Rustic Greek salad served with pita and wine

Greece

Greek Salad (Horiatiki)

A rustic Greek village salad with tomatoes, cucumber, olives, feta, and plenty of oregano.

Servings4

Prep Time15 min

Cook Time0 min

DifficultyEasy

Print Recipe

Ingredients

US Metric

4 medium ripe tomatoes, cut into wedges or large bite-size pieces

1 English cucumber, partially peeled in stripes and sliced into half moons

1 small red onion, thinly sliced into half moons

1 green bell pepper, sliced into rings

1/2 cup Kalamata olives

5 oz block feta in brine, cut or torn into large slabs

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 tbsp red wine vinegar

1 1/2 tsp dried oregano

1/4 tsp fine salt

1 tsp red wine vinegar, optional, for soaking the onion

4 medium ripe tomatoes, cut into wedges or large bite-size pieces

1 English cucumber, partially peeled in stripes and sliced into half moons

1 small red onion, thinly sliced into half moons

1 green bell pepper, sliced into rings

80 g Kalamata olives

150 g block feta in brine, cut or torn into large slabs

45 ml extra virgin olive oil

15 ml red wine vinegar

1 1/2 tsp dried oregano

2 g fine salt

1 tsp red wine vinegar, optional, for soaking the onion

Instructions

If you want a milder onion, place the sliced red onion in a small bowl of ice water with 1 tsp red wine vinegar and let it sit for 10 minutes. Drain well.
Arrange the tomatoes, cucumber, green bell pepper, olives, and onion in a wide serving bowl or platter. Keep the pieces a little chunky. Greek salad is supposed to feel rustic, not diced into submission.
Sprinkle over 3/4 tsp oregano and the salt. Drizzle with the olive oil and 15 ml red wine vinegar. Toss very gently, just enough to coat the vegetables without bruising them.
Top with the feta slabs. Sprinkle over the remaining 3/4 tsp oregano. Serve immediately.

About This Recipe

A fresh serving of global recipes, food stories, quizzes and delicious discoveries.

Cultural Context

Greek salad has the confidence of a dish that knows good ingredients don’t need a pep talk. Big pieces of tomato, cucumber, onion, pepper, olives and feta get olive oil and oregano, then wisely stop there. In Greece, horiatiki is village food, especially popular from spring through mid-fall when the produce can carry the whole thing. The green pepper adds crunch, the feta brings salt and richness, and the oregano makes everything smell like lunch on a terrace someone else was clever enough to own.

Fun Fact

Greek salad is closely related in spirit to other Mediterranean table salads like caprese and shopska: a few fresh ingredients, almost no interference, and the firm belief that summer produce should be allowed to show off. Traditional horiatiki is often served with large slabs of feta rather than crumbled cheese.

Cook’s Tip

The classic village-salad structure: tomato, cucumber, red onion, green pepper, olives, feta, olive oil, vinegar, and oregano. The biggest simplification is scale, not style.

Trivia

The Greek name horiatiki translates to “village salad,” which tells you a lot about the dish before you even pick up a fork.

Greek Salad (Horiatiki)

Instructions

Cultural Context

Fun Fact

Cook’s Tip

Trivia

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