Classic Greek Salad

“This recipe has everything the perfect salad needs: plenty of fresh ingredients, lots of texture, a variety of flavours and a little something for everyone,” writes food blogger Natasha Kravchuk in her book Natasha’s Kitchen: 100+ Easy Family-Favorite Recipes You’ll Make Again and Again. “That way, if your kids are like mine and want to pick out the bell peppers or olives, no big deal! They’re still getting plenty of veggies. I particularly love this in the summertime served with pretty much anything off the grill, but the dressing is flavourful enough to transform even wintertime tomatoes and cucumbers.” It’s a classic for a reason.

Classic Greek Salad

Natasha Kravchuk's recipe for a classic Greek salad with easy homemade dressing.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Course Salad, Side Dish

Cuisine Greek

Servings 6

Ingredients

  

Dressing

• ¼ cup red wine vinegar
• 1 tsp dried oregano leaves
• 2 garlic cloves minced or grated
• ¾ tsp fine sea salt
• ½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
• ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil

Salad

• 2 cups cherry tomatoes halved (or 1 lb garden tomatoes, chopped)
• 1 English cucumber sliced into ½-inch-thick half-moons (see note)
• 1 bell pepper any colour, stemmed, seeded and chopped
• 6 oz feta cheese diced (about 1 cup)
• ½ cup pitted kalamata olives halved or roughly chopped
• ¼ cup thinly sliced red onion

Instructions

 

Dressing

• In a medium bowl or resealable jar, combine the vinegar, oregano, garlic, salt and pepper. Add the oil and whisk or cover and shake vigorously to combine. Set aside.

Salad

• In a large bowl, combine the tomatoes, cucumber, bell pepper, feta, olives and onion. Just before serving, add the dressing and toss gently to coat. Serve immediately.

Notes

Some Greek salad recipes call for the cucumbers to be seeded first so that they don’t make the salad soggy. But I’ve found that this salad gets eaten up so quickly and completely that there’s no time for the cucumbers to break down. Plus, it always feels wasteful to me to throw away so much perfectly good cuke. Now I just chop them up and save myself a step – and no one has ever complained!

More recipes from Natasha Kravchuk

Parmesan Asparagus

Natasha Kravchuk's recipe for perfectly-cooked asparagus with a cheesy Parmesan crust.

Get the recipe

Shrimp Scampi Alfredo

Natasha Kravchuk's recipe for an elevated fettucine alfredo featuring ingredients found in classic shrimp scampi.

Get the recipe

Salmon Piccata

Natasha Kravchuk's easy recipe for salmon piccata, from her book Natasha's Kitchen.

Get the recipe

Chicken Schnitzel

Natasha Kravchuk's straightforward recipe for a family favourite: chicken schnitzel.

Get the recipe

Turkey Meatball Soup

Natasha Kravchuk's Ukranian-style recipe for turkey meatball soup with orzo and potatoes.

Get the recipe

Reprinted with permission from Natasha’s Kitchen by Natasha Kravchuk, copyright © 2023. Published by Clarkson Potter, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC.