Greek salad with a slab of feta, olives and oregano, no lettuce
A real Greek salad has no lettuce: tomatoes in big wedges, cucumber in thick half-moons, green pepper, red onion, black olives and a whole slab of feta on top, sprinkled with oregano and drenched in olive oil. No mayonnaise, no cooking. Fifteen minutes and the best supper of a July evening.
Your own work in that: 15 min.
- Cutting 12 min
- Feta and oil 3 min
- Resting 10 min
Step by step
0 / 5 doneCut the vegetables chunky
Cut the tomatoes into big wedges, 6–8 per tomato, the cucumber lengthways in half and into 1 cm half-moons, the pepper into strips. Chunky pieces hold their juice and crunch; small dice turns the salad into soup within ten minutes.
Ingredients: 4 pcs tomatoes · 1 pcs cucumber · 1 pcs green pepper · 1 pcs red onion · 100 g black olives · 200 g feta
TipTomatoes not from the fridge. Cold kills their aroma, and in this salad the tomato is everything.
Wedges, not diceSlice the onion thinly
Cut the red onion into very thin rings. If it is sharp, soak the rings 5 minutes in cold water and drain: they stay crunchy and lose the bite.
Rings thin as paperToss with salt and olives
Put the tomatoes, cucumber, pepper, onion and olives in a wide bowl, salt and toss gently. The salt draws juice from the tomatoes, which becomes the dressing together with the oil.
Vegetables, olives, saltFeta on top, oregano, oil
Lay the whole slab of feta on the salad, don't crumble it. Sprinkle with oregano rubbed between your fingers, pour over the olive oil and lemon juice, add pepper. Feta in one piece isn't about looks: everyone breaks off as much as they like, and the cheese doesn't dissolve into the dressing.
Ingredients: 4 tbsp olive oil · ½ pcs lemon, juice · 1 tsp dried oregano · ½ tsp salt · ¼ tsp black pepper
TipDried oregano, not fresh: one of the few cases where the dried herb is better. In Greece this salad gets dried oregano.
A slab of feta, oregano from the fingers, oilRest and serve
Leave 10 minutes at room temperature so the tomato juice and oil combine into a dressing. Serve with bread for mopping up the bottom of the bowl. It doesn't keep: eat it now.
Bread for the juices at the bottom
Before you start
Without lemon
A classic horiatiki often has no added acid: tomato juice, oil, salt and oregano are enough; sometimes it gets a splash of red wine vinegar. The lemon here is an extra; try it once without.
With capers
A spoon of capers: the way it is served on the Cyclades, among other places. Excellent with grilled fish.
The salad is swimming
A greenhouse cucumber, or tomatoes too soft. Peel the cucumber and cut out the seeds, and pick firm tomatoes. If the salad has to wait longer than a quarter of an hour, salt it only just before serving.
