Skills you will learn in this recipe
Cooking fluffy pitta; extending knife skills; balancing bitterness
Links to the last recipe
Making a dressing; composing a salad; using Hellenic cheese
Greek salad is one of those dishes you find everywhere – from supermarket tub deli ranges, to school or work canteens, to cafes, on trains, as restaurant starters and side dishes, in salad bars etc. It’s normally a reliable, tasty choice and yet the more commercial versions rarely taste or look like the salad you’d get in Greece. We learnt the secrets while staying there a few years ago, and the key to making it taste as we ate it there is to use green peppers (only, not red or yellow), to flavour with oregano, to use good quality olives and feta, and to keep the feta pieces quite large (not cube it up as you normally see). This is our best recipe for it, and it makes a great lunch, starter or light supper. It’s super simple to make too.
What’s interesting about this salad from a cookery skills perspective is that you are working with several quite bitter flavours – green peppers, olives and oregano – and yet if you balance these correctly with the other ingredients (sharp onion, salty feta, sweet tomatoes, cool cucumber) the result is a knockout, and really very unusual – a proper taste of Greece.
Start by prepping the vegetables. This salad we find needs quite a lot of green pepper, and we prefer it sliced not cubed. Cut off the ends of the peppers and discard the stems. Then remove the white pith from the centre. Slice into slim rings, then cut this into batons. Also slice the lid and base. You want slim, evenly sized pieces as in the final picture below:
Slice the red onion, keeping the slices thin but long (similar to the pepper). For details, see our onion Tip.
Now prepare the cucumber. You could leave the skin on, or remove it completely, but we think the nicest of all in this salad (for both flavour and appearance) is to partially peel it. To do this, remove both ends, then use a potato peeler and peel off strips of the skin so you get a pretty striped effect as below. Then cut into medium thick rounds.
Cut each round into quarters, then dry the pieces with kitchen paper and reserve in a serving bowl.
No prep the tomatoes. It is worth investing in good quality, sweet ones as these are a key component in balancing the bitterness of the peppers – today we used medium-sized vine-ripened ones. Cut in half, then remove the stem bed and white central core. You could also remove the seeds, but for this recipe we like to keep them in. Cut each half into bite-sized pieces, about the same size as your cucumber. Dry slightly with kitchen paper and add to the serving bowl.
Add the peppers and onions to the bowl, and give everything a good stir.
Now add the olives. How many depends on how much you and your guests like them! We do like them, and today we used about 25. Black olives are essential in this salad, but you can find many varieties. Today we used good quality Kalamata olives, which are both widely available and very traditional in this dish. But sometimes we like to use the less bitter dried black olives, which can be slightly harder to find. But you can use any black olives you personally like – experiment as some are more bitter than others. Just make sure to remove the stones if yours and not already pitted as ours were today. If they are fairly small, as ours were, you can keep them whole, which also looks nice in the dish, but halve them if they are large. Add to the bowl and stir again to mix.
Jake sticks his nose in
Olives are polarising – some people think you either like them or you don’t, but there are so many different types & flavours, from super bitter to neutral to almost sweet, that there is bound to be one you like. Most supermarket ‘standard’ black olives are quite neutral; the dried ones are tasty but less bitter; the Kalamata we used today can be more bitter. But you do need black olive flavour in this dish.
Dry the top of the salad with kitchen paper, and set aside while you make the dressing.
To make the dressing follow the steps exactly as in our vinaigrette Tip, but add one teaspoon of dried oregano to the mustard & seasoning base before adding the oil and vinegar. Shake well to emulsify, and reserve until you are ready to serve.
Now prepare the cheese. Feta usually comes in a packet or tray with quite a lot of liquid, so open carefully over the sink and drain in a sieve. Dry gently with kitchen paper, then tear roughly into large pieces and reserve.
Jake sticks his nose in
Most commercial Greek salads have little regular cubes of cheese, but large pieces are much nicer. In Greece, the block of feta is in fact often left whole.
Today we were having our salad as a main course, so decided to serve it with pitta. You can warm up the pitta pockets in a toaster, but we prefer to do them in the oven. We can then use Bibi’s trick for getting light, puffed up pitta – sprinkle them with a little water first. You need the oven quite hot, about 180C. Place the pitta on a baking tray and sprinkle a small amount of water on each. Cook until hot and puffed up, about 5 to 10 mins (keep an eye on them).
While the pitta are warming, assemble the salad. Dress the salad vegetables with about 2/3 of the vinaigrette and toss well. Check for seasoning – add more salt, pepper or oregano if you think it needs it. A little dried oregano goes a long was as it is very strong flavoured and quite bitter so add with caution, tasting until you are happy. Now top with the cheese and drizzle over the remaining dressing.
Serve with the warm pitta. Enjoy!
Our Best Greek Salad
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- Remove the cores from the green peppers and slice into thin strips
- Peel and slice the red onion thinly. See our onion Tip.
- Partly peel the cucumber using a potato peeler to remove long strips, creating a striped effect. Cut the cucumber into medium rounds, then quarter these. Dry slightly with kitchen paper and add to your serving bowl.
- Halve the tomatoes and remove the white core. Cut into bite sized pieces and dry slightly with kitchen paper. Add to the bowl., then add the green peppers and onion and stir. Also add the olives and stir well again. Dry the salad slightly with kitchen paper.
- Make the dressing. See our vinaigrette Tip, adding oregano to the dry ingredients. Mix the mustard powder with the sugar and oregano in a clean dry jam jar, season with salt & pepper and stir. Add the vinegar and stir again until the sugar and salt dissolve. Add one tbsp of the oil, put the lid on the jar and shake well to emulsify. Add the rest of the oil and shake well again.
- Drain the feta cheese, dry with kitchen paper and tear into large pieces.
- Sprinkle the pitta bread with a little water and put in a hot oven (180C) until warm and puffed up, about 5 to 10 mins.
- While the pitta is warming, dress the salad vegetables with about 2/3 of the vinaigrette and toss well. Top with the feta, and drizzle over the remaining dressing.
- Serve with the warm pitta and enjoy!