A Greek table is never complete without a serve of some kind of salad. And it doesn’t matter what the main dish is, a serve of greens to accompany the evening’s meal is always present. Greek salads are seasonal and very much tied in with the land. With Greek cuisine so connected to the garden, you can be sure that the cook will probably just venture into their backyard for most of the ingredients.
The hero of all the Greek salads would have to be the horiatiki salata. This salad, which literally translates to the village salad, is the most recognisable Greek salad found on the menu. It is made up of fresh tomato, cucumber and slithers of green capsicum and red onion, kalamata olives, salty white feta, drizzled with rich and glistening olive oil and covered with flakes of dried oregano.
With this salad, it’s best not to skimp on freshness, especially not on the olive oil which really turns into the key dressing ingredient. The combination of olive oil, oregano and juice from the vegetables are used to make the tangy dressing that is also the best Greek dip you will ever taste. A nice crunchy bread roll, floating bits of tomato pip and feta make this salad a meal in itself.
A lettuce salad is also quite common. It is normally made with cos lettuce, as it grows so well in the Greek garden. Nearly every Greek has fond memories of their yiayia holding a bunch of cos lettuce leaves in one hand and using her thumb and forefingers to grip the salad knife (which usually has an orange or yellow handle) and then slice through the leaves to get long strips of lettuce. The salad is used to break up a rich meal so it’s often served with baked dishes like moussaka. It is dressed in lemon juice, olive oil and has sprigs of dill dispersed throughout.
Because Greeks use a lot of seasonal ingredients, cabbage salad features highly in winter. This salad is made with shredded white cabbage tossed with kalamata olives and a dressing made up of crushed garlic, lemon juice and finely chopped parsley. The cabbage is left raw to create a crunchy yet sweet flavour and consistency. The use of fruit, especially citrus-based fruits, is quite popular in salads in Greece.
Oranges, watermelon, mandarins and pomegranates can be seen in many salads that are used as the basis of a meal alone. A popular fruit-based salad is the orange salad which has slithers of oranges, sliced white onion and olives covered with a pinch of paprika and hearty drizzle of olive oil. As an after meal palate cleanser, it’s popular in summertime to serve up a salad made up of watermelon with feta.
Horta (wild greens) are really the Greek superfood. Served, cold, warm or hot, horta can be bitter or can be sweet, but always drowned in gold olive oil and a healthy squeeze of lemon juice . You will need a huge bunch of wild greens to cook as they wither down so much in the cooking process. To prepare, you need to clean the leaves thoroughly, cut off thick stalks, and boil in salted water. When the leaves are tender but not too soggy, then they’re done. Delicious and healthy, some people will drink the cooking water with a squeeze of lemon for a burst of energy. Take that, wheatgrass shot!
Marinated peppers make a nice accompaniment to a meat inspired meal to break it up. The peppers are normally in brine and can be stored for weeks in the fridge or, if you’re a real Greek, in a left over ice-cream container or coffee jar. The beauty about the peppers is that you can pick and choose how many you have on the table depending on diners and store the rest away.
The best thing about salads is that you can experiment. There are so many unique Greek flavours and there is such an amazing range of seasonal produce available. With olive oil the stand-out flavour of Greek cuisine and herbs, such as oregano and dill, integral to Hellenic cookery, you can go free-for-all and try making something new. So get out there and create your own Greek salad.