Genuine Greek Salad

What do you cook when it’s hot and super humid out and you’re lazy?  I eat a bowl of cereal or whip up a quick salad.

Genuine Greek Salad02

I’m pretty sure a blog post about how to make a bowl of cereal wouldn’t go over very well, so I figure a salad recipe is a better thing to share with you.  By the way, in case you’re curious, I’m into Grape-Nuts cereal lately (still not going to tell you how to put milk in the bowl though).  😉

The other day my husband and I had a conversation about Greek salads.  When we went to Greece back in 2010 he was surprised to see that a Greek salad was made up of three simple ingredients.  I mean it’s like that virtually everywhere.  We took a 13 day land and sea tour and no matter where we were a Greek salad was made up of just feta cheese, tomatoes, and cucumbers.  This wasn’t a surprise to me because I’m half Greek and I’d been to Greece before, so I knew the drill.  Why do Americans make it different (like add lettuce, olives, fancy dressing, etc.)?  I honestly have no idea.

In honor of reminiscing over our Greece vacation (and the fact that I was too lazy to make anything that took longer than 2 minutes to make), I whipped up an authentic Greek salad for lunch.

Please, please, please use good quality ingredients for this salad.  I probably say this every time I make something this simple, but it’s worth repeating.  In this case if you use cruddy ingredients there is literally nothing else to help them.  I’m not saying that you need to go to Greece to get good feta.  You know what you like and that’s what you should use.   The fact is that delicious cheese and veggies is what makes this salad so fabulous.

My husband and I have a little debate going here about the olive oil on this salad.  He says it’s totally pointless since the salt and pepper stick nicely to the tomatoes and cucumbers without help.  I say it’s important because, well, Greece.  You know, because olive oil is in/on/with everything over there.  I concede that it’s probably optional if you are trying to save a few calories and he accepts that if you insist on using the oil, you should definitely use the good stuff.

Okay, all this Greek food talk makes me want to go back to Greece!  Is anyone going anywhere fun soon?

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Genuine Greek Salad Recipe
(Makes 2 servings)

Ingredients:

  • about 4 ounces feta cheese
  • 2 tomatoes, cut into 4 wedges each
  • 1/2 cucumber, sliced
  • (optional) drizzle of olive oil
  • salt and pepper, to taste

Note:  One of the great things about this salad is that you really don’t need to be exact here.  Eat as much or as little as you want of each ingredient and it will still be tasty.

Directions:

  1. On each plate, lay a piece of feta cheese (about 2 ounces).
  2. Top the cheese with some tomatoes wedges and sliced cucumbers.
  3. (optional) Drizzle a little bit of olive oil on top.
  4. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

Source:  Tina’s Chic Corner

 

Rating:

5 Hats

 

Here are some of my other favorite Greek dishes.

Greek Roasted Chicken and Potatoes

05Greek Roasted Chicken & Potatoes

Galaktoboureko (Greek Creamy Custard Pastry)

11Galaktoboureko

Cafe Frappe

06Cafe Frappe

Comments

  1. Lovely salad. I soooooooooooooo wish it were salad eating weather down under. Its in the minus degrees today, so warming foods are all I can think about. But I love me a simple salad like this one.

    1. Tina says:

      Why is that we are only in the mood for salads when it’s summer? Seriously, I want to know.

  2. Ooh this looks awesome! Not gonna lie, I’m a fan of the kalamata olives and pepperoncinis in my own right, but I LOVE the simplicity of this and the tomatoes and cucumbers are really the core of the salad! I am hoping to go to Greece next spring, very excited 🙂

    1. Tina says:

      You know, I’m actually a huge fan of kalamata olives and pepprocinis too! It’s good to switch it up… add 2 ingredients and it turns into a whole new salad version. 🙂

  3. Ashley says:

    Yessss this looks awesome! I HATE when you go out to eat and order greek salad and it’s like all lettuce. Uncool.

    I’ve always wanted to travel to Greece (and Italy!). Someday!

    1. Tina says:

      Same page!

  4. Love this salad! The simple ingredients, the minimal effort, the fact that you stayed true to it’s traditional roots. All of it – perfection. And this is sooooo everything I am craving right now, with the weather being unbareably hot. I have to agree with you on the Olive Oil thing (sorry Tina’s Hubs!), its a must for me as well…. it gives it that extra little pizzaz and pop of yum! I have everything to make this in my fridge (even good feta!), so off I go to make this for my lunch! Yay! Thanks for sharing and providing my lunch for the day! 🙂 Cheers, pretty lady! Hope you have a great weekend!!

    1. Tina says:

      My husband had made this salad every night for dinner last week and almost every time he said how perfect it was without the oil. Lol… to each their own. 😉 I’m so glad you like it… especially with the oil! 🙂

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