What is added to Greek salad. Greek salad: ingredients, history, interesting facts. Honey mustard sauce: an unusual and tasty dressing option

“Greek” salad, which came to us from the country of the same name, is a frequent guest on the table, whether festive or ordinary. The Greek salad recipe at home is easy to prepare, it only takes 10 minutes maximum. A tasty, cheap, and also very healthy snack is Greek salad with croutons. Treat your family to this treat, cook with us!

One recipe for this salad includes vegetables, creamy Feta and dressing. The dish turns out to be light, but at the same time satisfying due to the cream cheese, which, together with the butter dressing, provides the main calorie content.

What you need for Greek salad:

Tomatoes – 140 g;
Fresh cucumbers – 130 g;
Sweet pepper – 110 g;
Olives – 80 g;
Cheese – 150 g;
Purple onion – 90 g;
Green salad leaves – 140 g;
Sunflower oil – 40 ml;
Salt - 12 g;
Black pepper – 6 g;
Juice of half a lemon.

Greek salad - a simple recipe:

Fresh vegetables must be prepared in advance for further cooking. Processing vegetables involves washing each product and then drying it so that there is no excess moisture in the dish.
Cut the tomatoes into slices, not forgetting to get rid of the stalk, cucumbers - into rings, not forgetting to trim the edges of the fruit.
The pepper should be separated from the seeds and chopped into thin strips.
Peel the onion, cut in half and chop into half rings.
Tear green lettuce leaves into large leaves with your hands.
First put green leaves in a large bowl, then tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet peppers, purple onions, pour olives from a jar.
Feta crumbles very well, this cheese is difficult to cut into even cubes, so you need to break it into pieces and add to a common bowl.
To make the dressing, mix the oil and lemon juice, add salt and pepper.
Season the salad with the resulting sauce and mix.

Greek salad - a simple recipe

In fact, a “Greek” salad can look quite simplified, include very few products, but at the same time remain just as tasty and rich. The most important thing is to know the required proportions and ingredients.

Ingredients needed (for 4 servings):

Tomatoes – 230 g;
Cheese – 140 g;
Greens – 50 g;
Salad – 60 g;
Sweet pepper – 110 g;
Olives – 90 g;
Vegetable oil – 50 ml;
Salt – 13 g;
Dry oregano – 22 g.

Simple Greek salad - preparation:

Wash the tomatoes and wipe with paper napkins. Cut into large pieces.
Rinse the bell pepper, remove seeds from the fruit, and chop coarsely.
Rinse greens and lettuce leaves and dry.
Tear lettuce leaves into pieces.
Break the cheese into pieces.
To season with olive oil, add dry oregano and salt.
Place tomatoes, peppers in a deep bowl, pour in olives, add washed herbs to your liking, add cheese and lettuce pieces.
Pour over the dressing and stir.

You can also try cooking, the preparation of which will not take much of your time.

Delicious Greek salad - recipe

Avocado has a wonderful, buttery taste and delicate texture. Many people love adding this fruit to salad, and in combination with cream cheese, the result is simply wonderful.

Ingredients required (for 4 servings):

Tomatoes – 120 g;
Fresh cucumbers – 140 g;
Sweet pepper (yellow) – 130 g;
Pitted olives – 70 g;
Cheese – 110 g;
Sweet onion – 80 g;
Green lettuce leaves – 130 g;
Avocado – 120 g;
Vegetable oil – 40 ml;
Salt - 12 g;
Black pepper – 6 g;
Juice of half a lemon.

Greek salad step by step:

Vegetables need to be processed in advance. It is worth rinsing them under running water and then drying them with paper towels. Be sure to disassemble the salad into leaves, and only then wash it so that no dirt remains near the root.
Cut the tomatoes into slices, without the stalk, cucumbers into rings, cutting off both sides.
The bell pepper needs to be peeled and chopped.
Peel the onion and cut into halves of rings.
Cut green lettuce leaves into arbitrary segments.
Peel the skin from the avocado and scoop out the ripe pulp with a spoon. Then you need to cut it into cubes.
Place salad on a serving plate, then tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet peppers, sweet onions, add olives and avocado.
To make the dressing, mix the oil with lemon juice, add salt and pepper.
Grind the cheese and put it in the sauce, let it brew for a while.
Pour the dressing over the salad and stir all the ingredients.

Greek salad without olives has a huge number of variations, each of which is sure to find its consumer. After all, the classic dish recipe is loved by many, and varieties of snacks with original additives are sometimes so unusual that they can surprise anyone, even the most inveterate gourmet.

Greek salad is the perfect way to prepare raw vegetables in a delicious and creative way. The main secret of this dish is that it is prepared immediately before serving: then the ingredients retain their freshness and appetizing appearance. The classic Greek salad recipe can be changed by adding new ingredients and using all kinds of sauces.

The most popular recipe includes a standard set of ingredients and a dressing of oil and lemon, which goes perfectly with vegetables.

Required:

2 medium cucumbers;
1 sweet pepper;
1 onion;
100 g fetax;
2 large tomatoes;
0.5 lemon;
20 pitted olives;
60 ml olive oil;
3 g oregano;
salt and black pepper to taste.

Cooking stages.

Vegetables are thoroughly washed and dried.
Cucumbers and tomatoes are cut into large cubes, peppers into strips, onions into thin half rings.
Vegetables are evenly distributed in the salad bowl.
Squeeze the juice out of half a lemon. Mix it with oil and oregano.
The salad is salted, peppered and topped with dressing. Stir.
Fetaxa is cut into cubes and beautifully laid on top of vegetables.
Cut the olives in half lengthwise and decorate the salad with them.

Note to the hostess: to make the appetizer look more impressive, you can take half of the bell peppers of different colors.

Salad like in Greece

The peculiarity of a real Greek salad is that the vegetables are chopped very large and are not mixed. All ingredients for this dish must be chilled.

Required Products:

2 medium tomatoes;
half an onion (purple);
1 bell pepper;
1 cucumber;
100 g feta;
12 olives with pits;
2 g oregano;
60 ml olive oil;
2 ml table vinegar;
4 lettuce leaves.

Cooking technology.

The peeled cucumber is cut into larger circles, the pepper into large cubes, and the onion into half rings.
Tomatoes are cut into 6 parts.
The bottom of a deep cup is lined with lettuce leaves.
Cucumbers are placed on them, tomatoes and peppers are placed on top.
In a separate bowl, combine the onion and oregano, sprinkle with vinegar, stir and leave for a quarter of an hour.
Spread the onion mixture over the tomatoes.
A whole piece of feta is placed on the salad, olives are laid out around it.
Pour olive oil over the dish without stirring.

Greek salad with chicken and croutons

Adding croutons and meat to Greek salad with fetaxa will give the traditional dish new notes and make it more nutritious.

Grocery list:

400 g boiled chicken;
2 small cucumbers;
2 tomatoes;
half a bell pepper;
0.5 onions;
150 g of lettuce;
100 g fetax;
100 g white crackers;
70 g olives;
salt, oil for dressing, a mixture of Provençal herbs to taste.

Recipe.

Clean and dry lettuce leaves are torn by hand and placed on a flat plate.
Peeled onions are cut into half rings, the remaining vegetables into large pieces.
Vegetables are placed on lettuce and salted.
Fetaxa is cut into cubes, chicken - into small pieces.
Place meat and olives between the vegetables, and fetax and crackers on top.
The salad is seasoned with herbs and sprinkled with oil.

Recipe with cheese and olives

Thanks to the addition of feta cheese, this salad turns out to be more filling and piquant.

Products included:

1 cucumber;
1 tomato;
150 g salted cheese;
100 g pitted olives;
15 g dill;
40 ml olive oil.

Step by step recipe.

The cheese is cut into cubes and placed in a bowl.
Add whole olives.
Tomato and cucumber are also cut into squares and placed on top of the olives.
Add chopped dill.
All ingredients are poured with oil and mixed.

Classic recipe with pine nuts

Nuts significantly increase the nutritional value of the salad and give it an original taste.

Ingredients:

2 tomatoes;
1 yellow or green pepper;
2 cucumbers;
40 ml olive oil;
20 g mustard;
100 g pine nuts without shell;
2 g salt.

Cooking steps.

Cucumbers are cut into thick half rings, peppers into long slices, tomatoes into larger slices.
The vegetables are mixed.
Nuts are sprinkled on top.
Greek salad with nuts is seasoned with a mixture of olive oil, salt and mustard.

Helpful tip: you can pre-roast the pine nuts in a dry frying pan. Then they will acquire a more piquant taste thanks to the oils released during the frying process.

Original version in lavash

The salad prepared in this way is convenient to take with you to snack on at any time.

List of ingredients:

1 thin pita bread;
100 g feta;
3 small tomatoes;
2 cucumbers;
1 sweet pepper;
1 red onion;
100 g olives;
20 ml lemon juice;
50 ml oil for dressing;
3 g each of salt and oregano.

Cooking technology.

Peppers and tomatoes are cut into cubes. If the cucumbers have a thick peel, they are peeled and cut into the same pieces.
The onion is cut into thin rings and disassembled.
All vegetables are carefully mixed in a salad bowl.
Add olives.
Finally add cubes of feta.
In a separate bowl, mix oil, lemon juice, salt and seasoning.
Place the salad on a sheet of pita bread and sprinkle it with dressing.
Lavash is rolled into an envelope or a tube. You can cut it into portions.

Greek salad sauce - preparation methods

The most common dressing for this dish is a mixture of olive oil and freshly prepared lemon juice. It is important to use only high-quality oil that is labeled Extra virgin.

Original sauces will help add a new taste to the dish.

Balsamic Vinegar Dressing

Whisk 50 ml of balsamic vinegar with 10 g of brown sugar and chopped garlic clove.
Stirring constantly, add 120 ml of olive oil.
Season the dressing with salt and black pepper to taste.

Low calorie sauce

Combine 100 g of natural yogurt (preferably homemade), a garlic clove pressed through a press and 50 ml of lemon juice.
Add 10 ml of red wine vinegar.
If desired, add salt and pepper to the sauce.

Mustard-honey dressing

Mix 100 ml of vegetable oil and 10 g of ready-made mustard.
Add 20 g of slightly warmed honey and stir until it is completely dispersed.
Squeeze half a lemon into the sauce.
Add 10 ml of wine vinegar and 5 ml of lemon juice.

Soy sauce dressing

20 ml of liquid honey is mixed with 40 ml of soy sauce until completely homogeneous.
Add 20 ml of freshly squeezed lemon juice, stirring constantly with a whisk.
Continuing to stir, add 80 ml of olive oil.

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 us 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 it should be called correctly.

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

Wash the vegetables, cut them into large pieces. Place in a salad bowl.
Peel the onion, cut into half rings, and marinate a little if desired. Place in a salad bowl.
Add olives without brine.
Salt. Mix carefully.
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.
Sprinkle with oregano.
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!