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AI-generated photograph: Greek salad in a shallow white ceramic bowl, wedges of red tomato, pale green cucumber and green pepper rings, black olives and a thick white slab of feta dusted with oregano, glossy with olive oil

Home · Recipes · Greek village salad with feta

Mediterranean and Middle Eastern · Sides

Greek village salad with feta

ripe tomato · whole feta · wild oregano

AI-generated photograph

The salad served across Greece in summer: chunky ripe tomatoes, cucumber, green pepper and red onion with black olives, a whole slab of feta on top and a good pour of olive oil.

Contains: milk and sulphur dioxide and sulphites, as written. This recipe contains milk, from the feta, and sulphites, from the red wine vinegar. Check the olive jar for sulphites too. The vegetables contain none of the 14.

Ingredients

  • 4 large ripe tomatoes, cut into chunky wedges
  • 1 cucumber, halved lengthways and cut into thick half moons
  • 1 green pepper, seeds out, cut into thin rings
  • 1 small red onion, sliced into thin rings
  • 80g pitted Kalamata olives
  • 200g block of feta cheese
  • 1 teaspoon dried oregano
  • 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
  • A pinch of salt
  • A pinch of black pepper

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Let's cook

  1. Put the onion rings in a small bowl of cold water for 5 minutes, then drain. This takes away some of the raw onion bite.
  2. Put the tomatoes, cucumber and green pepper in a wide shallow bowl. Season lightly with salt (feta and olives are already salty) and toss gently with your hands.
  3. Scatter the onion and olives over the top.
  4. Lay the block of feta whole in the middle, or break it into two or three big pieces. In Greece it is served this way, so everyone breaks off their own.
  5. Sprinkle the oregano over the feta, rubbing it between your fingers to wake up the smell.
  6. Whisk the olive oil and vinegar together with a little black pepper and pour it over everything just before serving. Do not toss again, so the feta stays whole.

Tips

  • Use the ripest tomatoes you can find and keep them out of the fridge: cold tomatoes taste of very little.
  • Make it no more than 30 minutes before eating so the cucumber stays crisp.
  • Mop up the juices at the bottom with bread: the Greeks call this papara.

Swaps

  • Vegan: leave out the feta and add a tin of drained chickpeas, or use a vegan feta-style block.
  • No vinegar: use a squeeze of lemon juice instead, which also removes the sulphites.
  • Cheaper: use a 200g pack of salad cheese instead of feta.

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