As the weather warms up, I crave salads and lighter dishes, a quite common craving, I’m sure. Rather than always going back to the never-fail green salad, I hunted through my repertoire of salads and came across one that I have not put together in quite a while.
This version of the Greek salad was inspired from an Israeli cafe on one of my first trips to see my sister. Decent chunks of Lebanese cucumber, Roma tomatoes, red capsicum, feta and olives doused with an olive oil, lemon and garlic dressing. As this is such a simple salad, the better the quality and freshness of the vegetables, the better the overall result.
I used a selection of olives this time rather than the standard kalamata, as I found this wonderful mix at a local deli. It included kalamata, Ligurian, green, jumbo and my favourite, the Sicilian variety. This vibrantly green-coloured olive I discovered two years ago when we were married on the Amalfi Coast in Italy. Since then, I have hunted through delis with little success. However, in the last six months, it is appearing in numerous places, including the local Coles supermarket. It is one that has to be tried, particularly if you are an olive fan.
GREEK SALAD
Usually, I make the dressing below but as the olives came with quite a bit of marinade, I whisked 1 tab. of this with 2 tspn lemon juice and used that as my dressing, rather than wasting such a delicious part of the purchase. Obviously, this will only be effective if the marinade is of a high quality. Worth a taste test, though.
Serves 2 -3
ingredients
1 mini Lebanese cucumber, halved lengthways, halved again lengthways, then in slices
2 Roma tomatoes, chopped as above
½ red capsicum (sweet pepper), in chunks
a handful of olives of choice
100g cubed feta
freshly ground salt and pepper
Lemon Dressing (see below)
preparation
- Chop and mix all vegetables together in a bowl. Grind fresh salt and pepper over top and toss through. Set aside.
- Cube feta and add to vegetables, along with olives.
- Add dressing and toss through, ensuring all is well coated.
olive oil & lemon dressing
ingredients
2 Tbsp extra virgin cold-pressed olive oil
1 Tbsp lemon juice
¼ tsp flaky sea salt
cracked black pepper
preparation
- Whisk together the olive oil, lemon juice salt and pepper.
Shared goodness from Donna
