If you’re looking for a delicious salad that’s packed with flavor and fresh vegetables, a Classic Greek salad, also known as Horiatiki salad, is perfect. It’s made with cucumbers, tomatoes, onion, Kalamata olives, feta cheese, and a light vinaigrette.
For more ideas, check out all of our salad recipes.
We are still in the year of fancy salads. If you’ve been around here since January, you know I’ve been incorporating more fancy salads into our dinners. And if you haven’t been around, well, you know now.
One of those fancy salads is Horiatiki, a Classic Greek Salad. I say fancy because it just feels fancy, especially compared to a bagged salad that you just open and serve with dinner. But, that doesn’t mean it’s complicated. This is made from really simple ingredients: fresh produce, feta cheese, and olives, plus a really delicious vinaigrette made with basic ingredients that you probably have in your cabinet at all times.
Now, I will be honest and say that we have a couple tweaks in this recipe so it’s not completely made the traditional way. But, that’s only for personal preferences and really don’t make that big of a difference overall.
First, I use rice wine vinegar instead of red wine vinegar because it’s just a slight bit sweeter, so I always use that as a substitution in homemade salad dressings. Second, I use crumbled feta rather than a block of feta that’s cut into wedges or into large chunks. That makes it just a little bit easier to eat and serve because the feta is already incorporated and doesn’t need to be broken up.
And third, we cut the green bell pepper into chunks rather than round slice. More often than not, a Greek restaurant will serve the peppers as round slices. But, personally, I feel like it’s so awkward to try and pick up those rounds with a fork and then you have to bit it in half anyway. So, I cut the pepper into chunks as I make the salad because it’s just easier.
This fresh salad works great as a side dish. If you’re looking for more sides to serve with your main course, check out our list of 15+ Easy Side Salad Recipes. That’s filled with green salads, pasta salads, potato salads, and more.
Horiatiki (Classic Greek Salad) Recipe
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Horiatiki (Classic Greek Salad) Ingredients:
- 1 English cucumber
- 4 Roma tomatoes
- 1 green bell pepper
- 1/2 red onion
- 4 oz. halved Kalamata olives
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1.5 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon fresh dill
- 6 oz. feta cheese crumbles
How To Make Horiatiki (Classic Greek Salad):
Cut the cucumber into rounds. Then, cut those in half.
Put the cucumber slices into a large bowl.
Chop the Roma tomatoes and add them to the bowl.
Cube the green pepper (or cut it into round slices, if you prefer) and add it to the bowl.
Slice the red onion and add the onion slices to the bowl.
Add the Kalamata olives to the bowl.
Chop the garlic. Add it to a small bowl with the olive oil, rice wine vinegar, salt, dried oregano, and dill to make a homemade Greek salad dressing. Mix until the vinaigrette is combined.
Pour the vinaigrette over the salad.
Add the feta cheese crumbles and stir gently.
For the best results, let the salad sit about 20 minutes so the flavors combine and the salt pulls the sweetness out of the tomatoes.
Horiatiki (Classic Greek Salad): Frequently Asked Questions
Store any leftover Greek salad in an airtight container in the fridge. It will last up to three days.
Just a quick note. The vinaigrette will start to pickle the vegetables if the salad sits in the fridge overnight. It will still be good, but it will just be a little different, so keep that in mind.
Also, if you’re not planning on finishing the salad, you definitely want to use the Roma tomatoes or cherry tomatoes. Beefsteak tomatoes tend to be really juicy tomatoes and they’ll soften and water down your salad as it sits. So avoid those.
Horiatiki means village, which is why Horiatiki Salata is sometimes referred to as Greek village salad.
English cucumbers are those fancy cucumbers that you find wrapped in individual plastic in the grocery store. They’re more bitter than the American cucumber, which is shorter and fatter. English cucumbers are also crunchy cucumbers while American cucumbers are a little soft.
This salad really benefits from that crunch. The crisp cucumber and pieces of green peppers are a great compliment to the soft tomatoes and creamy feta cheese.
Kalamata olives are Greek, which is why they’re in this Greek salad. Compared to a Kalamata olive, black olives are softer and milder. Black olives don’t add as much flavor to this salad as Kalamata olives do.
If you wanted to serve this as a full meal, you could add grilled chicken on top of the salad. Season chicken breast with garlic powder, onion powder, and a little black pepper, grill it, then slice it before adding it on top.
If you like fish, grilled halibut or salmon would be really good with this salad as well.
More Greek Salad Recipes:
This salad doesn’t have any leafy greens in it, so it’s not to be confused with Maroulosalata, a salad of green onions, dill, and feta on top of Romaine lettuce. Ladolemono, a delicious Greek salad dressing made from lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil, is served on top of that salad.
Horiatiki (Classic Greek Salad)
If you’re looking for a delicious salad that’s packed with flavor and fresh vegetables, a classic Greek salad, also known as Horiatiki salad, is perfect. It’s made with cucumbers, tomatoes, onion, Kalamata olives, feta cheese, and a light vinaigrette.
Ingredients
- 1 English cucumber
- 4 Roma tomatoes
- 1 green bell pepper
- 1/2 red onion
- 4 oz. halved Kalamata olives
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1.5 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon fresh dill
- 6 oz. feta cheese crumbles
Instructions
- Cut the cucumber into rounds. Then, cut those in half.
- Put the cucumber slices into a large bowl.
- Chop the Roma tomatoes and add them to the bowl.
- Cube the green pepper (or cut it into round slices, if you prefer) and add it to the bowl.
- Slice the red onion and add the onion slices to the bowl.
- Add the Kalamata olives to the bowl.
- Chop the garlic. Add it to a small bowl with the olive oil, rice wine vinegar, salt, dried oregano, and dill to make a homemade Greek salad dressing. Mix until the vinaigrette is combined.
- Pour the vinaigrette over the salad.
- Add the feta cheese crumbles and stir gently.
Notes
For the best results, let the salad sit about 20 minutes before serving.
Nutrition Information
Yield
4Serving Size
1Amount Per Serving Calories 329Total Fat 29gSaturated Fat 9gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 19gCholesterol 38mgSodium 1105mgCarbohydrates 11gFiber 2gSugar 6gProtein 8g
Have you made this Horiatiki (Classic Greek Salad) recipe? Let us know how it went in the comments.