MAKE CHEESE MAGIC WITH OUR BEST FETA RECIPES

“It’s always better with feta,” as they say. We definitely agree, and that’s why we’ve rounded up a collection of our best things to make with feta cheese, from Mediterranean to American cuisines. Feta is an incredibly versatile ingredient, playing well with everything from bright fruit salads to gooey comfort foods. One of our favorite things to make is khachapuri, the traditional Georgian cheese boat, which is typically made with a Georgian cheese—our version uses a blend of crumbled feta and low moisture mozzarella. Here are our favorite feta cheese recipes.

For a Southeast Asian spin, add fish sauce, chile, and Thai basil to the classic combination of watermelon and feta.

This Georgian flatbread is from the region of Samegrelo, which borders the Black Sea. It is not, however, beach food. Stuffed with salty cheese and griddled, then heaped with even more cheese and baked, this is stick-to-your ribs winter cooking at its best.

Barley is typically eaten in a pudding for breakfast or dessert in Egypt, but in this recipe from cookbook author Suzanne Zeidy, it’s turned into a hearty salad, seasoned with cumin and chiles, and tossed with grilled vegetables, feta, and pistachios.

A base of crunchy, fresh fennel contrasts perfectly with grilled corn kernels and crumbled feta cheese in this summer salad.

This classic Israeli breakfast, a dish of Libyan origin, can be served as a main course for any meal of the day.

This refreshing salad takes on various guises in Greece depending on what vegetables are in season, but it almost always features feta and a dusting of dried oregano.

This cheese-filled Georgian flatbread has its roots in the west-central region of Imereti, but by now it is a popular part of the elaborate feasts, known as supras, held across the country.

This recipe originated in the Ottoman palaces. Use small eggplants for a better eggplant-to-stuffing ratio, since the key is to bake as much vegetable and tomato flavor into the eggplant as possible. Feel free to play around with the filling: swap in vegetables like sweet corn or zucchini for a seasonal twist.

The flavors of fall and winter are perfectly represented in this simple and elegant meal.

This savory casserole is studded with spinach, topped with feta cheese, and infused with a hint of cinnamon.

This traditional Georgian cheese and egg bread is best eaten hot. Use a spoon to stir the yolk and butter into the molten cheese, then tear off a piece of fluffy crust to dunk into the cheesy well.

Feta, red onion, and mint are a classic combination; tossed with snappy green beans they make a salad of surprising complexity.

These crustless tarts, adapted from Ana Sortun and Maura Kilpatrick’s book Soframiz, are inspired by a yogurt and semolina custard that is traditionally baked inside cooked grape leaves in Greece. The authors say that, even though the grape leaves aren’t rolled and filled cigar-style, the filled tarts are still a version of a dolma, a word that means “stuffed” in Turkish and Greek. “I love this version because the grape leaves get crispy and a little caramelized,” Sortun says. They work equally well in ceramic ramekins, fluted or non-fluted tart pans, muffin tins, or small cast iron baking dishes.