Greek Salad

February 21, 2011  •  Salads, Vegetables

Sometimes a food memory inspires me to make something. Like a faint recollection of having an authentic Greek salad in a hillside outdoor cafe in Santorini. It was perfect paired with a crisp white wine from Greece, and while I don’t recall much else from the day – we were with good friends, we lingered an watched the scenery, and perhaps shopped a bit – that food memory has stuck with me. Just like the first pizza I had in Siena, or the asado in the mountains in Argentina, or the truffle dinner at Daniel in New York for a special company recognition dinner I earned a million years ago. If you are truly a foodie, these become classic food memories that carry us back in time and across space. And so, I couldn’t have been more enthusiastic when one of the kids in my Cooking Matters class asked that we make a Greek salad for our week featuring vegetables. I was too busy teaching to photograph much, but let me just say that I and everyone else in the class loved this. Hope you do too!

Greek Salad
Serves 8

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 lemon, juiced
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
4 Roma tomatoes, diced
1 green pepper, diced
1/2 small red onion, sliced thin
1 cucumber, seeded and diced
8 ounces feta cheese, crumbled
1/2 cup sliced Kalamata olives (I left these out because I’m not a fan, but they’d certainly be in a classic Greek recipe)
salt and pepper, to taste

Mix oil, vinegar, lemon juice, garlic and oregano together in a small covered container and shake well to combine. Toss all of the vegetables together with the feta cheese and dressing in a large bowl and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Comments

5 Comments  •  Comments Feed

  1. Cheryl and Adam @ pictureperfectmeals.com says:

    Greek salad is one of the perfect foods, delicious, nutritious and profoundly satisfying. Love adding the green peppers. Thanks!

  2. Liz says:

    Sounds just lovely…makes me eager for some home grown tomatoes!!!!

  3. Hester Casey - Alchemy says:

    Your trip down memory lane prompted fond memories of my own flying visit to Santorini. I can’t think of a more perfect lunch on a hot day than a delicious Greek salad and some of that crisp white wine. Sigh!

  4. Dawn Hutchins says:

    This looks wonderful. I haven’t made a Greek salad in ages!

  5. Mikaela Cowles says:

    Thanks for the friend request on Food Buzz. Your blog is lovely. I love how you talk about food memories with this recipe. All I had to do was look at the picture to have one and then reading your post it seemed like you were on the exact same track ass me.

    Anyways, I’ve added you to my RSS feed and I can’t wait to see what else you’re going to share.

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