Homemade Greek Salad
Homemade Greek salad can be on the dinner table in 10 minutes. It’s crisp, fresh, and packed with flavor!
Why You’ll Love This
I’m always disappointed when I order a Greek salad at a restaurant. Usually overdressed, limp and flavorless. We now make it at home and it’s 100 times better than any restaurant salad!
This easy Greek salad recipe is on your table in no time flat!
A traditional Greek salad consists of tomatoes, cucumbers, green bell peppers, red onions, kalamata olives, and feta cheese. Our Greek salad recipe uses romaine lettuce, the other veggies, but skips the bell peppers.
Some of the other salad recipes we enjoy making are Southwest Grilled Chicken Salad, Arugula Fennel Salad, Long Life Salad, and Blue Cheese Wedge Salad.
Ingredients Needed
- Extra virgin olive oil – Use high quality olive oil.
- Red wine vinegar and fresh lemon juice – Gives the dressing a tangy flavor.
- Fresh garlic cloves- We leave them whole but smashed and allow them to flavor the olive oil for a while. But if you like use minced garlic.
- Dried oregano, kosher salt, and black pepper – Give the dressing its classic Greek flavor.
- Romaine lettuce, grape tomatoes, crisp cucumbers, kalamata olives, red onion, feta cheese, and pepperoncini peppers – The basic Greek salad ingredients for a fresh, crisp salad.
How to Make a Greek Salad Dressing
First, make the dressing so the flavors can combine while you prep the salad ingredients.
In a small bowl or jar with a lid add the olive oil, red wine vinegar, lemon juice, garlic, oregano, salt, and pepper. Whisk or shake the jar and set it aside.
I prefer to make individual bowls for my family. This way everyone receives extra of what they like and none of what they don’t like.
Also, everyone can control the amount of dressing. No one likes a drenched and soggy salad.
Chilling the salad bowls helps keep the fresh salad greens cold and crisp.
note
Red onions tend to be very strong in flavor. If you prefer a more subtle onion flavor try soaking the onion slices in lemon juice or vinegar for about 5 to 10 minutes. This will help tame the strong flavor.
How to Make Homemade Greek Salad
Roughly chop the romaine lettuce, thinly slice the onions and cucumbers, and slice the grape tomatoes in half.
You can crumble the feta or cut it into large chunks.
In the bowl combine the romaine lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, red onion, kalamata olives, feta cheese, and pepperoncini peppers.
Dress the salad, season with salt and pepper if necessary, serve and enjoy!
We made this our meal with skillet bread on the side but it can certainly be a nice side dish.
You will love this salad, I promise! It’s the best Greek salad dressing I’ve ever eaten. We also love to use it for our pasta salad.
What to Serve with Greek Salad
This is a perfect light meal but it also goes with most proteins. Serve it as a side with grilled pork , chicken, or fish.
Tips
- Use high-quality olive oil. This is the main ingredient in the dressing so you want it to be good.
- Chill the bowl you will be serving the salad in, it helps keep the ingredients cold and crisp.
- Use English cucumbers or mini cucumbers. They have fewer seeds and a sweeter flavor than regular cucumbers.
- We use Kalamata olives for their briny flavor but you can use black olives.
- If you want to make it a creamy dressing you can add 2 to 3 tablespoons of greek yogurt. You may need to adjust the salt to taste.
- Add some grilled chicken or shrimp and make it a protein-packed meal.
FAQs
This salad should be assembled right before serving. But there are a few things you can do in advance. Make the dressing up to 2 days ahead and store it in a sealed jar or container. Remove it about 1 hour before using. Prep all the vegetables (except the tomatoes) and store each of them in a separate airtight container in the fridge up to 1 day ahead. Assemble the salad when ready to serve.
Tomatoes have the best flavor when they are prepped fresh and unchilled.
It’s best to keep the dressing in the refrigerator. But because of the olive oil, it will solidify. So remove it from the fridge and allow it to come to room temperature. Or if you didn’t remember to remove it soon enough, set the glass container in a bowl of warm water.
More Delicious Recipes
Homemade Greek Salad Recipe
Ingredients
Dressing:
- 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
- 1 lemon, juiced
- 2 cloves garlic, smashed with side of your knife then peeled
- 2 tsp. dried oregano leaves
- 1/2 tsp. kosher salt
- 1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper
Salad:
- 1 large bunch romaine lettuce
- 4 oz grape tomatoes, halved
- 1 large cucumber
- 1/2 medium red onion
- 1/2 cup kalamata olives, halved
- 1/2 cup feta cheese, diced or crumbled
- 4 pepperoncini peppers
Instructions
Greek Dressing
- Combine all the ingredients in a small, air-tight jar and shake well to mix. Set aside.1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil, 1/4 cup red wine vinegar, 1 lemon, juiced, 2 cloves garlic, smashed with side of your knife then peeled, 2 tsp. dried oregano leaves, 1/2 tsp. kosher salt, 1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper
Salad
- Roughly chop the romaine lettuce and toss it into a large bowl. (I like to chill my bowl)1 large bunch romaine lettuce
- Slice the grape tomatoes in half and add it to the bowl with the lettuce, then half the cucumber and slice thinly, add to the bowl.4 oz grape tomatoes, halved, 1 large cucumber
- Slice the onion into thin rings, then quarter, separating the layers before adding to the rest of the salad.1/2 medium red onion
- Slice the olives in half, dice or crumble feta cheese, add to the salad.1/2 cup kalamata olives, halved, 1/2 cup feta cheese, diced or crumbled
- Pour the desired amount of the dressing over the salad and gently toss all the ingredients together. Add the peppers and serve immediately.4 pepperoncini peppers
Congratulations!
Your recipe is featured on Full Plate Thursday this week and I have just pinned it to our features board. Enjoy your new Red Plate and have a wonderful day!
Miz Helen
Thank you so much, Miz Helen!
Love this recipe, Leigh – it’s so fresh, colourful and delicious! And your dressing is so flavourful. Scheduled to pin. Thank you for being a part of the Hearth and Soul LInk Party. Hope to ‘see’ you again this week!
Thanks for the recipe! I love homemade salad dressing! Can’t wait to try it!
I hope you enjoy it as much as we do, Caitlin! Thanks for dropping by!
love greek salad, but have never made it before! Pinned. Thanks so much for sharing with us at Brag About It !