My Greek Salad

September 30, 2008

Greek salad is pretty common in restaurants these days, but I wanted to share my version that I learned in Greece.  Now, I don’t claim this to be authentic or THE Greek salad, but it is really tasty and probably better than what you’ll find in restaurants.

Before writing this up I checked Peter’s blog, Kalofagas, to make sure I didn’t embarrass myself with this recipe.  Apparently the salad I am thinking of is the Horiatiki Salata, and my version is nigh the same.

All you need is cucumber (1-2), a few tomatoes (good ones really help here), a red onion, a green pepper, a nice chunk of feta cheese, olive oil, red wine vinegar, dried oregano, salt, and pepper.

Just chop the cucumber(s) into rounds, slice the onion and green pepper, and cut the tomato into wedges.  Toss them with some olive oil, a little bit of the vinegar, the feta cheese, dried oregano, salt and pepper.

A note: Most people would also add some Kalamata olives, but I don’t like them, so too bad.

Tips

• Having good tomatoes is really important.  In my salad I used some tasty campari tomatoes from Costco as well as a few Roma tomatoes from the nearby IGA that weren’t very good.  The good tomatoes were leagues better than the bland ones and really improved the salad.
• I like using a good block of feta cheese and slicing it up before crumbling it over the salad.  That’s the way they do it in Greece (and actually serve it as a block).
• There are many ways to modify this salad, but I would recommend that you do NOT add lettuce.  What I like so much about the salad is that it is substantial and flavorful – I think lettuce dilutes it a bit.

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1-2 cucumbers
• 1 red onion
• 1 green pepper
• 2-5 good tomatoes, depending on the size
• 4 oz of good feta cheese
• Olive oil to taste
• Red wine vinegar to taste
• Dried oregano to taste
• Salt and pepper to taste

Recipe:

1. Slice the cucumber.  Cut the tomatoes into wedges.  Slice the onion and green pepper.  Toss with the olive oil, vinegar, oregano, salt and pepper, then crumble the feta cheese on top.

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