Greek Salad Recipe

The undisputed queen of Hellenic cuisine is the famous and timeless Greek salad "Choriatiki" in its original language which literally means peasant.

Its origins are peasant, in fact it was the meal that the workers of the countryside consumed based on tomato, olives, onion, a small piece of cheese all accompanied by a few slices of bread.

As at the beginning of the twentieth century the famous rebetic singer Yannis Ioannidis said, "an olive and a tomato make the right salad", this dish that represents summer and freshness now known all over the world together with Tzatziki sauce has become an emblem of Greece .

The basis for the Greek salad are raw and extremely fresh vegetables which, mixed together, become a real meal. According to history, the addition of feta cheese is more recent than the original version and it seems that it was found by some managers from Athens who, in order to raise the price, added it enriching the recipe, as a simple tomato salad and cucumbers had a calmed price, therefore impossible to offer at a higher cost.

As in all Greek recipes, there are many variations and obviously from wherever you go, everyone will tell you that theirs is the best, but it doesn't matter to make a ranking, the important thing is to taste at least once during your holidays in Greece this hearty and extraordinary salad.

Speaking of variants we find in addition to the basic ingredients, capers, or portulaca leaves if you can find them, the same leaves as capers (very good try them and you will no longer be able to do without them, we have tasted them for the first time in Kos salad in the KARNAGIO tavern the best ever), or yellow peppers (in Northern Greece there will never be missing when you ask for it).

Additions are allowed, omissions absolutely not and you cannot call it a Greek salad if there are no ingredients that we will write in the recipe.

So if during your stay in Greece or, when you return home and you will miss a rich Greek salad, here's how to prepare it:

INGREDIENTS
For 4 people
3-4 juicy and ripe tomatoes
1 small cucumber
1 medium red onion
1 green pepper variety horn
a dozen black olives (that of Kalamata are ideal)
100 gr of feta
very high quality extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon white vinegar
salt
Origan

First of all remember that tomatoes are the main element of the Greek salad, the rest completes it and must always be of a smaller quantity. Wash the tomatoes, the pepper and the cucumber. Peel the onion (to remove the spicy onion, squeeze it first with salt, rinse under running water and leave it to soak in the vinegar for a few minutes). Cut the pepper, taking care to remove the filaments and seeds and make it into strips, cut the cucumber and onion into slices, finely slice it. Take a deep dish and put the cucumber slices, the onion slices and the pepper strips. Directly on top of the plate, cut the tomato into wedges so that the juice falls directly on the other vegetables, salt and pour the vinegar. Mix everything together. Finally, put the olives and finally the feta. Season everything with plenty of olive oil and a sprinkling of oregano. The game is done!

What else to add, try it in Greece and at home and as always Kaly orexi or filos mou (good appetite my friends) !!