It’s all Greek to Me – The Secrets of a great Greek Salad. It’s been hot, almost too hot to eat. What I crave at times like this is simplicity, dishes packed with fabulous flavours. Recipes with little or no preparation using great ingredients. We are lucky in the Channel Islands to get some great salad vegetables and with just a few additions that means anyone can make a beautiful Greek Salad. We can talk later about what exactly those ingredients should be. But first we should look at the origins of this Mediterranean marvel.
A little bit of Greek Salad History
Every region of Greece has a version of a village salad or Horiatiki, using locally produced tomatoes, cucumbers, maybe green peppers and olives and the bite from a little red onion. The Greek salad is an altogether cosmopolitan creation. It was supposedly invented to circumvent a tariff or tax imposed by the Greek state on essential produce. This meant the price of a tomato and cucumber salad was in effect regulated. To escape the price cap canny restaurateurs in Athens started to add Feta cheese and could then set their own prices.
What Ingredients make a great Greek Salad?
Most people agree on the principal ingredients in a Greek salad, ripe tomatoes, cucumber, green pepper, a block of feta, and olives although they can be divisive some people call for the dark purple Kalamata variety while others prefer pale green Halkidiki or ‘donkey’ olives. The salad is dressed with salt, oregano, the best olive oil and a splash or two of red wine vinegar to add acidity. The other vital ingredient is some crusty bread to soak up the juices at the bottom of the bowl.
In a Greek taverna you may or may not find some added lettuce. The salad is often garnished with capers and Greece’s answer to Delia Smith adds chopped hard-boiled egg. I rather like this, especially to make a more substantial and filling dish. In the height of summer, in Mykonos, the tomatoes are replaced with fresh Watermelon which is a nice twist. The Guardian newspaper columnist, Tony Naylor takes umbrage with the red wine vinegar opting for a splash of lemon juice. He also omits the raw green peppers in his version.
What to drink?
A chilled glass of fruity rosé is a natural paring for so many Mediterranean recipes. Greek Salad is no exception. If you prefer white wine the combination of tangy citrus and herbaceous flavours of Sauvignon Blanc perfectly match the acidity of the tomatoes and the earthy taste of the oregano and olives. My beer choice would be a slightly spicy, citrus Belgium Witbier.
If you love summer salads like me why not try my recipes for Smoked Mackerel Niçoise, my version of Panzanella and a French classic Salade Parisienne.
My Greek Salad Recipe
I will openly admit to disliking raw green pepper myself ( yuk as my daughter would say). It is banned in the kitchen and so my recipe doesn’t include it. Instead, I throw in some beetroot which may cause uproar across the Peloponnese. But hear me out beetroot has been eaten since the height of ancient Greece. They grew them for both their edible leaves as well as the root. There is a delicious Greek side dish called Patzarosalata. It consists of roasted beetroot, crumbled feta and a little red onion dressed with oil and vinegar. Sometimes it is mixed with thick Greek yoghurt. I think the sweet, earthy flavours of beetroot make a great addition to Greek Salad.
An Island Chef Greek Salad Recipe
Ingredients
- 4 x 100 gr Feta pieces
- 2 Baby Gem Lettuce washed and dried ( optional )
- 8 good sized Tomatoes cut into wedges
- 4 Beetroot cooked and cut into wedges ( optional )
- 4 free-range Boiled Eggs
- 1 Cucumber sliced
- 1 small Red Onion thinly sliced
- 1 jar Marinated Olives
- 1 heaped teaspoon dried Oregano
- 150 ml quality Greek Olive Oil
- 50 ml Red Wine Vinegar
- Sea Salt and freshly ground Black Pepper
Instructions
- Wash, dry and prepare the salad vegetables. Peel and quarter the boiled eggs.
- Chop and place the lettuce in the bottom of four bowls and top with the salad vegetables, eggs and the olives.
- Top with a piece of feta and a few extra slices of red onion and season carefully. Do not go overboard with the salt. Dress with the oil, a splash of red vinegar and a generous sprinkle of oregano.
Notes
Possibly sulphites in the Red Wine Vinegar
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