Inauthentic Greek Salad

What’s so difficult about Greek salad? It’s a salad with feta cheese. Right? Well, yes, but there’s more to it. I find there are a few simple tricks to go from a perfectly acceptable salad with feta cheese to a truly delicious Greek salad.

First things first. My understanding is you would be hard pressed to find the salad we know as a Greek salad here in the United States, if you were in Greece. In Greece, horiatiki lacks lettuce; it’s a mound of tomatoes, cucumber, and onions, maybe bell peppers, with olives and slabs of feta cheese, sprinkled with oregano and olive oil. The ancestor of the American version.

That’s not what I’m talking about here, although in late summer, with garden fresh vegetables…

My interpretation takes an everyday salad with lettuce and adds a few simple ingredients. Fresh dill and parsley, chopped and mixed in with salad greens add an important herbal note in every bite. High quality feta and olives – if you can get them – help immeasurably. My favorite type of feta is Arahova, which I get at a small Greek market not far from my house (New Bakaliko, in Hicksville, NY), where I also get extra plump Kalamata olives. A sprinkling of dried oregano ups the authenticity. These simple ingredients, along with a good dressing, make an everyday salad with feta cheese into an excellent Greek salad.

Greek Salad

Everyone likes different ingredients in their salad, so its best for you to decide what to put in, or how much. Look at the list below as a suggestion to make the best salad you can – inauthentic or not. The salad is excellent served with a side of tzatziki (cucumber yogurt dip) and pita or stuffed grape leaves, and can be topped with grilled chicken souvlaki for a full meal.

Makes 1 cup dressing, about a half hour

For the salad:

Romaine lettuce (or other salad greens), chopped or torn into bite-size pieces

Flat leaf or Italian parsley, small handful, chopped

Fresh dill, small handful, chopped

Whole tomatoes cut into bite-size pieces, or cherry or grape tomatoes, cut in half

Cucumbers, peeled and cut into chunks

Red or green pepper, seeded and cut into bite-size pieces

Carrot, peeled and grated or cut into bite-size pieces

Radishes, sliced

Red onion, thinly sliced into rings

Feta cheese, the best quality you can find, cut into slabs, chunks, or crumbled

Kalamata olives

Dried Greek oregano

For the dressing:

¾ cup best quality olive oil

¼ cup red wine vinegar

1½ tsp. Dijon mustard

½ tsp. kosher salt

¼ tsp. fresh ground pepper

½ tsp. dried Greek oregano

1. Wash, dry, and chop or tear the lettuce or salad greens into bite-size pieces. Thoroughly mix dill and parsley with salad greens.
2. Assemble salad with all desired fresh vegetables. Top with onion, feta, olives, and a sprinkling of dried oregano.
3. Make the salad dressing by whisking together all dressing ingredients in a small bowl. Dress salad.

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