Greek salad, classic recipe (5 step-by-step unusual Greek salad recipes). cooking secrets

Greek, or as it is also called, village salad (Horiatiki), is so simple that its preparation can be described in one sentence: cut all the vegetables into large pieces, add cheese and olives, dress with olive oil and sprinkle with oregano. Everything! Horiatiki Greek salad is ready, you can enjoy its natural Mediterranean taste.

The main rule of a simple, classic Greek salad recipe is a large, coarse cut, “rustic”. The size of the pieces should be about 2-3 cm. It is believed that in this form, vegetables retain their taste better, moreover, preparing a simple everyday salad should not take much time. But you don't have to cut the cheese. Most often, large chunks are laid out on top of vegetables, and the eater himself breaks off pieces with a fork. Although in restaurants you can often find serving with diced feta.

Among the required ingredients: tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, olives and cheese. Sometimes lettuce is added. Olive oil is used for dressing. And you can't feel sorry for him. In Greece, housewives pour plenty of dressing on vegetables, firstly, it tastes better, and secondly, after the dish is eaten, a delicious dressing will remain at the bottom of the salad bowl - vegetable juices will be mixed with butter and cheese. It is usually soaked with fresh bread, it turns out such oily pieces (ladobukies), very tasty!

Ingredients

• feta cheese 200 g
• tomato 3-4 pcs.
• cucumbers 2 pcs.
• red onion 1 pc.
• bell pepper green or yellow 1 pc.
• pitted olives 10-15 pcs.
• olive oil 3 tbsp. l.
• lemon juice 1 tbsp. l.
• salt and pepper to taste
• oregano dried 2-3 chips.
• leaf lettuce optional

How to make a classic Greek salad

1. 
   Vegetables need to be washed and dried, peeled onions. I cut the cucumbers into large cubes. If they are bitter, then do not forget to remove the skin.
2. 
   Onion chopped into thin half rings. It is preferable to use a red onion, but if it is not available, then a regular white onion will do. There is no need to pre-marinate it or sprinkle with lemon juice.
3. 
   I cleaned the bell pepper from seeds and veins, cut into large cubes. It is advisable to take a yellow or green pepper to make the salad look more elegant and bright.
4. 
   I cut the tomatoes according to the same principle as other vegetables, that is, large.
5. 
   Made a dressing with olive oil, freshly squeezed lemon juice, salt, pepper, and dried oregano. Extra virgin olive oil is best, wine vinegar can be used instead of lemon juice, and dried oregano can easily replace a mixture of Italian herbs if necessary.
6. 
   I put all the chopped vegetables in a deep bowl, added pitted olives. Drizzle with dressing and stir.
7. 
   She laid out the Greek salad on portioned plates, added a couple of large slices of feta on top (you can cut into cubes). I sprinkled with dried oregano, lightly rubbing it with my fingertips so that it better reveals its aroma. If desired, you can add fragments of leaf lettuce, it goes well with all vegetables and serves as an additional decoration for the dish.

As you can see, the recipe for Greek salad is simple and quick, you just need to chop all the vegetables coarsely and season them with sauce. The dish should be served immediately after preparation. Enjoy your meal!

Generous Greece willingly shares its unique recipes with the world. No one will be surprised by the variety of cheeses, sea cocktails and a variety of meat dishes traditional for this country. In addition, various salads are very organically combined in the national cuisine. Horiatiki is rightfully considered the most famous - a rustic salad that has become famous all over the world under the name "Greek". The simplicity and availability of ingredients, excellent taste and nutritional value at a relatively low calorie content, coupled with an unusually appetizing appearance - all this guaranteed success.

Our article will tell you how to cook a Greek salad according to a traditional recipe and how you can replace some of the ingredients.

As often happens, this ingenious dish "came from the people", so the authorship is not known for certain. At certain stages, new ingredients were added to the dish, thanks to which its taste was modified and saturated. So, for example, it happened after the appearance of tomatoes, which were brought into the country no earlier than the 19th century.

Now a classic Greek salad is not complete without this vegetable. In addition to the tomato, other ingredients should be mandatory in the salad, some of them are typically "Greek" products.

Today we can say with confidence that the best traditions of Greek cuisine, coupled with the gifts of the fertile land, are collected in this surprisingly simple and tasty dish.

Greek Salad Ingredients:

• Vegetables: tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, onions (preferably red);
• Olives, capers;
• Lots of greens: parsley, oregano, lettuce;
• Chees Feta;
• Olive oil for dressing.

The presence of cheese in a salad is a somewhat unusual combination, but it is this ingredient that gives an exceptional taste and aroma to the finished dish.

Important nuance: greens and vegetables for salad should be cut into fairly large pieces.

It is this carelessness that creates the special charm of a typical "village" recipe. An attractive look is also achieved through a variety of shades and shapes. In Greek restaurants and cafes, this dish is served with slices of toasted white bread, which will be doubly delicious when dipped in a salad bowl.

Classic Greek salad recipe

It doesn’t take much time to cook, it’s not for nothing that this dish was popular with peasants, whose daily work did not favor spending a lot of time in the kitchen. To make a salad according to the classic recipe, you need to pick up and grind all the ingredients, and do not spare herbs and olive oil for dressing.

• Medium-sized tomatoes - 4 pieces;
• One small cucumber;
• One medium onion, preferably red, "sweet" variety;
• Bulgarian pepper, depending on the size 1-5 pieces;
• Olives - about 20 pieces;
• Pickled capers - 2 teaspoons;
• Feta cheese - 200 grams;
• Dried oregano - 1 tsp;
• Olive oil - 3 tbsp. l.;
• Salt to taste.

Wash the salad vegetables well, cut the tomatoes into slices, slice the cucumber, onion and pepper into half rings. Add olives, capers and seasoning, salt and season with olive oil. Traditionally, cheese is laid out on top with wide slices.

In European cuisine, cheese is cut into cubes and mixed with vegetables.

Greek Salad Ideas and Recipes

As always happens, recipes are not always used in their original form, most often they are supplemented and modified, adapting to your tastes and looking for new combinations. European chefs have created many recipes based on Greek salad. The main ingredients - cheese and dressing - have undergone many metamorphoses, now almost every restaurant serves its own version of this dish.

A few ideas to diversify the traditional recipe:

• The use of cherry tomatoes will give the dish greater aesthetics. Very small specimens can be put whole, used for decoration and simply laid out in an “artistic mess” on a dish.
• Lettuce leaves will also very organically fit into the overall taste of the salad. A small recommendation: it is better not to cut this ingredient with a knife, but to tear it coarsely with your hands, so more useful substances will be preserved, and slight negligence will be quite in the spirit of this recipe.
• Salad dressing is best prepared separately and mixed with the main ingredients just before serving. Thus, the vegetables do not drain and do not lose their attractive appearance.
• Figured cutting of vegetables will make the dish more colorful and original. You can use a vegetable cutter, special nozzles and just show your imagination and do something unusual.

Such tricks will help surprise guests and family by creating a mysterious and very unusual dish. The advantage of this salad will be its absolute versatility.. It is traditionally prepared in the summer, during the season of fresh vegetables. On the other hand, now you can buy all the components all year round, so even on the New Year's table, such a miracle would be very appropriate.

Recipe with feta cheese

Feta goat cheese has a slightly crumbly texture and a salty taste. Now in supermarkets you can freely buy this product, it is usually sold in metal or plastic containers and stored in brine. Grinding such cheese is a rather difficult task, it practically crumbles in the hands, you can only get neat cuts with a special knife.

Feta cheese can be used in other recipes, it harmoniously complements many products, making them taste brighter. Despite the rather high calorie content of cheese, the dish itself turns out to be dietary.

The recipe for Greek salad with feta cheese is also very healthy due to the high content of vegetables.

In Greece itself, cheese is not mixed with the rest of the ingredients, but simply laid out on top as a decoration and main snack. Modified recipes call for chopping up feta and pairing it with vegetables and olives. At the same time, the juice itself, which was obtained from such a combination, is very important. In no case should it be poured out, it is better to soak it with a piece of bread and taste this excellent combination.

Cheese recipe

Most often you can find such an interpretation of the classic recipe. Feta cheese, which is a little unusual for us, can be replaced with cheese that is closest to its taste. To do this, the cheese is squeezed a little and cut into cubes or straws, as you like more.

The Greek cheese salad recipe contains less salt, as the cheese itself is quite spicy. Its amount is taken in accordance with the classical proportions, you can slightly adapt the recipe by adding prunes, pre-steamed and cut into pieces. Using bell peppers of different colors will make the salad even brighter and more appetizing.

The second Greek cheese closest in composition - fetax, despite its close relationship with the above-described specimen, is more common with us. Under this brand, it is allowed to produce soft cheese outside of Greece, while feta is an exclusively national product. There are differences both in composition and in consistency: instead of goat's milk, cow's milk is used, and the density of fetaki is higher.

Despite these differences, both types of cheese harmonize perfectly with vegetables and are very suitable for Greek salad.

If you were lucky enough to get exactly the original Greek feta, you can try to cook both options and settle once and for all the dispute about the best use of cheese in this salad.

Greek salad dressing

If regular olive oil seems like too simple a sauce for such a gourmet dish, you can try creating different variations. Dressing for a Greek salad at home should be exclusively based on olive oil (this is Greek cuisine, you can’t do without it), as well as spices traditional for this country.

The traditional composition of the dressing is concise and does not require significant costs. For the inhabitants of Greece, olive oil is something so familiar that any dish is unthinkable without it. Olive oil came to us not so long ago, but it has already firmly won a place on the kitchen shelves.

• Olive oil - 4-5 tbsp. l.;
• Lemon juice - 2 tbsp. l.;
• Black ground pepper - 1 gram;
• Salt to taste.

Ordinary vinegar can also be used as an acid, but it is advisable to take a more “interesting” option: apple, wine or balsamic. This will create the necessary acidic environment, which is just an excellent seasoning for salty cheese and vegetables.

For a unique sweet and sour taste, you can add a little brown sugar. Usually it is better to adhere to such proportions: for 1 tbsp. l. vinegar take 1 tsp. Sahara. It must first be dissolved so that the grains do not come across in the salad.

Adapted version

• Olive oil 2 parts;
• Vinegar - 1 part;
• Pepper, salt to taste.

A slightly unusual taste will turn out if you add a little real pomegranate juice to the dressing (it is better to use freshly squeezed). In addition to the flavor range, the color will change a little, but most gourmets prefer this particular type of dressing.

original pomegranate taste

• Olive oil - 4-5 tbsp. l.;
• Pomegranate juice - 1 tbsp. l.;
• Pepper, salt to taste.

You can bring a little exotic with soy sauce. Despite some inconsistency of cultures, adherents of this sauce insist on an amazing harmony of taste. It is difficult to argue about this, if there are fans of this option, then so be it.

• Olive oil - 3 tbsp. l.;
• Soy sauce - 1 tbsp. l.;
• Pepper, salt to taste.

For those who cannot imagine their life without traditional mayonnaise, you can try this dressing.

The only caveat: the calorie content of mayonnaise is quite high, so the dish can no longer be consumed during the diet, like its traditional recipe.

For mayonnaise lovers

• Olive oil - 2 tbsp. l.;
• Lemon juice - 2 tbsp. l.;
• Mayonnaise - 2 tbsp. l.;
• Liquid honey - 1 tbsp. l.;
• Pepper, salt to taste.

Often, finely chopped greens and even garlic are added to the sauce for Greek salad, although the Greeks themselves have not yet clearly defined whether it is worth setting off the taste of the salad with too fragrant spices.

From the greens, parsley, oregano, dill and basil are traditionally taken. For decoration, you can use lettuce leaves, as well as sprigs of dill and parsley. The taste of the salad will be brighter if you do not use mustard, mayonnaise or vinegar, but in some recipes they are present. This, as they say, is a matter of taste, so it is always possible to modify and adjust the recipe “for yourself”.

greek salad calories

Despite the rather high fat content of cheese, salad can be safely classified as a dietary dish. Its calorie content according to the traditional recipe is approximately 87 kcal per 100 g. portions. At the same time, the content of vitamins and proteins necessary for the body is simply a record for a vegetable dish.

Olive oil is also allowed in the diet, unlike most of these products. Its absolute digestibility and high content of nutrients makes it an invaluable source of health.

Almost any cheese can be used for Greek salad, the main thing is to choose a salty taste and soft texture. If "feta" for some reason does not suit you, its analogue is brynza or Adyghe. You can often find options with ordinary hard cheese, but this is most likely a too average version.

A simple Greek salad recipe has already won a wide audience and is not in last place among similar dishes. In our country, its recipe has undergone a few changes, but basically people have already fallen in love with it, gradually replacing “Olivier” and “mimosa” on the festive table.

Due to the high content of vegetables and low calorie content, it is very light and perfect for dietary cuisine.

You can diversify the taste of the dish with different varieties of cheese: feta and fetax are traditionally used, “our” version may include brynza or “Adyghe”. A big advantage: experimenting with the type of slicing vegetables and serving at the table, you can simultaneously decorate the celebration with a bright and memorable dish.

This is a juicy, colorful and healthy snack that everyone has probably heard of. It will come in handy in a dietary diet, suitable for a family dinner and even for meeting guests. Let's see how to prepare a Greek salad, following the traditions, and with the addition of other ingredients.

The classic recipe is the easiest. To implement it, you only need the available components.

Required products:

• one lettuce bulb;
• tomatoes and cucumbers - two each;
• two tablespoons of olive oil;
• any spices to your taste;
• 0.3 kg of pitted olives;
• about 200 grams of Fetax cheese.

Cooking process:

1. We wash the vegetables from the list, cut into squares and send to the salad bowl.
2. Put onion rings, olives on top and add Fetax cubes.
3. Sprinkle the ingredients with the selected spices and pour over with oil. Now you can serve the dish to the waited-up eaters without even stirring.

Provence herbs go well with fresh vegetables. But in the season when young greens are available, it is better to use them.

Cheese recipe

Greek salad with cheese is an option for those cases when there is no cheese, which is used in the traditional recipe.

Prepare a set of products in advance:

• half a jar of olives;
• spices to your taste;
• two large spoons of olive oil;
• 0.1 kg of cheese;
• one sweet pepper.

Cooking process:

1. Cucumbers and tomatoes cut into large pieces, spread in the selected container. Remove the cap and seeds from the pepper, chop it medium-sized and mix with the rest of the ingredients.
2. Next, olives and salty cheese are sent to the salad bowl, which we also grind into neat small squares.
3. Pour in the indicated amount of vegetable oil and season with any spices you wish.

With chicken and croutons

In this cooking option, croutons are used, which give the dish a special piquancy and a certain resemblance to the popular Caesar.

Crackers can be made on your own in the oven, and if there is no time, then purchased dishes will do without compromising the taste.

Prepare the following food package in advance:

• 100 grams of olives;
• a small sweet onion;
• herbs and spices to taste;
• two cucumbers and the same number of tomatoes;
• 0.3 kg chicken fillet;
• lettuce leaves;
• three tablespoons of olive oil;
• 0.1 kg Fetaxes;
• 50 grams of white crackers.

Cooking process:

1. We wash the salad, tear it into any pieces and put it on a plate. Tomatoes and cucumbers, cut into medium-sized pieces, as well as onions in half rings, will go on top.
2. The chicken must be boiled, chopped and added to the rest of the ingredients.
3. It remains only to cover the dish with olives, Fetax cubes and crackers, season with spices and pour in olive oil.

How to make Greek Bean Salad

This is not the most common cooking option for the dish under discussion, but be sure to try it. Perhaps you will like it even more than the classic salad.

Required products:

• a bunch of lettuce leaves;
• 40 milliliters of olive oil;
• two cucumbers and two dense tomatoes;
• a glass of beans;
• 100 grams of olives;
• one blue onion;
• 0.15 kg Fetax.

Cooking process:

1. Before cooking, you need to soak the beans, and then boil them until cooked.
2. Put the chopped lettuce leaves on a dish, and place the diced vegetables on top. Next comes the turn of onion half rings, and then beans.
3. Mix olive oil with various spices, such as Provencal herbs, for an interesting filling. Pour it over the dish.
4. It remains to add olives and cheese, chopped into medium-sized cubes.

With feta cheese

Light, bright salad is ideal for any side dish and meat dish. It can also be prepared using not only the cheeses already discussed, but also Feta cheese, which is made from goat's milk.

Required products:

• any mix of fresh herbs;
• two tablespoons of olive oil;
• 0.2 kg of cucumbers;
• up to 200 grams of Feta;
• half a jar of olives;
• fresh salad - a bunch;
• a small head of lettuce;
• sweet pepper pod.

Cooking process:

1. Prepare a large dish on which you will lay out all the ingredients.
2. Rinse the lettuce leaves, tear them with your hands and put them on a plate.
3. Next, grind cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers, which must first be cleaned of seeds. We place all the vegetable slices on top of the leaves.
4. Add onion, chopped in half rings, cheese, diced, and olives. All this is seasoned with selected spices, based on your taste. Pour olive oil over the appetizer and after that it can be served.

With Chinese cabbage

Prepare all the necessary products in advance:

• goat cheese gram 200;
• the same amount of Beijing;
• a pod of non-hot pepper;
• a couple of tomatoes and the same number of cucumbers;
• olive oil - three tablespoons;
• seasonings to taste;
• 0.1 kg of olives.

Cooking process:

1. We wash all the vegetables listed in the list and chop them well: cabbage - into strips, cucumbers and tomatoes - into small pieces. We first free the pepper from seeds and also turn it into cubes or short strips.
2. We spread all the crushed components in the selected container, add goat cheese and olives to them.
3. It remains only to pour the dish with olive oil and add spices.

Don't salt the salad until you've tasted it. The cheese is already quite salty, you can not guess and overdo it with the usual proportion.

Greek salad in lavash

This dish is more of an appetizer than a salad. If you use a small pita bread or pita, then it can be served in portions.

Required products:

• 0.2 kg of any goat cheese;
• a couple of fleshy tomatoes;
• one lettuce bulb;
• two cucumbers;
• spices to your taste;
• two pita bread;
• 30 milliliters of olive oil;
• 100 grams of olives.

Cooking process:

1. Preparing such a salad is no more difficult than a regular one. Prepare all the ingredients on the list: wash the vegetables, remove the seeds from the pepper and cut everything into small pieces into squares or strips. Onions can be chopped in half rings - this way the dish will be even more beautiful. Put everything first in a bowl.
2. Add the selected chopped cheese and olives there, pour in the olive oil, sprinkle with spices. You can also mix the oil with herbs in advance and let it stand for a while - then you get a more aromatic sauce.
3. We mix the resulting mass, send it to the unfolded pita bread and twist it tightly in the form of a roll.

Sauce options

It is not necessary to fill this dish with only olive oil and spices, because you can always prepare a sauce for a Greek salad.

Classic gas station

When we asked a question to our friends who have been coming to Greece for holidays from different parts of the world for many years in a row, what attracts them to this country, they answered us with a smile: “Clean sea, gentle sun, always fresh seafood, delicious wine, Greek hospitality, and, of course, the most delicious Greek salad in the world ... "

Indeed, in the catalogs of the world's best restaurants, along with the most delicious dishes, Greek salad is not at all the last place.

Greek salad, commonly called "horiatiki" - rustic in its homeland, got its name due to the fact that its components: onions, olives, sweet green peppers, as well as cucumbers, tomatoes and olive oil - these are the simple and familiar products, which the Greek peasants ate.

It all started with tomatoes

However, tomatoes, however, like the salad itself, appeared on the table of the Greeks relatively recently.

It is known that tomatoes were brought to Europe by the Spanish conquistadors in the 16th century, and they came to Greece only in 1818 along with potatoes.

They were brought to Greece by wandering Catholic monks. At first, tomatoes were grown as ornamental plants to decorate the monastic lands - their fruits were considered poisonous. And only since 1825 they began to cultivate for human consumption in almost all regions of the country.

At first, tomatoes were mistaken for exotic fruits. The Greeks ate tomatoes the way they used to eat fruit: biting off pieces from the whole fruit, seizing them with bread and cheese.

However, vegetables, even such as onions, were not cut - they were also consumed whole. Fortunately, the pale purple color of the onion was sweet and fragrant.

The history of lettuce

As a separate dish, the salad appeared thanks to one curious incident.

In 1909, a Greek economic immigrant who had worked for many years in America in a weaving factory went to his native village to attend the wedding of his nephew.

In a foreign land, he was very homesick for his homeland, Greek olives, olive oil, unique cheese, ripe vegetables that were grown in his village.

On the way home he had a toothache. At home, the damned tooth ached at all. My sister advised him to rinse it with ouzo - aniseed vodka. The sharp pain gradually subsided.

It was dinner time. My sister brought bread, olives, cheese, some vegetables for the table. But the tooth kept aching and did not give a bite of vegetables, as was customary.

Then a smart man found a way out - without thinking twice, he crumbled all the products into pieces in a clay bowl, added a handful of olives to it, put a large piece of Feta on top, poured it with rustic olive oil, and began to gobble it up with great pleasure.

My sister also tried the new dish, and she liked it very much. She decided to surprise the neighbors and serve it on the wedding table. The salad was appreciated!

Since then, rustic salad has become a favorite and main dish of Greek cuisine.

Cheese for Greek Salad

If tomato is the king of Greek salad, then Feta is the queen.

If you do not put feta cheese in the salad, then it will be a regular vegetable salad. It is Feta that gives the rustic salad a unique flavor, a kind of Greek charm.

Real Feta is made only in Greece in a special way from a mixture of 70% sheep's and 30% goat's milk. Feta goes through a very complex and long process of manufacturing and subsequent processing, developed over the centuries.

Homer in his poem "The Odyssey" tells that the Cyclops Polyphemus was the first cheese maker, which, according to the descriptions of the ancient Greek poet, was very similar to Feta.

The specific aroma of Greek Feta is the aroma of herbs that feed on sheep and goats grazing in the meadows of Macedonia, Thrace, Epirus, Thessaly, Central Greece, the Peloponnese, and the islands of Lesbos and Crete.

And only in these, and in no other areas of Greece, this wonderful product is prepared.

Feta has a piquant taste that cannot be confused with any other - tart, slightly salty, with a slight hint of sourness.

It belongs to the soft varieties of light cheeses. When cutting cheese into pieces, it should not crumble and leave no marks on the surface of the knife.

Feta contains no more than 43% fat and 56% moisture.

The color of Feta should be white, like Pendelian marble.

For all these undeniable merits, the cheese was given the Feta brand, and no other white cheeses made outside of Greece can be called so.

This is how she is, the Greek queen of Feta cheeses, and she occupies a royal place in the Greek salad - at its very top!

Calorie content, benefits and some statistics

Greek salad is popular not only in Greece itself, but also far beyond its borders.

To the question of the famous catering company Grub Hub Seamless: “What dish do American clerks prefer for lunch?” over twenty-five thousand restaurants and fast food outlets across America responded: "Greek Salad."

And to the question: “Why do customers give such preference to Greek salad, and not the same classic green vegetable salad made from lettuce leaves?”, It was explained that Greek salad contains more complete proteins, fats and vitamins, contains more diverse quality ingredients and amazing taste.

In Greece, there is no such tavern, restaurant, snack bar where horiatiki would not be served.

It goes well with any meat, fish or seafood dishes served on the table.

It can also be a great independent snack for any wine or other stronger drink.

The calorie content of salad in Greek and Russian sources is not the same: a serving of 200 grams among the Greeks is estimated at 415 kcal, and Russian culinary specialists have only 320 kcal.

A 100-gram serving of Classic Greek Feta Salad contains:

• proteins - 4.6 g;
• fats - 3.8 gr;
• carbohydrates - 4 gr;
• glycemic index - 30.

The Guinness record was set by the inhabitants of the town of Ierapetra, on Crete, by preparing the world's largest serving of Greek salad from seven tons of tomatoes, three tons of cucumbers, two tons of peppers and one ton of onions. The salad took 800 kg of Feta and 500 liters of olive oil!

Dressing for Greek salad: composition, recipe

The uniqueness of the taste of this dish is determined not only by the composition and quality of the products included in it, but also by the set of ingredients used for dressing.

The basis of Greek salad dressing is good quality olive oil, preferably cold pressed.

Greek cuisine rarely uses other types of bases, preferring to season all vegetable dishes with olive oil rather than mayonnaise or similar sauces.

Firstly, because olive oil contains a unique taste and aromatic bouquet.

Secondly, whole treatises have been written about the benefits of olive oil, starting from the time of Hippocrates and ending with the latest scientific research in the field of nutrition and medicine.

In Greek taverns, a classic rustic salad is seasoned with either a mixture of olive oil, lemon and herbs - oregano (oregano), in Greek - "rigani", and thyme - "fimari", sometimes parsley is also added.

Or, leaving the same base, add high-quality wine or balsamic vinegar. It all depends on the taste preferences of the chef preparing the salad.

It is advisable to make the dressing in advance so that it is infused and acquires the taste and aroma of spices.

So, for dressing for a real Greek salad, we need:

• good quality olive oil, preferably cold pressed (5-6 tablespoons);
• one medium-sized lemon, or wine or balsamic vinegar (to taste - 0.5-1 tablespoon);
• oregano or thyme.

Mix oil, lemon juice and aromatic herbs, whisking all the ingredients with a culinary whisk.

We leave the dressing for insisting, and proceed to cooking.

Classic Greek salad recipe: ingredients, how to cook

To cook horiatiki, as it is cooked by housewives in Greece, we need to have the following products:

• four medium-sized tomatoes (non-soft and unripe);
• one large or two medium cucumbers;
• one or two large sweet peppers;
• one head of onion, preferably sweet, pale purple;
• Greek Feta cheese - 100-150 grams;
• a few olives "kalamon" - 6-8 pieces;
• capers - 50 grams.

Now, attention! Step by step guide to proper preparation:

The main secret is that all vegetables are cut into large pieces and stacked in layers.

1. Wash vegetables and dry with paper towels.
2. Peel the cucumbers from the top skin and cut into circles of medium thickness - this will be the first layer of our salad.
3. Then we cut the sweet green pepper into half rings and lay on top of the cucumbers.
4. First, we cut the tomatoes into two halves, peel the halves of the stalks, then cut them in half again and lay them in an even layer.
5. Onions cut into thin half rings, washed in cold water, squeezed and put on top of the tomatoes.
6. Capers and olives are placed on top - as a decorating element of the salad.
7. We fill everything with a dressing of olive oil, oregano and lemon juice, it has already been infused and has acquired a specific aroma that will favorably emphasize the taste of fresh vegetables.
8. Salad before serving, do not mix and do not salt. We crown the dish with a piece of feta, drizzle it on top with olive oil and sprinkle with oregano.

Salad ready. Pepper, salt and mix before the salad is laid out on plates, just before eating.
Kali orexy! Enjoy your meal!