Salad Club III: Who is him? Greek salad

Today's salad is in honour of our former Greek colleague. We miss you, Nikki Papadaki.

Authentic Greek salad does not contain lettuce or chicken. For some reason, our version included cooked chicken, but I did draw the line at lettuce.

Greek salad ingredients

• 2 packs feta cheese (400g in total)
• 1 large cucumber, cut into cubes
• black olives, a large tub
• 1  red and 1 yellow pepper, cut into cubes
• 2 punnets cherry tomatoes
• 1 small red onion, very finely sliced
• 1bunch mint
• 1 bunch basil
• Cooked chicken

 
 
 
 

Greek salad dressing ingredients

• Olive oil
• Lemon juice
• Thyme
• Salt & pepper

 

Greek salad accompaniments to serve

Hummus, tzatziki, pitta bread. 


This week's salad club got a little out of hand. There were too many members (9) and too many slackers. We almost ran out of food and I had to send out rules. 

This week's star Tosser was Amber, who brought in home made tzatziki. Kate also deserves a special commendation for the salad dressing.




 

My version of bread salad (panzanella)

A couple of weeks ago we had the most glorious, searingly hot Sunday. With nothing in particular to do, I spent the day pottering between the garden and the kitchen, making salads and reading recipe books.

This salad is based on the classic panzanella (bread salad) combination. It is perfect for a hot summer’s day, especially with a chilled glass of rosé. 

Bread salad ingredients

• 2 large, ripe tomatoes
• Half a yellow or orange pepper
• Half a cucumber
• About 8 pitted black olives
• Small bunch fresh mint
• 50g feta, ie 2 slices from a 200g pack (Waitrose feta is delicious)
• ¼ to ½ small red onion
• Small ciabatta loaf

Bread salad dressing ingredients

• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• Small clove garlic, crushed

Optional

• A few sprigs basil
• A few sprigs parsley

How to make bread salad

1. Heat the grill to a medium setting
2. Cut the ciabatta in half lengthways and rub with some olive oil
3. Grill for a few minutes till lightly toasted
4. Chop the tomatoes, pepper and cucumber into bite-sized chunks
5. Half the olives
6. Chop then onion very finely
7. Chop the mint and parsley, tear the basil (chopping will bruise it)
8. Add everything to a large bowl
9. Chop half the feta into small cubes and add to the bowl
10. Crumble the remaining feta and add that to the salad too

How to make the dressing

11. Put the dressing ingredients in a screw-top jar and shake to combine.
12. Pour over the salad and mix everything thoroughly.

Finally...

13. Break the toasted ciabatta into largeish chunks and add to the salad just before serving.

The dressing will make the bread go soggy so this salad needs to be eaten straight away.

Bread salad for lunch

If you’re making this salad for lunch, you will need to keep the toasted bread in a separate bag and add to the rest of the salad just before eating.

The bread can make this salad quite heavy so leave it out if you prefer.

If you still want your salad to be substantial, add a handful of cooked chickpea instead of the bread.