My Favorite Greek Salad
I’ve become a bit of a salad-a-holic lately, especially where My Favorite Greek Salad is concerned. As in, if I had friends I actually saw on a regular basis and they knew how many leafy greens I was ingesting, I’m sure someone would stage an intervention. Fortunately, I don’t have a social life and with only like, two friends who I see maybe once or twice a year, my vices are allowed to run amuck unchecked.
This explains why my skin may be turning green shortly.
Today, I am showing you the salad I eat two or three (or four or five) times a week. Sometimes it is lunch, sometimes it is supper, sometimes it is a snack, and I’m not gonna lie, sometimes it is breakfast.
I don’t hold myself to mealtime boundaries when it comes to food choices. This drives one of those two friends crazy. She has a firmly held belief that breakfast food should be ingested at breakfast time so I take great delight in calling her at 5:00 am while I am eating things like greek salad or a bowl of sweet and sassy pickles. It’s how I get my kicks and hey, we gotta get ’em however we can somedays!
So here we go, my salad. Most folks would think of it as a Greek salad, I just think of it as mine – Because I generally don’t have to share 🙂
Rather than do a full tutorial, I just did a few pics because me throwing things in a bowl together is about as exciting as it sounds.Â
Of course, you can use whatever ingredients you like but I keep mine simple. I prefer dark greens and most of the time I just use spinach for the salad base. I add cucumbers, sliced red onions, feta cheese, and fresh basil. On the cheese, I find that it is usually cheaper to buy a block of it and crumble it myself. It crumbles easy so I just hold it over my salad and break it up with my hands.
For you, just for you, because I love you sooooo much, I am using a tomato in today’s salad. I don’t normally add tomato because I love them every way in the world except for raw. But I know most of y’all like them raw (no judgement here, we’re all weird in different ways, right?) and I wanted you to be able to fully visualize this salad as you would eat it. Plus, I’m slicing them in big enough wedges that I can fish out later so it’s a win for both of us.
To make this salad quick and easy during the week, on the weekend I chop everything up and put all of the ingredients in  separate containers in my fridge so I can throw this together in a flash. To store my lettuce for the week, I put it in a large zipper seal plastic bag along with a paper towel. This absorbs excess moisture and keeps your lettuce fresh at least two or three times longer than normal.
To make the salad, I tear up the basil leaves and mix them with my greens, then I toss it together with all of my vegetables. I have experimented with all sorts of dressings and I find the best for my taste is simply Balsamic Vinaigrette.
I buy the cheapest brand the store has but then on the way home I make sure I mention how expensive it was while the dressing is still in the car. That way it doesn’t know it was generic and behaves the same as an expensive dressing. 🙂
Isn’t that a gorgeous salad?
Yeah. Now I’ve got to go eat this. I highly suggest you make your own and join me 🙂Â
What is your go to salad?
I’d love to hear about it in the comments – You might inspire me to try something new!
Enjoy!
Ingredients
- Greek Salad
- Dark greens of your choice
- Chopped Red Onion
- Sliced Cucumber
- Fresh Sliced Tomato
- Crumbled Feta Cheese
- Fresh Basil Leaves
- Balsamic Vinaigrette
Instructions
- Tear basil leaves and add to greens along with all other veggies. Toss to combine. Sprinkle Feta cheese over top and drizzle with vinaigrette.
Nutrition
“Two things to remember in life: Take care of your thoughts when you’re alone and take care of your words when you’re with people.”
~Anonymous
Submitted by Janet Taylor. Click here to submit your own.
I have a new series on SouthernPlate called Lifesavers. These are little daily devotionals I write and usually share on Facebook but I decided to start sharing them here from time to time as well. To read today’s please click here.
The salad looks delicious. If you are ever out and about from home you might try Wendy’s strawberry chicken salad. You can get it as a half-salad also and it has a wonderful dressing. I know it is nothing like yours with all the love you put in it but it is just an idea in a pinch.
Hi Christy, I love Greek Salad as well. I’m eating one right now! I like to use spinach, romaine or spring mix. I put in tomatoes (love those things) pepperoncini peppers, red onions, calamata olives, feta cheese and I use greek salad dressing. Thanks for your salad recipe.
OMG ~ I never thought to add pepperoncini peppers. I am going to make this salad right away (which is why I’m here) but am so going to add the peppers. Thanks for the idea! 🙂
That looks SO Yummy!!!!
I love salads with whatever fruit is fresh (or fresh-ish) at the time.
I like to have something Sweet, something Salty, something Sour and something Bitter (greens sometimes are) and something kinda meaty (umami).
So my sweet is usually the fruit (strawberries, plums, pineapple, mandarin oranges in the winter, etc) AND candied pecans. (pecans I toast with butter and brown sugar because- HELLO? A-mazing! )
Salty- could be feta or goat cheese or olives
Sour- usually a thrown together vinaigrette (I like to use whatever fruit is in the salad + herb vinegar, mustard, a little sugar, spices, oil)
Bitter may be arugula- we sowed arugula seeds last November in a grow box and harvested salad greens from January – May- now I am addicted to spicy, slightly bitter ARUGULA. 🙂
I like pieces of bacon or goat cheese or chunks of chicken for the meaty (umami) taste.
Who am I kidding- BACON! 😉 It’s all about the Bacon~
To give interesting creaminess, I LOVE an avocado cut into chunks- really plays well off the goat or feta cheese and pecans.
I add whatever veggies I have- cukes, maters, peppers, finely chopped cauliflower.
A salad like this is addictive for me. It’s as good with plums as it is with berries- any softer fruit makes a great vinaigrette.
On another note, as we are all continuing to look for ways to save money, it’s really EASY to grow salad greens.
Honestly, mine do better in containers with potting mix than they do in my actual garden.
Most greens like cooler weather over hotter, but as long as they get water and you keep them picked, (if you cut them with a scissors during cooler seasons they will grow back again) you can enjoy your own really cheap, incredibly yummy salad greens.
There are a few kinds of greens that really love and thrive in HOT weather.
You wanna know what they are, don’t ya? =D
Malabar spinach is a heat loving CLIMBING spinach. SO good!!! It vines so it needs something to grow on and it’s doing well in my garden.
It puts out side vines continually so once it’s established there’s always yummy spinach to be picked and ready to eat.
My husband has been practically swooning over the vining spinach for the past 2 weeks 🙂
He picks his fresh in the morning for his sandwich- can’t get much fresher than that, can we?
There is a New Zealand spinach as well, (we can’t get that in our farm markets) and purslane (a domesticated relative of the common edible “weed” many of us have growing in our garden or yard) are a few others.
Summer greens tend to be slightly more succulent than their cool weather cousins but they sure do well here in the south. 🙂
Now I’m hungry! But at least I know what’s for dinner- salad and crispy zucchini fritters! YUM~
I can’t wait to read your Lifesavers, Christy!
Blessings~
I make salad like this, but mine would be about half tomatoes when my garden is producing. I prefer Vidalia or green onions instead of red onions. I, too, use purchased dressing. I buy Ken’s Lite Balsamic Vinaigrette when it is on sale, and then I add more balsamic vinegar. I do like my vinegar!
i like to make “deconstructed” caprese salad. I take cherry tomatoes, usually the cherubs you can get in a little tub and cut them in half. I have heard that if you sandwich them between two plastic lids and saw them in half that way, it’s a snap. I am fearful of having to round those little suckers up from off the floor. Will try when I am feeling audacious. next, i get one of those packs of mozzarella pearls that I find at Walmart, break them up into…well, pearls, and add to the maters. I dump in about half a glug of olive oil, then a handful of torn up fresh basil. Yep, that’s a lot! Sometimes I use more. Occasionally i will add some balsamic vinegar. I put a good couple shakes of garlic salt, ( I know. non-traditional. I’m a rebel like that) and stir gently. Stick in the fridge for a half hour or so, just to set the flavors. Does not keep well so it should be eaten the same day.
I have read on “debunking” sites that the trick with the lids and grape tomatoes does NOT work, so you are smart not trying it. 😉
That looks so good. I’m going to try it as soon as I can get to the grocery store! Love your recipes and your stories! Keep it coming.
Christy,
From on Southern gal to the next, I’m soooo happy to see another wierd southerner ( at least that is the look I get here in NC when I say I detest raw “maters”). I love ketchup, tomatoes cooked in soups, stewed, pasta dishes…but I just can’t eat them raw. I love your website and your receipes. I made your taco casserole just this week and it was beyond what I expected. Keep up the GREAT work!