Mediterrean Cuisine- Breakfast Parfaits
Mediterrean cuisine’s vast variety extends to many different breakfast options; including parfaits. Parfaits are typically made up of layered yogurt, fruit, and toppings. There are endless ways to build a parfait, so how can you decide what you want in yours? Let me help you narrow down options, and give you ideas when it comes to building the perfect parfait for your breakfast, snack, or dessert!
To start, you’ll need yogurt. Yogurt is the most important part of a parfait, and you can’t make one without it. Yogurt has plenty of flavors to choose from, but here’s what I would reccommend: either a vanilla Greek yogurt or a plain Greek yogurt that you can add flavor to yourself. I would choose these options over flavored yogurts because another flavor might overpower the parfait and make it difficult to find good flavor matching options. A plain or vanilla yogurt is a good base for a parfait that will give you a lot more options when it comes to building. A great, quick, and easy yogurt that you can make at home is a chia seed yogurt. It has a ratio of 1 cup of yogurt to 1 tablespoon of chia seeds, and from there you can flavor it to taste.
Chia Seed Yogurt
2 Cups of plain Greek yogurt
2 Tablespoons of chia seeds
Zest of one lemon
Juice from half a lemon
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1/4 cup of honey
Mix everything together thoroughly. Taste and adjust ingredients as needed.
This recipe is super flavorful and has some good texture from the chia seeds. I recommend this yogurt for a simple fruit parfait with fruits like raspberries and blueberries.
The next most important part of a parfait is fruit. Fruit adds a healthy treat to the parfait, and you can put as much or as little as you like. I like to do at least two layers of fruit in a parfait. Some great parfait fruit options are strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, bananas, pineapple, and mango. You can use fresh or frozen fruit in a parfait. Frozen fruit can be very convenient, especially if you only want enough for your parfaits, and none leftover for snacking. With frozen fruit you can put it away in the freezer when you’re done, and save it for next time; compared to letting it go to waste in the fridge or on the counter, like fresh fruits. Their flavor is usually the same either way. Your frozen fruit parfaits will be able to fully thaw once you store them in the fridge.
To finish off your parfait you can add some toppings. I love to use sliced almonds and dried blueberries. Dried blueberries are a nice alternative to raisins if you aren’t a fan of them, like myself. If you want something sweet you can use mini chocolate chips, peanut butter, or nutella in your parfait. You can also use a store-bought granola, or make your own, for some good crunch. Any of your favorite nuts are great topping choices as well. Any kind of dried fruit can also be a great and healthy topping.
As you can see, there are hundreds of ways to make a parfait. I hope you can use my advice and make yourself something tasty! Feel free to reach out to me for recommended flavor combos. I would love to help! The parfait pictured is a chia seed yogurt parfait with raspberries and blueberries. It’s easy, tasty, and convenient for a small, quick, grab-n-go breakfast. Cheers!
