The Best Greek Salad
Summertime is truly the best time for making a Greek salad. So, may I present to you this Greek Salad recipe. This Greek salad consists of fresh cucumbers, sliced red onion, olives, finely diced red bell pepper, and feta cheese. If you love olives, then add extra. For this recipe, I only wanted a few. These ingredients are tossed in with some romaine lettuce. The salad is then lightly coated with an easy-to-make homemade red wine vinaigrette. The Dressing for this salad is rather easy to make. It is simply a combination of extra-virgin olive oil, red wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, garlic powder, salt, and black pepper. Sounds easy enough, right?
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The Best Greek Salad
1
servings10
minutesIngredients
- For the Dressing:
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1/4 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
salt and pepper, to taste
- For the Salad:
2 cups romaine lettuce
1/4 cup red bell pepper, diced
7 whole olives
1 English cucumber, sliced
2 tablespoons red onion, diced
2 tablespoons feta cheese
Directions
- For the Dressing:
- In a small bowl, mix together olive oil, red wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Set aside until ready to use on salad.
- For the Salad:
- To a large bowl, combine romaine lettuce, red bell pepper, olives, cucumber, red onion, and feta cheese.
- Add dressing and toss.
- Serve and Enjoy!
I remember the very moment that I tried a Greek salad. And boy, was my palate pleased. I was enjoying dinner at my childhood friends’ home. We were neighbors. Their parents moved to the U.S. from Greece years prior. One particular night, they invited me over to have an authentic Greek feast. I mean, we had everything! Chicken, lamb skewers, salad, stuffed grape leaves, and stuffed tomatoes were all ready to be eaten. The lamb skewers were so tender! At this time I was probably about 8 or 9 years old. I was pleasantly surprised by just how good the Greek Salad tasted. It was nothing like anything I had ever tried before. Truthfully, no salad could compare. And, from that moment on, I was hooked!
That particular day, I had it as a side dish along with protein. Nowadays, however, I eat it as a main dish. So, if you’re looking for a protein to pair with your Greek salad, then try lamb, chicken, or steak. Just make sure it is well seasoned so that it can nicely complement the dish.
One thing that I noticed that made this salad different from the rest, was how well, but lightly coated everything was with the dressing. I now know that it was a red wine vinaigrette. The salad gave off such a fresh and acidic, but sweet flavor. What was so memorable about the salad is that my friends’ mother had a vegetable garden on the side of their house. In her garden, she had tomatoes, bell peppers, chilis, onions, carrots, and lettuce. Everything was so fresh and the bell peppers were the sweetest! You can taste the freshness of homegrown vegetables! The tomatoes from her garden were also delicious. They were very plump and went perfectly when she made us stuffed tomatoes to go along with the salad.
The red onion in this salad takes it to a whole different level. As a child, I wasn’t a huge fan of red onions. However, I’m surprised that I didn’t mind it when I tried greek salad for the first time. Maybe it was the dressing that just coated the onion so well. It must have masked its taste for me. Or, maybe it was because it was so fresh! Whatever it was, this salad had me hooked at the first bite. I recommend that you use the freshest produce that you can for this greek salad. I hope you make it and enjoy it!
