Cooking My Trip Part One: Greek Salad

July 28, 2005 | By Adam Roberts | COMMENTS

As promised, here is my attempt at an authentic Greek salad based on the two I ate while in Greece. I had some help because I bought a cookbook while there: “The Best Traditional Recipes of Greek Cooking.” There are two recipes for Greek salad in there but they’re both essentially the same. The only real executive decision I needed to make was how to cut the vegetables. I’m actually very happy with my choices: (you can click the pic to enlarge)

Impressed, aren’t you? Come on: I’m a know-nothing gourmet and I made that salad. Huzzah!

So let’s talk about what makes it great:

- no lettuce! If you want an authentic Greek salad (as corroborated by one of the commenters in my Greece post) there’s no lettuce. So throw your lettuce out, man. It’s not worth it.

- What you do need is quite simple (and cheap!): tomatoes, cucumber, red onion and green peppers. These you can cut however you want but look how I did it: the green pepper in large chunks (which gives them a greater presence), the tomatoes in wedges, cucumbers in slices (that are peeled) and onions in big chunks too. I put all those vegetables into a bowl and tossed with olive oil and a splash of vinegar. Then I sprinkled oregano over it with some salt and pepper. Layered on a plate and topped with two big chunks of feta and a smattering of olives.

Let’s compare to the sources:

Not to brag but I think mine looks just as good if not better! Well except for the herb-flecked feta in the second one. And I see now that I cut the peppers differently than the Greeks but I stand by my choice. Hope you all try this out some day!

Categories: Recipes, Salads