So, this simple recipe that I threw together late last week was inspired by two influences from the summer:
1) The wonderful "Greek Country Salad" served at the Artopolis Cafe in Chicago's Greektown.
2) The last few minutes of a Rachel Ray "30 minute meals recipe" where she created a tasty and healthy non-dressing dressing (my words, not hers :-)).
I made this one-serving salad using:
Chopped Hearts of Romaine Lettuce (maybe 1/2 of one "heart" -- is that even the right terminology? I have no idea)
1 medium-sized tomato, chopped
Approx. 1/8 of a red onion, chopped
Handful of small pepperonncini peppers, coarsely chopped (and you can give just take a few extras, cut them open and squeeze the juice onto the salad for extra flavor)
1-2 oz. of Feta cheese, cut into large chunks
lemon juice, I used 1/5 of a fresh lemon to get a good flavor for the salad
extra virgin olive oil
Basically just throw these ingredients together in a large salad bowl, juice the lemon directly onto the salad, and then throw on a splash of olive oil. You can alter the amount of ingredients you use to find the right kind of flavor that you like, and of course add extra ingredients like olives (which I personally dislike) to the salad to make more "greek" if you will.
A tip that I learned from this Rachel Ray-inspired non-dressing dressing is that first you should put the lemon juice (the acid) first on the salad, before you put any olive oil so that the flavors meld better and take away the bite of the acid. I'm not quite sure on the science of this one, but I believe Rachel Ray!
In short, this is a really great simple AND filling salad that I recommend everyone tries out!
I love this recipe! I made it with an alteration- I subbed out the pepperoncini for cucumbers, and it was delicious. I love the ideas of cutting larger chunks of the veggies and cheese instead of the usual greek salad with crumbled feta and thinly sliced onions, etc. Also, excellent tip on the lemon juice! It was d-lish!
-deej.
Posted by: Deirdre | September 17, 2006 at 23:19