Greek Salad

Greetings! I apologize about the lack of blog posts this past week. I'm one day away from being done with finals and its safe to say that I am VERY excited. When it comes to studying organic chemistry or cooking, well I'll just say you can probably guess which I'd rather be doing. The good news for all my readers, however, is that it will soon be summer and therefore I should have more time to update!

Onto today's recipe: Greek Salad. I love ordering the Greek Salad at Pegasus Pizza over on Alki. They have great pizza but in fact, I may go there almost entirely for the salad. It's that good. Thus, last time I was at Pegasus Pizza I tried to pay very close attention to the ingredients so that I could recreate it at home. Suffice to say I think this came pretty close! Overall this dish comes together pretty quickly & definitely hits the spot on a hot summer day when you don't feel like heating up the kitchen. Enjoy!


Let's start with the dressing (this can be done ahead of time & kept in the fridge for up to 5 days or so). Add 3 oz feta, 3 tbsp olive oil, 1/4 cup buttermilk (or yogurt or sour cream), 1 tbsp mayonnaise, 2 tbsp lemon juice (or white wine vinegar...or the vinegar that the peperoncini jar!) and a pinch of sugar into a food processor.

Now just give it a whirl! If it's too thick, thin it out with a little more buttermilk.


Now add a healthy dose of freshly ground black pepper. If desired, you can also add 1 tsp of dried dill & a little salt.

Now taste it! Does is need anything? Feel free to tinker around with it at this point. Once you've tinkered to your heart's content, you can set it aside & prepare all the other salad ingredients.

Now chop up 1/2 green bell pepper and 1/4 red onion VERY THINLY. As in, go get your microplane thin. Or practice your knife skills. Just promise me you won't cut yourself.

You want the onion and bell pepper to almost wilt into the lettuce. It will make all the flavors meld together and be easier to eat.

Oops, I almost forgot! Cut up 1/2 cucumber however you like. I chose large chunks. If you like you can also cut up some tomatoes. I didn't have any. I didn't miss them.


Now, go get a big bowl and fill it up with chopped lettuce. I used about 1/2 a head of iceberg lettuce (somehow iceberg lettuce just belongs in a greek salad) and then a couple handfuls of other lettuce varieties for good measure. Now top it with all those impressive thinly chopped vegetables. Add a small can of chopped olives (or kalamata olives if you want to get fancy!) and the equivelant of 5 chopped peperoncinis (or more!).


The peperoncinis really make this salad sing. (Betcha didn't know a salad could sing.) Plus they make a pretty garnish.


Continuing on the theme of toppings, add 3 oz crumbled feta cheese and 1/4 cup sunflower seeds (mine were salted). (you can also add croutons if you feel so inclined)


Now remember that dressing we made? Yep. Pour it all on!


Now just mix it all together & serve. It tastes really good next to a slice of gourmet pizza if you ask me. Or by itself.

Here's the recipe again.....

Dressing:
3 oz feta
3 tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup buttermilk
1 tbsp mayonnaise
2 tbsp lemon juice (or vinegar)
pinch of sugar
freshly ground pepper
1 tsp dried dill (or 1 tbsp fresh)
salt, to taste

Whirl everything together in a food processor. Adjust to taste & thin with more buttermilk if necessary.

Salad:
Dressing, see above
1/2 large head iceberg lettuce, chopped
1/2 green bell pepper, VERY THINLY sliced
1/4 red onion, VERY THINLY sliced
1/2 cucumber, chopped
1 small can chopped olives
6 chopped peperoncinis
3 oz crumbled feta cheese
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
croutons, optional

Mix everything together & serve!

(to make it a more substantial meal by itself, you can add some thinly sliced salami)