which is crushed wheat grain that, unlike bulgur, has ...

, or pasta. They may also be served as a

side dish A side dish, sometimes referred to as a side order, side item, or simply a side, is a food item that accompanies the entrée or main course at a meal. They are often served warm or at room temperature, and are popular in the summer. They are also commonly eaten as a fasting food.Βασιλεία Λούβαρη-Γιαννέτσου, ''Τα Σαρακοστιανά 50 συνταγές για τη Σαρακοστή και τις γιορτές'' (''Lent foods: 50 recipes for Lent and the holidays''), 2014 Examples include: * Vegetables including

green beans Green beans are young, unripe fruits of various cultivars of the common bean (''Phaseolus vulgaris''), although immature or young pods of the runner bean ('' Phaseolus coccineus''), yardlong bean ( ''Vigna unguiculata'' subsp. ''sesquipedalis ...

zucchini Zucchini (; : ''zucchini'' or ''zucchinis''), courgette () or ''Cucurbita pepo'' is a summer squash, a Vine, vining herbaceous plant whose fruit are harvested when their immature seeds and Fruit anatomy#Epicarp, epicarp (rind) are still soft a ...

okra Okra (, ), ''Abelmoschus esculentus'', known in some English-speaking countries as lady's fingers, is a flowering plant in the Malvaceae, mallow family native to East Africa. Cultivated in tropical, subtropical, and warm temperate regions aro ...

leek A leek is a vegetable, a cultivar of ''Allium ampeloprasum'', the broadleaf wild leek (synonym (taxonomy), syn. ''Allium porrum''). The edible part of the plant is a bundle of Leaf sheath, leaf sheaths that is sometimes erroneously called a "s ...

s, and

eggplant Eggplant (American English, US, Canadian English, CA, Australian English, AU, Philippine English, PH), aubergine (British English, UK, Hiberno English, IE, New Zealand English, NZ), brinjal (Indian English, IN, Singapore English, SG, Malays ...

* With lemon,

pea Pea (''pisum'' in Latin) is a pulse or fodder crop, but the word often refers to the seed or sometimes the pod of this flowering plant species. Peas are eaten as a vegetable. Carl Linnaeus gave the species the scientific name ''Pisum sativum' ...

artichoke The artichoke (''Cynara cardunculus'' var. ''scolymus''),Rottenberg, A., and D. Zohary, 1996: "The wild ancestry of the cultivated artichoke." Genet. Res. Crop Evol. 43, 53–58. also known by the other names: French artichoke, globe artichoke, ...

fava ''Vicia faba'', commonly known as the broad bean, fava bean, or faba bean, is a species of vetch, a flowering plant in the pea and bean family Fabaceae. It is widely cultivated as a crop for human consumption, and also as a cover crop. Vari ...

carrots The carrot (''Daucus carota'' subsp. ''sativus'') is a root vegetable, typically orange in colour, though heirloom variants including purple, black, red, white, and yellow cultivars exist, all of which are domesticated forms of the Daucus ...

, and

* A mixture of vegetables, called ''tourlou'' (Greek), ''türlü'' (Turkish), or briam. *

İmam bayıldı İmam bayıldı (literally: "the imam fainted") is a dish in Ottoman cuisine of whole eggplant stuffed with onion, garlic and tomatoes, and simmered in olive oil. It is a (olive oil-based) dish and is found in most of the former Ottoman regi ...

* Many kinds of leaves rolled around fillings ( sarma) * Many kinds of stuffed vegetables (

dolma Dolma ( Turkish for "stuffed") is a family of stuffed dishes associated with Ottoman cuisine, typically made with a filling of rice, minced meat, offal, seafood, fruit, or any combination of these inside either a leaf wrapping or a hollow or h ...

)

Notes

Greek cuisine Turkish cuisine Ottoman cuisine Vegetable dishes Vegetarian cuisine Olive oil Lenten foods {{Greece-cuisine-stub

See also

Notes