Greek Salad is a feast of exuberance … the freshness of the vegetables, the subtle bouquet of aromatic herbs, a bit of a bite from the red onion, the tang of the salty brined olives, and the comfort of creamy fresh feta cheese.
An authentic Greek Salad (Horiatiki Salata) contains:
- Fresh tomato chunks
- Cucumber chunks
- Green bell pepper chunks (not red, yellow or orange)
- Red onion slices
- Kalamata olives
- Fresh herbal combination of oregano and mint
- Greek Feta cheese (Macedonian feta is beautiful)
- No leafy greens
And, an authentic Greek salad does not have an actual dressing – just a drizzle of an excellent-quality olive oil (preferably Greek) and a splash of red wine vinegar.
Greek Salad
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Number of Servings: 4
Ingredients:
2 cups of fresh tomatoes; cherry/grape tomatoes, halved; or Campari tomatoes, cut into bite-size chunks
2 cups of uniform-size chunks of English cucumber (seeded)
2-3 green bell peppers, medium dice (same size chunks as the cucumber & tomatoes)
¾ cup Kalamata olives, pitted and thinly sliced
½ of a small red onion, very thinly sliced into rings
A generous tablespoon of fresh chopped oregano
A generous tablespoon of fresh chopped mint
3-4 tablespoons (45-60 mL) Greek olive oil
Kosher salt; freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons (30 mL) red wine vinegar
A slab or some chunks of Greek feta cheese
Method:
1. Prepare all vegetables and place in a large salad bowl. All vegetables, when prepared, should be of uniform size. Add the sliced olives and red onion rings.
2. Just before serving, toss in the fresh herbs.
3. At serving time, drizzle the olive oil over all and toss. Add some salt and several grinds of fresh black pepper. Drizzle on the vinegar, and toss to combine.
4. Sprinkle on some chunks of feta cheese, or place a slab of cheese on top of the vegetables. Gently stir to combine the cheese with the other salad ingredients, or leave the cheese in chunks (or in a slab) on top.
5. Pass the pita.
