Many of us love salads both as a separate dish, and as a light meal for main dishes. Prepared from fresh seasonal vegetables, they have incredible nutritional value and low calorie content. Due to the variety of recipes and the ingredients included in them, you can treat family and friends with salads not only in the hot season, but also in winter. Salad can be a separate dish, as, for example, “Olivier”, beloved by all, and diet, if you cook it from herbs, non-starchy vegetables and season with a mixture of lemon and
balsamic vinegar. Salad mixes can be warm, hearty - with meat, fish or cheese, fruit, light. For example, the calorie content of Greek salad is very small, since it consists only of vegetables and cheese. There are several ways to reduce its
energy value to a minimum.
Greek salad, calorie and classic recipe
To feel the mood of sunny Greece, you do not have to go on a trip. Make a Greek salad yourself, and the taste of fresh vegetables, light cheese, the aroma of olive oil and herbs will take you many kilometers from your home. To make this salad means not only cutting and mixing the ingredients indicated in the recipe, but also preparing the right dressing for it, the secret of which you will learn below. The calorie content of Greek salad is also low and is about 200 kcal per serving, if we talk about its main recipe. Thanks to this fact, even those who follow a diet can afford this dish. So, we start cooking. We will need:
- 150 gr feta cheese;
- 4 medium tomatoes, sliced;
- 1 cucumber, sliced in circles (peel does not need to be removed);
- 1 large red onion, sliced into thin slices;
- half of red and green bell peppers, sliced in semicircles;
- 2 teaspoons of capers (without them, it will also be tasty, given the rarity of the ingredient);
- 1 teaspoon ground oregano;
- 15-20 black olives (preferably with a stone, but can be without);
- some crackers;
- a few tablespoons of the best olive oil, lemon juice, dried mint and salt to taste.
Take a large deep salad dish and place in it previously diced cheese, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and onions. Then add olives and capers (optional). Sprinkle oregano, pour a couple of tablespoons of olive oil and lemon juice to your taste (can be replaced with red wine vinegar). Garnish with crackers. Ready to serve. Do not forget to serve with a couple of slices of fresh bread, which is so delicious to pick up the remaining dressing. It is important to remember that after adding the oil, all the ingredients should be well mixed with each other, since it tends to settle on the bottom of the serving bowl and to be bitter. If you don’t have oregano at hand, you can easily replace it with black pepper. Also remember that
Feta cheese contains a lot of salt, so try the dish before adding extra salt. The calorie content of Greek salad is so small that even having mastered a full plate, you can ask for supplements without harming the figure. And for those who do not care about calorie content, you can add boiled chicken to the salad.
Greek salad with feta cheese. Calorie content and cooking
If in a classic salad one of the components is feta, traditionally produced in Greece using the patented technology, then in the recipe variations, for example, when this kind of cheese is simply not at hand, it can be replaced with feta cheese or even tofu. By the way, with the latter, the calorie content of Greek salad will be significantly lower, because the famous Asian cheese contains few calories, and besides, it is made from soy, and not from milk or cream, that is, in this case, the salad can be eaten by followers of the vegan menu. To further reduce the calorie content of the salad, make a special dressing of spices, lemon juice and red or balsamic vinegar. If you take care of your figure, you can do without olive oil. It was a recipe for Greek salad and its various variations; one of them will definitely be to your taste.