Greek salad is so simple to put together and so nourishing. The ready made kind found in the deli never seems to cut for me. At least I haven't tasted a bought Greek salad that works. Perhaps it's because we all like our own mix better.
Here are the main ingredients of a Classic Greek:
- Feta Cheese: Feta is that soft salty cheese often found in the specialty section but increasingly becoming mainstream. There are three kinds - made from the milk of cow, goats or sheep. Cow is the cheapest and the most common. While quality varies, usually cow feta is the mildest and you may find you have to use more just to get the right taste. Goat cheese tends to be the sharpest with a lot more bite than cow. Sheep is the most expensive and often difficult to get but if you can buy it, it's the best. It has the most depth of flavor. The feta cheese should give the salad enough flavor that salad dressing isn't needed. Often store bought Greek salads don't have enough feta cheese and use dressings.
- Olives: Black Kalamata olives are defiantly the best. I personally don't like the pit still in it or anything else. So pitted olives are best. For something just a bit different, try Moroccan. Often store bought, doesn't have enough olives or they use olives with pits.
- Bell Pepper: Red to my mind is the best though orange will do. No need to peel it. I like it cut in long strips. If you want a colorful salad then use green, yellow, orange and red.
- Onion: Again red is best. If you don't like the sharp taste of onion. Chop it up, bath it in the juice of one lime and put it in a plastic container for at least four hours in the refrigerator.
- Cucumber: I prefer the big field cucumber for a Greek salad. You should either peel it or give it a good wash. I like it cut in chucks.
- Tomato: You need a tomato that will hold its shape so vine tomatoes just don't happen. Use beefsteak, plum or plump field tomatoes. Cut in chunks, no need to peel. You may want to sprinkle just a bit of dill over the tomatoes.
Variations :
A bit more elegant: Use Roma, tomato, or grape tomatoes and English long cucumber, instead. Or you might try sun dried tomatoes and perhaps some oregano or and parsley. It's a hybrid Greek/Italian salad.
Pasta: Use spiral or bow tie. It looks great and it's filling. How Greek is it? I couldn't say. It's Greek inspired. Boil a large pot of water first, add salt. Then put in the pasta, cook until tender. Put in sieve right away and wash with cold water, so it doesn't expand or turn mushy. Add feta cheese, olives, red peppers, sun-dried tomatoes if you like and just a bit of olive oil.
Leafy Green Again this is Greek inspired. If you want to use lettuce then I would suggest a bed of red lettuce as a base then place the rest of the salad on top. Or add Romaine lettuce to the mix, you might want to replace the cucumber. Baby spinach also works either as the bed or mixed in.
Dressings: If you put in enough feta cheese I don't think you need dressing or salt but you might want just a bit of olive oil with a squeeze of lemon, a bit of garlic and a dash of oregano. If you want something a bit fancy, try just a teaspoon of white wine vinegar.
So a Greek Salad has two main ingredients - feta cheese and olives. There are many variations so experiment. What kind of Greek salad do you like? Please share in the discussions below.
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