Greek Salad

We had a bumper crop of the ‘maters so I am going to keep sharing how I used them.

This is another super simple side. It’s summer, it’s hot, no one wants to work any harder in the kitchen than necessary. Good quality ingredients make this salad absolutely burst with flavor! The ingredients can be swapped for what you have on hand as well.

For the salad:

1 cucumber sliced into half moons

1/2 red onion thinly sliced

2 1/2 cups cherry tomatoes halved

1 cup Kalamata olives cut in half longways

6 oz feta cheese

For the dressing:

2 Tbsp red wine vinegar

1/4 cup olive oil

Juice of half a lemon

1 tsp dried oregano

Salt and pepper to taste

In a large bowl combine all the veg and cheese, be easy so the cheese doesn’t get too crumbly. Or wait until you are ready to pour on the dressing to stir it around.

Using a smaller bowl, combine the lemon juice, vinegar and spices. Whisk to combine. Slowly drizzle in the olive oil while whisking to get a nice, sexy dressing that isn’t an oil slick.

Pour the dressing over the veg and stir gently.

Now for the fun part, what I do to make it best.

I like to use an English cucumber because they have fewer seeds. Seeds can add water. This can cause the dressing to separate a bit, and that isn’t sexy. If you only have a traditional cucumber the seeds can be scooped out pretty easily. I like to make my onions and cucumber slices the same thickness so the bites are more even. A pickled red onion would be lovely or a shallot. Feta cheese sometimes has herbs or “flavor” and that is all OK too. If you stray from the feta cheese it changes the flavors too far from Mediterranean. My local market has Kalamata olives that have been smoked and they add a delightful layer of flavor. Some of the olives even come stuffed with red pepper or garlic and those are great as well. If you can get your hands on some fresh oregano it makes a perfect topping. Any way you can get extra flavor is perfectly perfect! One more way to maximize flavor is to prepare the dressing in advance. Let it sit in the fridge so the flavors can hang out and get to know each other. Simple doesn’t have to mean flavorless!

Enjoy your kitchen and happy cooking!