I hope you all had a lovely Saturday, it certainly felt like Spring with highs in the mid fifties. More people out running this morning in Central Park than the past few days combined that's for sure! I love how New Yorkers come out en masse from their winter hideouts/pied a terre's on the first seemingly nice days of Spring -- today was certainly one of those days!! Unfortunately, yours truly, had decided to go to some of the many artfairs in town, meaning I was going to spend a large chunk of the day inside. But don't worry ladies and gents, I made sure to get a sufficient amount of outside time in too! The perfect balance!
After another one of my jam packed Saturdays, I got to thinking about what I wanted for dinner -- I decided on my redefined version of Greek Salad, an easy, nutritious, quick dinner and that was exactly what I was in the mood for. I knew I needed some relax time and before that, I needed to have a simple and efficient dinner. Now don't get me wrong, I love to cook and find it to be one of the best forms of relaxing for me, but do you ever have those moments where you just want to eat something simple without a lot of prep? Tonight, I certainly did!
First lets go over what you typically see in a greek salad (also known as horiatiki) : tomatoes, cucumbers, red onions, olives, a little bit of green peppers, feta, olive oil, lemon juice, pepper, salt and oregano. I consider this classic, to be the equivalent of France's ratatouille - a dish known the world over, constantly adapted and changed, and pretty much the dish you see eaten by all of its nation's residents -- whether they are rich or poor.
I personally love the freshness of the combo of the tomatoes and cucumber; but I also adore the salty, tanginess of the olives and the feta. Such a simple mix of ingredients, residing in harmony in this salad. My salad has a few additions and subtractions, here we go:
Nice cherry tomatoes chopped in large wedges so approx four pieces per tomato
Between a third and a half an onion sliced
A half cup of chickpeas (it depends on my mood whether I use the dried version or the canned version) today, in the interest of hurrying up to relax, I went the can route.
About a dozen kalamata olives sliced up
A half an orange pepper that is lightly sauted (aka like three to four minutes), this orange pepper adds a crunch but a more gentle flavoring than its green cousin. (not everyone finds the flavoring of the green pepper to be on the intense side, so if you don't, totally go ahead and utilize it, however I much prefer its orange cousin.)
On top of the cucumber, I like to put in about two to three mini carrots sliced up.
Of course feta
Fresh basil
Olive oil
salt
pepper
a drop of lemon juice
and oregano.
Once you combine all these elements together, mix them so as to allow the juices to marinate. Then enjoy this springy Salad!
Before I leave you all for tonight, I thought I'd provide you all with one sentence on feta because I know everyone has had it but I bet you don't know everything about the cheese...So here goes: It is a brined, cured cheese made from the milk of sheep and goats and comes in the form of white blocks, yes that's obvious part. Orginially this cheese making technique was perfected in Greece and only Greece, but once other countries in the European Union saw what a profit/success feta was, they got on board which is why we now have French Feta, Bulgarian, Italian, etc... A delish accompaniment to salads, sandwiches, omelettes, etc.
Enjoy the salad, was delish for me. I had mine with a poached egg on top for increased protein and a glass of Torrentes. Yum!
Good night guys!
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