Basic Greek Salad

Summertime means fresh local produce and LOTS of salad. Growing up, the salad I had most often was similar to this back-to-basics Greek salad. This recipe is based off Anne Lindsay's Lighthearted Everyday Cooking book from the early 90's. It's the perfect side to accompany meals cooked on the barbecue.

Greek salads come in many different shapes and forms, some have olives, some are lettuce or quinoa based. What almost every single version has in common are a couple key ingredients: fresh tomatoes, cucumber, feta, Mediterranean herbs and a light dressing. This basic Greek salad emphasizes those ingredients to make a quick, simple and delicious side salad for the summer.

Tomato chunks are the most important ingredient, filling two separate roles. The first is as a filler, being one of the 3 main ingredients filling up this salad and the second is as a dressing. All the extra juice from the ripe tomatoes add to the small amount of dressing, bolstering it to the perfect amount as well as adding to the flavour. You can use whole tomatoes for this recipe but i prefer to use cherry tomatoes. They are easily cut into the right size by either halving or quartering them.

For an even prettier looking salad, consider using heirloom cherry tomatoes. This will give you pops of colour in yellow, orange and dark green to go with all of the red.

Fill a large bowl with 3-4 cups of tomato chunks and an equal amount of cut cucumber. Don't forget to wash all vegetables before preparing them for meals. The final main ingredient is the only Greek salad cheese I will ever use, feta. Use a cup of feta in the salad, either cut into small cubes or crumbled.

The fresh herbs MAKE the flavour of this salad. Oregano being the most important. Toss in a 1/3 of a cup of oregano or a combination of oregano and basil or parsley. Whatever you decide, do not omit the oregano. Use dried oregano if you don't have any fresh available. Since the flavour from dried herbs is more concentrated, only a tablespoon or two is needed.

These simple ingredients are tossed together with the juice of half a lemon, one tablespoon of olive oil and some salt and pepper to make the best basic Greek salad. The combination of feta brine, ripe tomato juice, fresh oregano, lemon juice and olive oil make a wonderful, refreshing Greek salad dressing.

All in all, this salad comes together in under 10 minutes from start to finish. With half the time reserved for cutting and washing the ingredients and the other half for making the dressing and tossing everything together. It can be stored in the fridge overnight and is best eaten within a day or two. However, day two won't be quite as nice as day one.

Tomato, cucumber and feta too boring for you? This basic salad is easily customizable and can cater to your particular taste. Since most people either love or hate olives I have omitted them from this recipe. That can easily be changed if you are in the former category, just toss in a handful or two of halved and pitted olives. Diced red onion and green pepper can also be added for more crunch and flavour. I've also added shredded kale and quinoa to this salad in the past depending on my mood. Don't be afraid to tailor this recipe to yourself or your family. That's what cooking is all about!