Best Ever Greek Salad

I’m the biggest fan of salads made every which way–whether tossed in fancy balsamic vinegars or compartmentalized like a food chart.  Salads are, hands down, my favorite kind of meal and they makeup at least 10% of recipes on this website.  But it wasn’t until recently that I started taking stock not of my fancy “weird” salads catalogued here, but ones more commonly ordered at restaurants. You know the kind–a traditional Cobb Salad, a “House” Salad, or a Caesar Salad.  To this end, I searched far and wide until I came up with an easy Greek Salad that can be made any day of the week (and in a matter of minutes) with just a few basic ingredients I always seem to have lying around.

Simply toss together a healthy green base–romaine lettuce, cherry tomatoes, banana peppers, and red onions–with more quintessential “Greek” ingredients–kalamata olives, good quality olive oil, and feta cheese.  The fresh and light olive oil vinaigrette listed below brings life to an otherwise traditional coupling of summertime ingredients and the feta cheese ensures that every other bite has a certain creamy texture to it.

Right before my friend Jon Barry left for Panama, I tested this version of a simple Greek Salad on his discerning male appetite.

The result? Love.  Pure love.  The salad was so popular, Rhett claimed, “I’ll go get the rest from the kitchen.”  I hated to tell him, we had eaten the whole thing.

Best Ever Greek Salad

This salad is my own variation of a Greek classic, but the dressing is adapted from A Week of Menus here.

Ingredients:

*1 head romaine lettuce, torn into bite-size pieces (can substitute 4 cups leafy greens)

*1 1/2 cups cherry or grape tomatoes, halved

*2 banana peppers, seeded and sliced into circular rounds

*2 small red onions, peeled and cut into thin slices (can substitute half of a regular-sized red onion)

*1 cup feta

*1 1/2 cup kalamata olives

–Dressing–

*1/2 cup good quality extra virgin olive oil

*1/4 cup good quality red wine vinegar

*2 cloves garlic, pressed or minced

*1 tablespoon oregano or basil

*1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

*Salt & pepper, to taste

1.) Wash produce–lettuce, tomatoes, and peppers, and prep for salad.  Tear lettuce into bite size pieces, halve tomatoes, and slice  peppers and onions.  Add produce to salad bowl and toss with feta and kalamata olives.

2.) In a large bowl, whisk together olive oil, vinegar, garlic, oregano (or basil), Dijon, and salt and pepper, to taste.

3.) Add dressing to salad and toss to fully coat.  Serve immediately and enjoy!

Makes 4 servings.

–Helana Brigman

—

Follow me on Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/helana/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DancesWLobsters

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Clearly-Delicious/103136413059101

Tumblr: http://clearlydelicious.tumblr.com/

Instagram: http://instagram.com/helanabrigman