Greek Village Salad

I may be on a total Greek food kick lately. I just love the light flavors and healthy amounts of veggies that tend to be incorporated into Greek dishes. Not to mention that most of my favorite ingredients (tomatoes, olive oil, feta cheese, etc) are almost always involved. Bonus!

This salad is especially easy to throw together, and makes an excellent side dish for summertime grilling. Not to mention an excellent way to use up some of those cucumbers from your CSA or home garden. T & I may have resorted to Hendricks and tonic with cucumber last summer as one of the only things we could think to do with the massive amount of cucumbers in our CSA. Of course...if you have small enough cucumbers and canning gear, you could also make pickles...

Step One: Gather the ingredients. Cucumber, tomato, red onion, garlic, red pepper, feta, oregano, red wine vinegar, salt, pepper and olive oil. That's it! Yaaa for using cucumber!

Step Two: Chop the veggies to bite-sized pieces, then toss everything together in a large bowl. That's it!  I would recommend finding someone to fire up the grill while you are chopping. This salad takes no time at all to get ready, and is best devoured immediately, or shortly thereafter.

Recipe from What's Gaby Cooking

GREEK VILLAGE SALAD | Yield: 8-10 servings | Total Time: 20 min.

INGREDIENTS:

GREEK VINAIGRETTE:
1 clove garlic, minced
3 Tbsp olive oil
3 Tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp dried oregano
kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper

SALAD:
4 C cherry or grape tomatoes, chopped
2 medium cucumbers, chopped
2 red or yellow peppers, chopped
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
8 oz feta, drained and crumbled*
freshly ground black pepper

*NOTE: You can use the feta blocks and crumble yourself, or purchase pre-crumbled feta. Either will work fine. If you only have 2-3 dinner guests, I would recommend halving this recipe.

DIRECTIONS:

In a small bowl, whisk together all the ingredients for the vinaigrette. Season with salt and pepper and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine all of the chopped veggies, top with the Greek vinaigrette, and toss together. Add the feta, and very gently toss to combine. Adjust pepper and serve immediately at room temperature.

Do you have any recipe ideas that use cucumber? I'd love to hear them!