Greek salad

Although I have never made the trip to the Mediterranean to visit Greece I decided to use this land as the inspiration for this post.  Melbourne has the largest Greek population outside of Greece and it was in Lonsdale St where I began my appreciation for Greek cuisine. 

After just coming out of chef’s school where food was taken so seriously I can vividly remember how happy (and possibly relieved) I was while eating in Lonsdale St as well as two other areas in Melbourne – Lygon St and Chinatown.  The food was bold, fresh and simplistic and the people were passionate.

For Greek salad:

- choose your tomatoes carefully, they should be perfectly ripe
- use decent olives – I used a selection of mixed varieties, marinated in roasted capsicum and garlic
- you can opt for a sharp, crumbly feta as I have or a smooth, creamy kind
- eat the salad with lamb keftes/koftas and yoghurt dressing

On a showing-off note – I did grow the yellow teardrop tomatoes at home, I don’t know if I could taste the difference between them and their red, round counterparts however the two together made for very attractive salads over summer.

Ingredients

2

• --
• 1 red capsicum
• 1 Lebanese cucumber
• ½ red onion
• 200g cherry or Roma tomatoes
• 100g feta
• ¼ c olives
• 1 lemon, juiced and zested
• ¼ c parsley
• ¼ c olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste

Method

• --
• 1. Cut capsicum, cucumber and feta into small chunks.
• 2. Slice cherry tomatoes and olives in half.
• 3. Finely slice red onion.
• 4. When ready to serve, mix together lemon juice and zest, parsley and olive oil and pour over salad.
• 5. Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve with Lamb keftes with yoghurt sauce