Traditional Greek Salad Recipe
I love a good traditional Greek salad recipe. In our home, a Greek salad is meal. Loaded with delicious vegetables and a scrumptious dressing with fresh herbs it is anything but boring. Showing my age here, back in the 90s, Greek salads were on most restaurants I frequented. Now, unless it is a Greek restaurant, I rarely see it on the menu. This necessitates the need to make one’s own Traditional Greek salad and here is the perfect recipe for you to use.
Resembling the very popular village salad, also known as the Horiatiki salad, this is loaded with feta, cucumbers and tomatoes. One ingredient that distinguishes this salad from the village is the additional of lettuce. I love a good, crisp lettuce in this salad. Add Kalamata olives and that is what distinguishes it from the village salad.
The Ingredients of a Traditional Greek Salad
- Romaine lettuce
- Roma tomatoes
- English cucumber
- Feta cheese*
- Kalamata olives
- Pepperoncini peppers
- Red onion
Recipe for the Dressing
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Red wine vinegar
- Lemon, zest and juice
- Oregano, dry
- Dill, fresh
- White pepper
When to Serve a Greek Salad?
I love to make a traditional Greek Salad using this recipe for late lunch for my girlfriends. It is perfect to enjoy a full course midday Mediterranean meal complete with a light tapas, like Shrimp Saganaki Santorini Style, and dessert like the Italian Almond Cake with Raspberries. The beauty of this meal is the salad and cake can be prepared ahead of time and the shrimp saganaki can be made right as the guests arrive leaving you plenty of time to sit and visit with your friends.
This traditional Greek salad recipe is enough to serve four people. When I make it for my Sweetheart and I for a quick weeknight meal, I hold off putting the dressing on it. Instead, I add the dressing as I am serving it individually. Doing this allows us to save the other half of the salad for lunches the next day, keeping the lettuce and veggies from getting soggy. I just love when a 15 minute recipe yields two meals for us both. How is that for easy meal prep.
If you Google traditional Greek Salad recipes, this will not be the only one you find, in fact there are several. (In fact it is not the only one on the Olive Sunshine page. The simplicity and attention given to the fresh ingredients makes it my favorite.
Ingredients
The Salad
Dressing Recipe
Instructions
Prepare the ingredients for the salad. Rough chop the lettuce, dice the tomatoes, cucumbers and feta. Slice the onion into 8-12 rings.
Small chop the dill, removing the larger stems. Set aside half of the dill. Zest the lemon and set the zest aside. Add the olive oil, vinegar, lemon juice oregano, pepper and half the dill in a mason jar and shake. Set aside.
If serving the salad immediately, layer the lettuce on the bottom of a large serving bowl. Toss the lettuce in half the dressing. Place the salad ingredients, the tomatoes, cucumbers, and feta, olives, peppers, and red onions, on top of the dressed lettuce. Leave the peppers and olives whole for presentation.
Drizzle the rest of the dressing on the top of the salad. Sprinkle the remaining dill and lemon zest on top of the salad. Enjoy!
Nutrition Per Serving
Be sure to use a quality feta made only of goat and sheep milk. To make the salad ahead of time, skip adding the dressing on the lettuce. Wait to drizzle on top right before serving.
