Julie Clark
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How to Make Greek Salad
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Learn how to make Greek salad with feta cheese, kalamata olives, cucumber, tomato, and a homemade vinaigrette. Serve it with pita chips, or as a side dish with grilled chicken.
We love Panera copycat recipes around here. We’ve made cinnamon crunch braided bread, asiago bread and those delicious egg soufflés. Although these are delicious, when I eat at Panera, I usually choose something a little healthier. And this traditional Greek salad is my go-to.
Learn how to make Greek salad with all of the flavors you love. Just one bite and you’ll realize the taste is just as good, if not better, than your favorite cafe.
About this Greek Salad Recipe:
- Flavors: This salad is full of flavor. You’ll get a kick of flavor from the red onion, feta and peppers, but the homemade Greek salad dressing will really get your taste buds awake.
- Texture: This salad, along with most salads, are is loaded with texture. Since there are no croutons it’s not overly crunchy, but the crisp cucumbers and juicy tomatoes are irresistible.
Greek Salad Ingredients
Greek salad generally has 7 ingredients:
- Romaine lettuce. Of course you can use different lettuce if you’d like, but Romaine lettuce is strong and holds up to the heaviness of the other ingredients.
- Grape tomatoes. And if you have garden fresh tomatoes, even better. I do use sliced Roma when they are available in the summer.
- Cucumber. Cut the cucumber in slices or dice it in smaller pieces. I like to use English cucumbers because they don’t have as many seeds and have a sweet flavor.
- Kalamata olives. Kalamata olives are larger, but have a more subtle flavor than black olives.
- Red onion. Slice it thinly since this is a strongly flavored onion.
- Feta cheese. My favorite brand is Athenos.
- Pepperoncini peppers. I’d rather leave these off, but my husband loves them, so on they go!
Greek Salad Dressing
Our Greek salad dressing recipe is similar to the red wine vinaigrette we put on our antipasto salad and Greek pasta salad. It may seem intimating to make your own salad dressing, but it is as easy as putting the ingredients in a mason jar, fastening on a lid and shake, shake, shake.
This is a “runny” dressing. If you would like it a little thicker, you could add a tablespoon of dijon mustard or a little mayo or Greek yogurt.
Make Ahead Tips
This salad should be assembled right before serving, but you can do a couple of things ahead to make prep easier:
- Mix up the salad dressing up to 2 days before. Refrigerate the salad dressing in a sealed container. It may slightly solidify because of the oil, but if you remove it from the fridge an hour or two before serving, it will liquify again.
- Chop all of the veggies in advance. Store each part of the salad in a separate airtight container so that they stay fresh.
Then, right before serving you can just throw everything in a large bowl and toss to serve.
What to Serve with Greek Salad
The question should be, what doesn’t go with Greek salad? This is the perfect side dish for just about any grilled chicken or pork chops.
Also try it with brown butter spaghetti, chicken soup or a ravioli bake.
Other Recipes to Try:
How to Make Greek Salad
Learn how to make Greek salad with feta cheese, kalamata olives, cucumber, tomato, and a homemade vinaigrette. Serve it with pita chips, or as a side dish with grilled chicken or lamb.
Servings 6
Prep Time 15 minutes
Total Time 15 minutes
Ingredients
For the Greek vinaigrette:
- 1/2 cup olive oil 100 grams
- 1/3 cup red wine vinegar 55 g
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon tarragon
- ½ teaspoon oregano
- ¼ teaspoon rosemary
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
For the salad:
- 6 cups chopped romaine lettuce
- 1 cup grape tomatoes cut in half
- 1 medium cucumber sliced
- 1/2 cup kalamata olives
- 1/2 red onion thinly sliced
- 8 ounces feta cheese
- 4 pepperoncini peppers whole or sliced
Instructions
For the vinaigrette:
- In a pint size mason jar or a medium bowl, whisk together the ingredients fo the vinaigrette. Cover the jar and shake, or whisk in a bowl. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.
Make the salad:
- Add the lettuce to a large bowl.
- Top with tomatoes, cucumbers, olives, red onion, feta, and peppers. Arrange in a pretty pattern or just throw it all in and mix. It's up to you!
- Right before serving, drizzle some of the vinaigrette over the top and toss to serve. Or you can drizzle the vinaigrette over each individual serving. Don't pour on all the dressing. This makes enough to have some leftover for another day.
- Serve immediately.
Notes
Refer to the article above for more tips and tricks.
The calories shown are based on the salad serving 6, with 1 serving being ⅙ of the salad and dressing. Since different brands of ingredients have different nutritional information, the calories shown are just an estimate. **We are not dietitians and recommend you seek a nutritionist for exact nutritional information. The information in the nutrition box are calculated through a program and there is room for error. If you need an accurate count, I recommend running the ingredients through your favorite nutrition calculator.**
Nutrition
Calories: 295kcal | Carbohydrates: 5g | Protein: 6g | Fat: 28g | Saturated Fat: 8g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 16g | Cholesterol: 34mg | Sodium: 708mg | Potassium: 181mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 2g | Vitamin A: 468IU | Vitamin C: 12mg | Calcium: 209mg | Iron: 1mg
I LOVE a Greek Salad & this sounds like one we had in an authentic Greek restaurant in Tampa, Florida! The only difference was they put potato salad in the center of the salad as well! It was to die for & made an awful lot 😉 lol… Thanks so much for the recipe! Loving your recipes here in Kentucky! 🙂