Greek Salad
I always have the ingredients for a Greek Salad on hand. It's one of my go-tos as a mid-day meal or post-dinner salad. I've had exquisite Greek salads in tavernas in Greece (the most memorable was at a roadside eatery on the tiny island of Antiparos, where the proprietors called it a "village salad"), as well as in local Greek restaurants (from It's Greek to Me in Fort Lee, NJ--where we'd regularly stop for dinner on our trips home from my parents' place in PA to our apartment on the Upper West Side--to Periyali in the Flatiron District). The salad I typically make (as shown above) combines the things I loved most about all of them. If I don't have or feel like adding lettuce, I'll make it without the greens, which is how I ate it in Greece. Either way, it's delicious.
Note: Stephan loves pepperoncini peppers in his Greek salad, so I usually throw those in, as well.
Serves 4
Ingredients
1 head romaine lettuce torn into bite-size pieces or any other favorite lettuce (I used mesclun above)
3 tablespoons avocado oil (or olive, if you prefer)
1 tablespoon red-wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
8 oz. crumbled Greek feta cheese (I buy it in large chunks, soaked in water)
8 Campari tomatoes, quartered (or a pint of cherry tomatoes, halved)
1 cucumber, semi-peeled and roughly chopped
1 yellow or orange pepper, cleaned and roughly chopped
1/2 cup Kalamata olives, pitted
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
6-8 whole pepperoncini peppers
Preparation
Place oil, vinegar, garlic and Dijon in large salad bowl and mix well.
Wash and dry lettuce and place on top of the dressing in the bowl, without mixing.
Place all other ingredients atop the lettuce and mix everything together thoroughly.
Add salt and pepper to taste and serve immediately.
