Let's start with the incredible: in Greece there is everything except... Greek salad! No, of course, in numerous restaurants aimed at welcoming and entertaining foreign tourists, the staff has learned well that when asked whether they have the above-mentioned salad on the menu, they should answer in the affirmative and at the same time vigorously nod their heads to hide their own attitude to such a widespread myth. However, the truth is that what we call Greek salad, in Greece itself (as well as in many other Mediterranean countries) is called dozens of different names, among which there is not only the one to which we are accustomed.

The most common local "name" that a hero bears today’s article is “village salad” (in the original language - χωριάτικη σαλάτα, “horyatiki salad”), which very eloquently, accurately and completely reflects the essence of the treat served to guests: natural products, affordable, amazing in quality. The second common name is banal and obvious: vegetable salad. However, they say that over the past few decades, another name for Greek salad has come into use among Greeks - Russian salad: apparently, our compatriots order it en masse in restaurants, tightly linking the Greek dish with their own customs.

To avoid any further confusion, let's just agree that Let’s allow ourselves to make allowances for our own traditions and call a dish of fresh vegetables and cheese, which is widely prepared in Mediterranean countries, a Greek salad, however, at the same time, we will certainly keep a small notch in our minds as a reminder of how correctly it should be called.

So, let's go over the basic components of a Greek salad, shall we? Special The value of this dish is due to the fact that it contains almost everything that a person needs: proteins, fats, carbohydrates. A portion of a delicious salad, rich in taste and charming in its color saturation - and we can consider that a full meal has taken place. The salad recipe is optimal: such a lunch not only gives you a feeling of fullness for a long time, but also normalizes metabolism, delicately cleanses the intestines, and saturates the body with useful substances and microelements.

Ingredients for Greek Salad

Tomatoes

If you think that Greek salad can be made from semi-plastic, tasteless and odorless greenhouse tomatoes that lie in neat, beautiful rows on supermarket shelves, you are committing a crime against the entire Greek healthy eating culture.

A prerequisite for a real Greek salad is aromatic tomatoes grown in the open ground, preferably farm or village tomatoes. Ideally, tomatoes grown with your own hands in your personal garden.

There are no restrictions regarding the variety of tomatoes. Depending on your personal preferences, you can choose fleshy red tomatoes, juicy pink ones, rich black ones, or discreet yellow ones.

cucumbers

The rule regarding the method of growing tomatoes is equally true for cucumbers: the fruits should be fresh, firm, juicy and very aromatic. Limp green sticks, which are offered in abundance in modern stores, are absolutely not suitable for Greek salad.

If a crazy thought runs through your head to peel the skins from the fruit, take a good old broom and shoo it away. No self-respecting Greek would deprive cucumbers of their important component!

bell pepper

We remember again that Greek salad is a rustic and simple dish, and we pass by the ideal bell peppers that can be purchased at the supermarket. If you don’t have access to a private garden, your destination is a farmer’s market, where grannies with string bags, sturdy grandpas on bicycles, and lively, rosy-cheeked young ladies in colorful scarves come.

Choose elastic fruits with a fresh stalk: if it has wilted, this indicates that the pepper was picked several days, or even weeks ago. They can be used for stuffing or making sauces, but they are completely unsuitable as a component of Greek salad.

Feta

Do you want to make a Greek salad or a salad similar to Greek? This point is very important when it comes to cheese. The fact is that, according to a decision approved in 2007 in the EU, feta can only be called cheese of Greek origin, made from cow's or sheep's milk. Anything you buy in stores with that name that is not made in Greece is not feta.

Thus, it turns out that an authentic Greek salad can only be prepared using cheese brought from a distant and sunny country on the Mediterranean coast. You can buy real feta in supermarkets, but few people dare to spend a lot of money on something that has domestic analogues that are no less worthy and of high quality. Which cheese to buy to make a real Greek salad, of course, is up to you to decide.

Olives

To make a Greek salad, you will need quality pitted olives. When choosing a product, try to avoid anything canned in metal cans with attractive labels; look for small shops that specialize in selling goods from Italy or Greece - it is in these shops that you can buy pickled olives and black olives of the highest quality. You want juicy, firm fruits that are a beautiful chocolate color with a distinct eggplant tint. Options with filling inside are good and tasty, but are completely unsuitable for making a real Greek salad.

Olive oil

Many famous chefs believe that high-quality olive oil is a third of the key to success: it is what unites disparate components into a single whole, enveloping them in the extraordinary spirit of the Mediterranean. Naturally, we are talking about extra virgin olive oil, which is obtained by mechanical extraction.

This oil does not contain any additives, has a rich taste and aroma and is extremely beneficial for human health. Please note that the color of Extra Virgin Olive Oil should not be close to yellow and amber tones, but rather green - thick, rich and grassy. The taste of this oil is very characteristic - it is barely perceptibly bitter, stunning with a mixture of salty, sour and sweet, striking in its richness, surprising in its subtlety.

Onion

Those in the know say that the perfect taste of a Greek salad largely depends on how you prepare the onions. Yes, yes, just cook it - there are a lot of recipes for Greek salad on the Internet, but only a few sources lift the veil and say that before adding onions to the salad, you should remove bitterness, harshness and anger from it. The taste of this dish should make you love the world and enjoy people, so you need to peel the onion, cut it into rings and put it in the marinade prepared in advance for a couple of minutes: a little hot water, salt, a spoonful of sugar. When removing the onion from the marinade, under no circumstances should we squeeze it or deform it; it should remain intact and beautiful.

Oregano

Oregano is the main Greek culinary herb, it is added wherever possible - the taste of many Greek dishes has an "oregano" accent. You can, of course, season the salad with Italian basil, French rosemary or Georgian cilantro, but it won't be quite a Greek salad, or even a Greek salad at all. Oregano (although it is nothing more than oregano) is a magical herb, do not neglect it if you decide to experience the true taste of an authentic classic dish.

Classic Greek salad recipe

Of course, there is no need to talk about any clear recipe with the exact amount of each ingredient, however, a certain formula-proportion can be derived. A basic Greek salad recipe is needed for orientation - once you feel the overall balance of ingredients, you can experiment and play with additives to suit your own taste.

Ingredients:

• 1 cucumber;
• 1 tomato;
• 1/3 bell pepper;
• 1/2 blue onion;
• 5-7 olives;
• 80 g feta;
• salt, a pinch of dry oregano;
• 50 ml olive oil.

Preparation

1. Wash the vegetables, cut them into large pieces. Place in a salad bowl.
2. Peel the onion, cut into half rings, and marinate a little if desired. Place in a salad bowl.
3. Add olives without brine.
4. Salt. Mix carefully.
5. Place a few slices of cheese on top of the vegetables. Even more correctly - solid - one! - hunk. This is an old village tradition. Different from the modern fast food style of cutting feta into cubes.
6. Sprinkle with oregano.
7. Drizzle the salad generously with olive oil and serve. Can be with a slice of lemon.

Dressings and dressings for Greek salad

The classic Greek salad is dressed with premium olive oil, however, variations are also allowed that will diversify the taste of the salad and make it interesting and unusual.

Try making a dressing using olive oil and lemon juice. You can add a little white wine and balsamic vinegar. A drop of honey, soy sauce, narsharab, a little grain mustard, and orange zest will make the dressing even more original.

The main rule for preparing salad dressing is that the sauce should be very rich in taste, but pleasant. If you have prepared the dressing, but you don’t like it (yes, you must try it first!), the salad will not fix it; rather, it will ruin the salad itself.

Ways to diversify a classic recipe

There are many options that allow you to diversify the usual village salad. In some recipes, it certainly includes lettuce. Lightly salted salmon and canned tuna, boiled cold pasta and baked bell peppers, cooked lentils and raw cauliflower, capers and anchovies, avocado and mushrooms - everyone chooses additives according to their taste and budget.

By the way, another option is endive leaves. They are good not only for their extra flavor - they are great for serving salad in portions. It turns out unusual and stylish.

Serving options

Greek salad is so popular all over the world that numerous experiments in serving it became a natural progression of the development of this dish.

Many chefs of famous restaurants build “towers” ​​of vegetables, alternating them with cheese. It can be served in “boats” of bell pepper or lettuce, in pita bread and on toasted slices of bread, in small glasses in the style of verrines and huge bowls, the contents of which can feed half of China.

Vegetables are laid out on a plate in bright multi-colored rows, alternated in appetizing layers in a salad bowl, roughly cut into a couple of pieces, carefully cut into small cubes - there are a lot of options for serving Greek salad, and it seems that every day chefs from all over the world come up with new and interesting ways to treat their guests with a delicious dish of fresh vegetables and delicate soft cheese.

5 rules for a real Greek salad

To summarize, I would like to write separately about the basic and very important rules, without which you will prepare anything but a Greek salad.

1. The ingredients for the Greek village salad are chopped coarsely. No, not just large, but as large as possible - they must hide maximum taste, plus it is unacceptable to spend more than 5 minutes on preparing the most ordinary everyday dish.

2. Do you prepare salad for yourself and your family? Then put your doubts aside– and mix the contents of the bowl with your hands. Ru-ka-mi! This will not only add soulfulness to the salad, but will also allow you to keep the vegetables intact without crushing or even crushing them.

3. When adding olive oil, you should not only pay attention to its quality (only the best, only proven!), but also to the quantity. The canonical Greek salad should be oily, very oily - no real Greek woman will spare olive oil, because she knows that after the salad bowl is empty, there will be a delicious “juice” from the vegetables, cheese and dressing at the bottom. Greeks dip pieces of freshly baked bread into this liquid and enjoy the extraordinary taste of homemade food.

By the way, for this process the inventive people of the sunny country even invented a separate word - “ladobukies” (“butter pieces”), which means a completely indecent, but incredibly tasty dipping of bread in salad sauce.

4. Don't cut the cheese. Limit yourself to one large slice, which is laid out on top of the vegetables. It’s more beautiful, tastier and more “Greek” this way.

5. Greek salad is prepared immediately before serving, and when served, it is eaten immediately. It does not need to be infused; the products should be as fresh as possible and just chopped.

The history of Greek salad

They say that the birth of salad occurs in the 20-30s of the 19th century. The fact is that tomatoes, one of the main components of Greek salad, appeared on the territory of this country only in 1818 - and it was after they almost instantly gained popularity and popular love that they began to be used in salads.

However, history claims that it was only a prototype of the modern Greek salad - let's say, its distant genetic ancestor, nothing more. At the time when the first tomatoes and onions appeared in Greece, these vegetables were not cut into pieces, but were eaten exclusively whole. Only almost a century later, with another wave of emigrants, one of the Greeks came to the United States, who figured out how to prepare their favorite dish in a slightly modified format - after cutting vegetables into small pieces.

In Greece, among other things, there is a proverb: if you know the village salad, you get to know Greece (or another wording: the village salad is all of Greece in one plate). Enjoy the taste of fresh vegetables and soft cheese and get to know Greece!

The most important thing about a Greek salad is the fresh ingredients, not the cutting or serving. The Greeks usually cut their salad into large pieces, and put the olives right with the pit, and the Greek olives have a buttery taste. The main herb in the salad is oregano and a little basil is added.

Cucumbers, shallots, and olive oil are often used in the salad. In general, various tricks and variations are allowed here. After all, Greek salad is a simple version of country salad, made from the most basic ingredients found in every country house.

Often, instead of shallots, recipes use sweet salad onions or even regular onions. Olive oil can be replaced with sunflower oil. It is better to take pitted olives. If you don’t have oregano and basil, you can replace them with simple lettuce leaves or any fresh herbs from the garden - the main thing is that it will be a summer and light salad.

An important ingredient, feta cheese, can be found everywhere today, but in extreme cases it can be replaced with Adyghe cheese, feta cheese.

Greek salad according to the classic recipe

Ingredients:

• cucumber - 2 pcs.;
• bell pepper - 1 pc.;
• tomato with dense pulp - 2 pcs.;
• medium-sized Crimean blue onion - 1 pc.;
• olives, large and pitted - 20 pcs.;
• olive oil - 2-3 tbsp. l.;
• feta cheese - 80-100 gr.;
• oregano - ½ tsp. dry grass;
• lemon juice - 1-1.5 tbsp. l.;
• salt, pepper - to taste.

Cooking process

Wash all vegetables. Cut cucumbers and tomatoes into large pieces (2-2.5 cm). Cucumbers can be peeled first if the peel is too hard.

Chop the blue onion into half rings. Peel the peppers from seeds and white membranes, cut into 2-2.5 cm squares. Olives can be left whole or cut in half.

Place the vegetables in a salad bowl and season with salt and pepper to taste. Mix everything carefully with two large spatulas.

Beat olive oil with lemon juice, add oregano to it, slightly rubbing the herb with your fingers. Season the salad with the resulting sauce.

Cut feta cheese into large pieces, similar to vegetables, and place on top of the salad. Throw a pinch of oregano on top. Salad ready.

It is allowed to replace part of the onion with garlic in the salad, but the cloves will have to be chopped into small cubes with a knife.

Options for preparing ingredients for Greek salad

Onion

Onions for Greek salad

Onions can be pre-marinated before adding to the salad. The easiest way is to chop the onion and pour it with a mixture of vinegar (3 parts) and sugar (2 parts) with a pinch of salt. Let stand for half an hour, drain in a colander and add to other vegetables.

To reduce bitterness, you can cut the onion smaller or mix two varieties - white and blue onions in the desired proportion of 1:2 or 1:1.

cucumbers

Cucumbers for Greek salad

Cucumbers can be cut figuratively or, for example, alternating pieces with the peel removed and with the peel left. The zebra cucumber looks beautiful in a salad when every piece in the salad looks white and green.

Tomatoes

Tomatoes for Greek salad

With tomatoes, it is better to experiment not with cutting, but with a combination of different varieties and colors. Cherry tomatoes look great in a salad. They need to be cut in half. The colors combine red and orange fruits well. It looks impressive, and besides, rich and low-acid orange tomatoes will add meatiness to the salad, reducing the sourness. If desired, you can even peel the tomatoes by scalding them with boiling water.

Pepper

Pepper for Greek salad

A multi-color option is also suitable with pepper. In this case, it is better to cut fruits of different colors into thin strips rather than into cubes. For those who like to experiment, there is an unusual idea: peel the vegetable with a sharp knife or peeler. This option is for those who want to add sublimity and a delicate taste to the dish; it is also perfect for serving Greek salad on a holiday table.

How to replace feta cheese

Typically in Russian cuisine, feta cheese is replaced with salted feta cheese; a product made from goat's milk is especially suitable.

As a last resort, you can take large pieces of processed cheese with a strong flavor of herbs or smoked meats. In this case, the salad needs a little more salt.

Another option for Greek salad is with Dutch cheese. You just need to make the pieces smaller. This recipe is no longer a classic, but it may well appeal, especially to men.

How to dress a Greek salad

A classic Greek salad is dressed with a mixture of lemon juice, olive oil and fresh or dried oregano. But if for some reason you cannot find these components or you want to diversify the taste of your favorite dish, the option of mixing other seasonings and herbs is allowed. For example, you can add coarsely torn lettuce leaves of different varieties (curly, iceberg) and chopped wild garlic strips to the dish. According to your taste, you can include thyme and parsley in the dish.

For housewives who love experiments, as a bold idea, you can suggest seasoning a portion of Greek salad with honey-mustard sauce.

Honey mustard sauce: an unusual and tasty dressing option

Take medium or mild mustard (can be with grains), honey and olive oil in a ratio of 1:1:2. Mix everything and beat with a whisk. If the sauce is too thick, add more oil. Serve with salad in a separate sauce boat.

You can also vary the dressing for Greek salad by adding other oils (mustard, corn, sesame), bread crumbs or toasted salted croutons for flavor. Those who like a strong taste can add garlic to the sauce, passed through a garlic press.

If you used lightly salted cheese for your salad, such as feta cheese or Dutch cheese, try using a dressing recipe with soy sauce, which is traditionally salty and rich.

Ingredients:

• olive oil - 2 tbsp. spoons;
• soy sauce - 1 tbsp. spoon;
• apple cider vinegar - 1 tbsp. spoon;
• mustard (medium or low heat) - 1 teaspoon.

To prepare the sauce, whisk all ingredients. Serve the dressing separately in a gravy boat.

Greek salad with oregano, dill and mint: step-by-step recipe

Ingredients:

• cucumber - 2 pcs.;
• cherry tomatoes - 300 gr.;
• sweet yellow pepper - 1 pc.;
• handfuls of black olives;
• mint leaves - to taste;
• wine vinegar (can be replaced with apple cider vinegar) - 1 tbsp. l.;
• vegetable oil - 3 tbsp. l.;
• oregano - 1 tsp;
• salt - to taste;
• salad onion - 1 head;
• dill and lettuce - to taste;
• feta cheese - 200-300 g.

Cooking process

Wash all vegetables and dry off excess water. Cut the cucumbers into medium pieces. Cut cherry tomatoes in half or into 4 parts. Place cucumbers and tomatoes in a deep dish.

Cut the pepper into large strips. It is advisable to use yellow peppers so that the colors in the dish blend beautifully.

Add pepper to cucumbers and tomatoes. Cut the onion into thin half rings and separate into thin strips. Add to the dish, mix everything carefully.

Finely chop mint leaves, dill and other greens and add to the total mixture in the dish. Season the salad with salt and pepper, add olives or black olives, mix everything.

Making salad dressing

Pour 3-4 tablespoons of olive oil (or other vegetable) into a deep bowl and add a teaspoon of wine vinegar. Stir and add half a teaspoon of oregano. Mix everything thoroughly.

Season the salad with the prepared dressing, leaving a little, a little more than a teaspoon. Mix the salad.

Place lettuce leaves on a serving dish and place half of the total mass of vegetables from the bowl on them. Distribute the salad evenly throughout the dish.

Cut the cheese into cubes the size of the olives. Place some of the cheese in a cup with the remaining dressing and roll the cheese in it, so the pieces will not stick together. Plus, these pieces look beautiful.

Carefully place the cheese with some of the dressing on a plate with half of the salad. Place the other half of the vegetable mass on top of the cheese. Carefully level everything out. Place the remaining cheese in the bowl where the salad was, add a spoonful of olive oil, sprinkle oregano on top and mix everything.

Place the cheese and oregano into the salad and spread it over the surface. Sprinkle a little oregano on top of the entire mound of salad. In total, the entire salad will use about 1 teaspoon of oregano. Serve the Greek salad.

You can decorate the salad with a mint leaf.

Tricks and options for serving Greek salad

The portioned serving of salad, practiced in restaurants in Greece, is interesting. It is extremely laconic: the client receives a deep plate of vegetables without sliced ​​cheese. All the cheese lies in one piece on top of the vegetable slices. Thus, the client himself decides how he will eat it.

Likewise, the sauce is now almost always served in a separate container for each serving. So everyone will determine for themselves how much and when they need to add dressing to the Greek salad.

This is very convenient for the housewife. As long as the salad is not seasoned with sauce, it keeps better. You can chop the vegetables a few hours before the guests arrive, and pour the sauce over them before serving. Moreover, if possible, the salad should be dressed after serving portions, so that guests do not have to worry about putting salad on their plates and distributing the sauce.

Sometimes very large pieces of vegetables and cheese are mixed in a salad without much stirring. Many people don’t like serving in large pieces, but it has its advantages: those who don’t like onions or olives can easily remove them.

Brilliantly simple! These are the words that can describe a Greek salad prepared according to a classic recipe.
Preparing a Greek salad is incredibly quick and easy, and the ingredients for the salad are the most common and accessible to everyone.
But what is the secret of Greek salad?! And I will tell you his secret! It is contained in juicy, ripe and aromatic seasonal vegetables, which are used to prepare the salad and in perfectly selected ingredients and proportions. Vegetables for Greek salad are cut into fairly large pieces.
And you can easily prepare Greek salad at home, thanks to step-by-step photos, subtleties and secrets that I generously share with you on the pages of our website. And believe me, your Greek salad will turn out tastier than in a restaurant!
Let's start cooking!
And admit it, how many of you are Greek salad lovers and do you often prepare this salad at home or do you prefer to order it in a restaurant?
Also, you may like the “Shopski” salad, which is similar in composition, but slightly different in preparation technology. - this salad is not of Greek, but of Bulgarian origin, but it also turns out to be incredibly tasty and is easy to prepare. It differs from Greek in that the peppers for Shopska salad are baked, and thanks to this, the salad turns out with a very interesting taste.

Ingredients

tomatoes	3 pcs
cucumbers (small)	2-3 pcs
red sweet salad onions (can be replaced with onions)	0.5-1 pcs
bell pepper (green or yellow)	1 PC
olives (b/c)	2-3 tbsp.
cheese or feta	100-150 g
olive oil	2 tbsp.
red wine vinegar (can be replaced with lemon juice)	2 tbsp.
oregano (dried)
salt
freshly ground pepper