Greek Salad

This is one of my favourite summertime salads. I suppose you could make it all year round, but to me it’s best eaten outside in the sunshine as an accompaniment to a picnic or BBQ. This is exactly what I did yesterday when we had a family BBQ in celebration of my finishing uni (for ever!) and to make the most of the glorious sunshine.

Using proper Greek feta is important, I believe it’s got a far superior creamier texture to feta-style cheese, which can often be a bit chalky. Making the salad a few hours or even the day before you need it allows the flavours to develop and meld together, some of the juices come out of the salad and it sort of self marinades – mmmm delicious.

Tastes great as a salad with other picnic goodies and leftovers are delicious used in wraps, pitta bread, sandwiches or jacket potatoes.

Greek Salad
Ingredients
100g Greek feta cheese
250g cherry tomatoes
½ cucumber
10 stoned black olives
Zest of ½ lemon
Dried oregano
Freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp olive oil

Method
Cut the cucumber in half lengthways and scrape out the seeds using a teaspoon to create little boat shapes and slice them into 5mm thick slices. Pat the feta dry using some kitchen roll and cut into small cubes. Slice the tomatoes into halves or quarters, size dependant, along with the black olives. Finely grate the zest of the lemon onto a chopping board for ease.
Drizzle one tablespoon of olive oil over the base of a large serving dish. Sprinkle over a little lemon zest, oregano and black pepper.
Arrange a third of the cucumber, tomato, feta cubes and olives in the base of the dish. Sprinkle over a little more lemon, oregano and pepper. Top with another third of the ingredients, more seasoning and the final third of feta cheese, and salad.
Sprinkle with any remaining lemon zest, oregano and finish with the remaining tablespoon of olive oil.
Cover with clingfilm and refrigerate until needed. Tastes best if made a few hours or even a day before you need it to allow time for the flavours to develop and meld.
Serves 6 – 8 as an accompaniment. Perfect served with a picnic or BBQ.