I know what you’re thinking, wow, she’s writing a recipe for a Greek salad. Not exactly revolutionary. But sometimes it’s just good to remember what’s already good. For the tomatoes, I recommend using really good quality tomatoes such as pink bulls heart, beefsteak or heirloom.
Serves 4
Ingredients
2 slices of brown sourdough bread or ciabatta/baguette, cut into small chunks. I love rye bread, or any dark, wholegrain bread for this
2 large, really good quality tomatoes (room temp – very important!)
1 small cucumber, cut into 1cm chunks
8-10 kalamata olives
1 heaped teaspoon of dried oregano
4 tablespoons of really good quality extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar
Generous pinch of salt and pepper
Small bunch of mint, dill or parsley, leaves picked
1 block of feta (250g)
3 tablespoons of thick Greek yoghurt
Method
1. Preheat oven to 200°C and add the bread chunks to a roasting tray with 3 tablespoons of olive oil, salt, pepper and fennel seeds. Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes until golden then allow to cool.
2. Cut the tomato into 2cm chunks and add to a bowl with the cucumber, kalamata olives, dried oregano, extra virgin olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt and pepper. After 15-20 minutes, you’ll see that the tomatoes and cucumber will have released some water and created a puddle at the bottom. This creates flavour and makes the salad taste so much better than if you dress and eat it immediately.
3. This is an optional extra. If you don’t have time, then a block of feta on top with olive oil and extra dried oregano would be delicious, but if you’re up for it, then blitz the feta and yoghurt together until you have a consistency of very thick yoghurt.
4. Add the croutons and herbs to the salad and give it a toss. Spoon onto plates then dollop the feta/yoghurt on top. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and extra dried oregano. @kittycoles