This Greek Salad is a healthy weeknight alternative to take out when you need to get dinner on the table fast!
You'll fall in love with the dressing and its simple ingredients, most of which you already have on hand. It's better than your local Mediterranean restaurant!
Why This Recipe Works
Now that the weather is getting warmer, we've started to make more salads again. I like simple salads with ingredients that we can easily find.
And this salad definitely falls under this category. It's great as a side dish but can perfectly hold its own for lunch or even dinner.
It's incredibly satisfying and very simple to make. Delicious sweet, tart, salty, and garlicky notes from the cream dressing compliment this simple chopped salad. Perfect for an easy homemade dinner after a long day.
Now that Spring has sprung, I've been busy making classic salad recipes like this Classic Pea Salad. It's been a while since I've made a chopped salad. And Greek chopped salad seems just to fit the bill.
There is something satisfying about gathering and chopping these fresh ingredients.
And dunking some freshly toasted bread into the salad dressing tastes heavenly.
Ingredients
For the Salad
VEGETABLES - Cucumbers, green peppers, tomato, red onion, romaine lettuce.
OLIVES - Add delicious saltiness.
FETA CHEESE - Feta and olives create a powerful combination of flavors.
For the Dressing
CREAMY BASE - Sour cream and yogurt create a tangy and creamy base.
ACIDITY - For this dressing, we'll use a combination of red wine vinegar and fresh lemon juice.
SWEETNESS - To balance the acidity, we'll add granulated sugar, thus creating a perfect sweet-tart balance that works wonderfully with the olives and feta cheese.
SPICES - Whenever I make Greek Salad, I add 2-3 cloves of fresh garlic. It adds a bunch without overwhelming the dish. While I like it's lovely, you can skip this ingredient. The only other spice is a bit of lemon pepper and salt.
How To Make Greek Salad
Begin this authentic Greek Salad recipe by chopping the red onion, green pepper, tomatoes, and dill. I also prefer to chop the lettuce because I like to have all those flavors and textures together in each forkful. Set everything aside.
Cut the feta cheese into bite-sized cubes. Next, peel the garlic cloves. I always remove the center of the garlic. It can taste a little bitter.
No matter if you remove it or not, mince the garlic. There are many great garlic presses out there. But I have always thought that this garlic rocker from Joseph Joseph is ingenious. Set the minced garlic aside.
CREAMY DRESSING
Combine the sour cream and yogurt in a large bowl. Add olive oil, red wine vinegar, lemon juice, fresh dill, and minced garlic. You can use garlic powder, but using fresh garlic will take your salad dressing from good to exceptional.
Add lemon pepper (or regular pepper), sugar, and salt and combine well
ASSEMBLY
Take a handful of chopped romaine lettuce and put it in a shallow salad bowl. Add the chopped salad and spoon some extra dressing on top.
If you would like to dress up the serving plate, reserve some whole leaves and frame the salad on a bed of lettuce.
I strongly recommend toasting some good bread. Nothing better than dunking in some toast and enjoying every little bit of the creamy salad dressing.
Recipe Success Tips
- Cut your veggies into different sizes: For instance, cut one half of the green bell pepper into small chunks and the other half into bigger pieces. This will give you some variation in texture.
- Dressing: If you want your sauce to be less diluted, be sure to leave out the fleshy parts of the tomato and the cucumber.
- This salad SCREAMS for a side of pita bread. Scooping up the delicious dressing is half the fun.
- Red Onion Tip: The flavor of red onion can be quite pungent. If you prefer a milder flavor, soak the onion in a bowl of very cold water for about 10 minutes.
- Storing the Greek Salad. You can easily store the salad for 1-2 days.
- BREAD!!! What does a Greek Salad have in common with Scallop Scampi? Both recipes NEED a side of great bread. The most delicious part is to soak up those juices with some toast. I like to brush our bread with a spot of olive oil.
- Extra Protein. You can add roasted salmon or grilled chicken if you're missing protein.
- Serving a crowd. You can easily scale this salad. Use the custom slider in the recipe box to help adjust the amounts.
Can You Make Greek Salad in Advance?
Chopped Greek Salad is perfect for making ahead of time. While the salad is perfectly delicious after you prep it, it's even more delicious after the flavors have marinated for a bit.
Just remember to mix in the salad greens (in this case, the Romaine lettuce) just before serving. Otherwise, the lettuce will lose its crunch, and the leftover salad will have a wilted texture and taste.
More Tasty Salads
Broccoli Cauliflower Salad - simple and tasty
Tuna Pasta Salad - perfect for summer lunches
Grape Salad - yummy dessert salad
Authentic German Cucumber Salad - perfect for summer
Chopped Greek Salad
Ingredients
- 3 large cucumber diced
- 1 large green pepper diced
- 2 medium tomatoes diced
- 1 medium Red Onion diced
- ½ cup Kalamata Olives
- 4 ounces Feta Cheese
- 16 ounces Romaine Lettuce chopped
Dressing
- ½ cup sour cream
- ½ cup yogurt plain
- 1½ tablespoons olive oil extra virgin
- 3 tablespoons lemon fresh juice
- 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 2 tablespoons dill fresh, finely chopped
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1 teaspoon Lemon Pepper
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- ½ teaspoon Salt
Instructions
Dressing
- Combine sour cream, yogurt, olive oil, lemon juice, and red wine vinegar. Add chopped dill weed and fresh minced garlic. Season with sugar, lemon pepper, and salt.
Salad
- Chop cucumber, green bell pepper, tomatoes. and red onion. Dice feta cheese and cut olives in halves. Add the chopped vegetables, olives, and cheese to the dressing and combine well.
- Use a handful of Romaine lettuce in each serving bowl. Top with the Greek Salad. Serve and enjoy.
Helen Jones
Wonderful recipe you have here. Your salad is surely healthy and appetizing. Just like my favorite greek salad from El Greco. They are using a special greek dressing that compliments well with other foods like kebab, pita wraps and rotisserie chicken.
Maike
I'm so glad you enjoyed it. Thank you for sharing. I've never been to El Greco but it sounds amazing. Using the dressing with rotisserie chicken would be delicious, thank you for the inspiration. 🙂