All taverns and restaurants in Sunny Greece serve classic Greek salad, which is essentially a kind of calling card of Greece. Some say that the recipe for a classic Greek salad was invented specifically for tourists. It may very well be. Italians came up with pizza for tourists. Others claim that the real Greek salad was invented a long time ago, back in the Hellenistic era.
Be that as it may, this wonderful dish is one of the most popular not only at home, but also in other countries. Even in Russia, it is prepared for holidays in many families, sometimes without even thinking about its Greek origin.
How to make a Greek salad? For those who have never tried this simply amazingly delicious dish or have no idea how to cook it, we offer a recipe for a classic Greek salad. The composition of this completely unique dish includes fresh vegetables, herbs, feta cheese and olives. Origano seasoning and olive oil make a salad dressing. From vegetables, only cucumbers, bell peppers and onions first entered the salad. Tomatoes appeared later, after when they appeared in Europe.
The recipe for a classic Greek salad is extremely simple and contains the most common ingredients. The key point is the addition of Greek feta cheese, which must first be aged for several hours in olive oil along with herbs to give it a spicy flavor. Instead of feta cheese, you can use any pickled cheese or feta cheese.
So how to make a Greek salad. To prepare two or three servings, you need to take four tomatoes, one cucumber, two bell peppers of different colors, one onion, preferably sweet, 120 grams of cheese, 20-30 pitted olives, green salad, salt and pepper to taste, one tablespoon of oregano , olive oil and lemon juice for seasoning.
It is better to take a cucumber young, with a thin skin. It must be cut lengthwise and cut into thin slices and put in a salad bowl. But you can, if the cucumber is narrow and long, cut it into circles. Cucumber can be cleaned completely or "in a rustic way", roughly, that is, leaving strips of peel - as in Greece, where this salad is called rural or rustic. Peppers are cleaned of seeds and cut into strips, or like tomatoes - cut into cubes and also put in a salad bowl. You can’t finely chop it - the main thing is to eat comfortably. Onions are usually cut in rings, but if the onion is large - in half rings or even quarter rings. Green salad is torn by hands into pieces and added to vegetables. Then olives are sent to the salad bowl, everything is salted, pepper and a part of oregano are added and poured.
To prepare the sauce, mix five tablespoons of olive oil and two tablespoons of lemon juice. You can add a little balsamic vinegar, and add salt and pepper to taste. And of course, a real Greek salad cannot be prepared without the "joy of the mountains" - this is how the name of oregano seasoning is translated from Greek . Two thirds of dried oregano must be added to the dressing.
All you need to mix gently and pour on top the cheese, diced. The size of the cubes is about 1x1 centimeter, you can slightly larger. The salad is sprinkled with the remaining seasoning and garnished with black olives and herbs. Greek salad is light and hearty, suitable for all people, even those who strictly follow their figure.
This is probably why the recipe for a classic Greek salad continues to travel around the world, changing slightly and adapting to local traditions and cuisine. For example, in Russia it is customary to chop vegetables and cheese finer. Basically, the changes concern the preparation of dressing, and radical changes are not introduced into the salad itself.
Bon Appetit!