On a recent visit to Turkey and Greece I marvelled at the fantastic vegan and vegetarian dishes they have, especially with the starters (also known as meze). On a day trip to the Greek island of Chios I had lunch with a friend at Mestá Port. It was a lovely location eating right on the sea shore, and the food was to die for. There was a typical salad (what we know as Greek salad) which was so incredibly delicious, helped by the fact that they used ripe and tasty tomatoes and lovely cucumbers. I had always had ‘Greek salad’ with feta cheese that was crumbled in it, but here they served it with a block of feta cheese on top with herbs sprinkled on top. My friend is vegan so we ordered the salad without the feta cheese, but once home I decided to try and recreate the traditional version.
One thing to note is that not all feta cheeses are suitable for vegetarians. Luckily in British supermarkets it is quite easy to see if a cheese is vegetarian friendly by looking at the wrapping as most will say if it is. If it doesn’t say anything or you don’t see the vegetarian logo you can take it that it won’t be suitable. Finding one that is suitable however shouldn’t be too difficult.
This salad is very easy to make, all it takes is 10 minutes to prepare the vegetables and it is super tasty. A lovely taste of summer and of Greece.
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Pin recipe Description
Traditional Greek salad (or at least it is heavily inspired on the traditional version) with a block of feta infused with herbs, with ripe tomatoes and tasty and refreshing cucumbers.
Ingredients
- 150 g feta cheese
- 150 g ripe tomato
- 100 g cucumber
- ½ salad onion
- 1 tbsp olives
- ½ lemon, juice
- ½ tsp dill, dry
- ¼ tsp oregano, dry
- ¼ tsp chilli flakes (optional)
- ¼ tsp sumaq (optional)
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 5½ oz feta cheese
- 5½ oz ripe tomato
- 3½ oz cucumber
- ½ salad onion
- 1 tbsp olives
- ½ lemon, juice
- ½ tsp dill, fresh or dry
- ¼ tsp oregano, dry
- ¼ tsp chilli flakes (optional)
- ¼ tsp sumaq (optional)
- 1 tbsp olive oil
Instructions
- Slice the onion in half and then thinly slice, placing the slices into a bowl of cold water. This is done to remove the harshness of the onion taste so as not to overpower the salad. You can leave this for about 10 minutes or so, rinse and drain.
- Peel the cucumber if it has a thick spiky skin, otherwise you can leave the skin on, chop lengthwise and remove the central part where the seeds are. Chop the flesh into bite size pieces.
- Dice the tomatoes into bite size pieces too.
- In a bowl add the tomatoes, cucumber and onion (drained), together with the olives.
- Finely dice the dill if using fresh, otherwise sprinkle on the vegetables.
- Drizzle the olive oil and lemon juice, add a pinch of salt to taste and mix well.
- Cut the feta cheese into a block and rinse under the tap to remove excess brine. Place the feta cheese on top of the vegetables.
- Srinkle the oreagano, chilli flakes and/or sumaq and drizzle with some more olive oil.
Notes
A good friend of mine from Turkey once told me to always rinse feta cheese under the tap. I thought this was a bit strange at first but it works as it removes excess brine from the surface and makes the cheese much nicer to taste; bringing out the tanginess and reducing the saltiness.
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