Traditional Greek Salad - Horiatiki
There is a lot of confusion around the original Greek salad, it comes in so many different versions, I even have a video recipe on the website. But after the visit in Greece from last year, I understood this simple Greek salad and how did the Greeks manage to make it so popular. The whole secret lies in the quality of the ingredients! The salad you can prepare at home using season tomatoes and following the directions below will be more Greek than any other salad served in restaurants, even in Greek restaurants.
Good quality olive oil, flavourful season vegetables, delicious feta cheese, olives - a must, and oregano - this is the perfect formula. There is no need for inventing any other additional fancy dressing. The juicy garden tomatoes combined with the olive oil will do the job. "Horiatiki" translates as "peasant" (I was told by someone who works at the Greek restaurant next to us). So, the simpler, the better, the vegetables don't even have to be perfectly sliced and this is the charm of it.
It's very important for this salad to pick good quality ingredients and season vegetables. I found real Greek feta cheese in stores, even on discount, but you can find it elsewhere too.
After washing, start cutting the vegetables and place them in the salad bowl:
- first the tomatoes and cucumbers (I peeled them, but it's not necessary) - cut into medium bits and not very thin!
- add the pepper and the onion, thinly sliced.
Add salt, olives and 2 tbsp olive oil, carefully mix with a spoon.
Place a slice of feta cheese on top, sprinkle with oregano, some more cheese and olive oil.
I like to serve it with this big chunk of feta on top, just like in Greece - this is part of its charm, it makes it more peasant-like :)
Serve right away with great appetite and a slice of fresh bread, pita bread or whatever you like.
Enjoy!
