Greek salad can be served as a main dish or as a side dish for a meat-based meal and it’s very popular in the Greek cuisine. Based mainly on fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, diced feta cheese, and olives, the Greek salad can also contain other ingredients such as bell peppers, pickles, capers or even beets in some areas of the world. The typical dressing is olive oil, but also vinegar, herbs and other seasonings are used in many Greek salad recipes.
In any of its variants, Greek salad is a healthy food, mainly because of the tomatoes. Tomatoes have a high Vitamin C content, as well as Vitamin A, Potassium and Iron, which are necessary elements in a well-balanced diet. Yet, the best part in tomatoes is the pigment that gives them the red color, which is called lycopene and which is an extremely powerful antioxidant. Another main ingredient in this healthy salad are the olives. Olives are extremely rich in Iron, Vitamin E and dietary fiber. They also have a high content of monounsaturated fats, which act as a protective shield for the human body cells, thus lowering the inflammation risk. When the monounsaturated fats combine themselves with Vitamin E, as in olives, the effect is an enhanced protection and a better action against free radicals, which are amongst our biggest enemies because they cause oxidation processes which are harmful for the body.
This is one of the many Greek salad recipes, which is tasty, nutritious and very easy to prepare:
- Preparation time: 10 minutes
- Serves: 4 people
Ingredients:
- 4 big tomatoes, peeled (not necessarily), diced
- 1 medium sized cucumber, peeled, sliced
- 2 bell peppers, seeded, sliced (for a nicer color, you can choose a green pepper and a red one)
- 1 onion, peeled, cut small
- 1/2 lb green olives
- 1/2 lb feta cheese, cut in small cubes
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- Salt, pepper
- Dried oregano
- Fresh juice from half a lemon
Mix the tomatoes, cucumber, peppers, onion and olives together in a large salad bowl, with the olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper. At the end, add the feta cheese pieces on top of the salad, then pour the dried oregano all over the surface. If you’ve taken the ingredients from the fridge just before preparation, you can serve it immediately. If not, refrigerate it for at least 30 minutes before serving.
