I came across this recipe for the maniatiki salata many years ago while living in Greece. The salad was one of many that I came across with oranges as a main component whose provenance was the Peloponnese.
Citrus fruit along with olives were and still are the main agricultural product of this part of Greece.
The maniatiki salata is grounded in the agricultural practices of the day
It is said that farmers would go to the fields for the day, take with them boiled potatoes and use what was at hand to make the salad: oranges, olives, onions and olive oil.
The reality is that they were more likely to take all the ingredients from home with the exception of the oranges which they would pick and add to the already boiled potatoes, cured olives and ready made olive oil from a previous season.
I came across an almost identical version from the orange growing area of Spain, Valencia, the only difference the Spanish version has pimento instead of onion.
The Greek version is called “Maniatiki” despite the fact that oranges are commonly grown in many of the other more fertile regions of the Peloponnese (eg Corinth, Laconia, Achaia and Argelis) but not the beautifully barren and dry Mani in the southern Peloponnese.
I often make this salad because and it is delicious and in the hot summer it is a meal on its own.
INGREDIENTS
3 medium sized potatoes
1 – 2 oranges
1 small red onion
3 – 4 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
6 – 8 black Kalamata olives
METHOD
Boil potatoes, cool and slice into rings
Cut oranges into rings or half rings
Cut onion into rings
Lay out on a platter in layers, potatoes, oranges, onions
Sprinkle salt and pepper
Drizzle with olive oil
Spread out the olives on top
Kali Orexi