Discover the Versatility and Nutritional Value of Greek Rusks

Summary

Greek rusks, espe­cially the tra­di­tional pax­i­madi, are a sta­ple in Greek cui­sine due to their ver­sa­til­ity and nutri­tional value, with dif­fer­ent types avail­able in the mar­ket. The rusks can be used to make dakos, a Cretan dish named the best salad in the world, and are com­monly enjoyed with olive oil and var­i­ous top­pings, mak­ing them a pop­u­lar choice for locals and tourists alike.

In the sum­mer, the abun­dance of fresh, sea­sonal ingre­di­ents cre­ates a can­vas of rich fla­vors, fresh smells and deli­cious dishes across Greece.

However, when look­ing for a quick and easy meal under the scorch­ing sun, the hum­ble pax­i­madi, the Greek bar­ley rusk, is the key to prepar­ing tasty, no-cook meals in min­utes.

Traditionally made with bar­ley flour, this hard, twice-baked bread is widely con­sid­ered an inte­gral part of the Cretan diet. Over the cen­turies, pax­i­madi became a sta­ple of Greek cui­sine due to its ver­sa­til­ity and nutri­tional value.

Historically, Greek house­holds, espe­cially those in rural areas, used to make rusks once each year after the cereal har­vest to secure the year’s sup­ply of bread.

“There are dif­fer­ent types, sizes and fla­vors of Greek rusks in the mar­ket nowa­days,” Katerina Ntale, a nutri­tion­ist and reg­is­tered dieti­cian based in Kymi on Evia island, told Olive Oil Times. ​“Some of the most pop­u­lar are those made with wheat or bar­ley flour, the whole­grain or gluten-free rusks, the rusks with reduced salt, or even those made with olive oil and tomato.”

“The main nutri­ents in the Greek rusks are car­bo­hy­drates and fiber, the per­cent­age of which changes depend­ing on the type of rusk,” she added.

Ntale, who is also a food lover and in her free time rein­vents clas­sic Greek dishes, noted that fiber is essen­tial for the human body as it con­tributes to good bowel func­tion, low­ers cho­les­terol and helps reg­u­late blood sugar.

“The rusks are also rich in vit­a­min B and min­er­als, includ­ing iron, zinc and mag­ne­sium,” she said. ​“And we should not for­get that car­bo­hy­drates are the main source of energy for the human body.” 

Relatively hard to come by out­side of the coun­try, the rusks can last in the pantry for months since they are essen­tially mois­ture-free. Before use, the rusks are usu­ally sprin­kled with water to soften.

In the most tra­di­tional recipe, pax­i­madi is used to make dakos, the Cretan dish that was named the best salad in the world for 2024/25 by the Taste Atlas food guide.

Comprising only three ingre­di­ents in its most basic prepa­ra­tion, dakos shines through its sim­plic­ity with fresh, ripe toma­toes, salty feta or xinomitzithra – a pun­gent goat or sheep cheese from Crete – and a few gen­er­ous splashes of high-qual­ity extra vir­gin olive oil.

However, the list of ingre­di­ents that can be used with the crunchy rusks is nearly end­less. 

“Some ideas for a quick snack are rusks with olive paste, cream cheese and cherry toma­toes, cream cheese, capers and olive oil, or eggs, cucum­ber and olive oil,” Ntale said.

Other com­bi­na­tions can include tomato and anchovies, aubergine (egg­plant) with feta and sausage, tuna with cherry toma­toes and pars­ley, sliced chicken with feta and capers or even tomato with a fried or poached egg for a sub­stan­tial break­fast.

The rusks can also be used as a sub­sti­tute for bread when enjoy­ing a col­or­ful Greek salad, either whole or bro­ken up and used as crou­tons.

Another win­ning com­bi­na­tion is pax­i­madi with table olives, a sim­ple meal that best exhibits the wis­dom of the tra­di­tional Greek diet. 

The car­bo­hy­drates and fiber in the rusks are per­fectly com­ple­mented by the monoun­sat­u­rated fat and the antiox­i­dants found in olives, cre­at­ing a com­plete meal of high dietary value.

“Rusks with olives are a tasty, ideal nutri­tional com­bi­na­tion,” Ntale said. ​“The carbs in the rusks and the healthy fats in the olives make for a fill­ing meal that can keep us going for quite some time.”

“It can also help bet­ter reg­u­late blood sugar with­out any spikes in glu­cose lev­els,” she added.

The lat­est trend in bak­eries and super­mar­kets across Greece is rusks made with carob, a seed pod from the carob tree, native to the Mediterranean region and the Middle East.

Carobs, which belong to the legume fam­ily, were widely used as ani­mal feed in Greece until recently. However, carobs are a mul­ti­pur­pose ingre­di­ent that has gained high appre­ci­a­tion from the food indus­try.

The carob pods con­tain no fat or caf­feine and are usu­ally ground before being added to food. Carob pow­der, also known as carob flour, is a nat­u­rally gluten-free ingre­di­ent with a sweet taste that can be used as a sub­sti­tute for cocoa pow­der and choco­late in recipes.

On the island of Kythira, south of the Peloponnese penin­sula, Karavas bak­ery has been mak­ing Greek rusks for more than 20 years.

“We make all kinds of rusks,” owner Yiannis Koroneos, a baker who returned to his home vil­lage in the 1990s to start his own busi­ness, told Olive Oil Times. ​“We also started mak­ing carob rusks about a year ago. The carob flour gives the rusks a dis­tinct fla­vor and sweet­ness.”

The Koroneos fam­ily has trans­formed an old olive oil mill in the small vil­lage of Karavas into a mod­ern bak­ery pro­duc­ing rusks of var­i­ous types, includ­ing the tra­di­tional olive oil rusk of Kythira.

“Especially in the sum­mer, the rusks fly off the shelves,” Koroneos said. ​“We even have cus­tomers from Crete, a place well-known for its pax­i­madi, who appre­ci­ate our del­i­cate Cretan-type rusks.” 

“We also ship our rusks abroad to coun­tries such as the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Australia,” he added. ​“Tourists vis­it­ing our island also know a lot about them.”

In Greece, apart from the natives who con­sider the rusks an indis­pens­able ele­ment of their diet, the rusks have also gained pop­u­lar­ity among tourists who are start­ing to appre­ci­ate their ver­sa­til­ity and ease of use.

“I like the rusks, espe­cially the smaller ones, as they are per­fect for mak­ing bite-sized tomato and feta bruschet­tas dressed in olive oil,” said Elisabeth Keable, a Briton from Manchester who reg­u­larly vis­its south­ern Greece. 

“Unfortunately, they are quite hard to come by over here,” she added. ​“But I always bring back a num­ber of bags of them because they have a long best-before date.”

“They are handy to have on hand to bulk up a salad or as a bruschetta snack, so they have become a pantry sta­ple for me,” Keable con­cluded.