Greek Salad

It's summer and time for salads.

At least in my house it is.

I get tired of the same old, same old , lettuce, tomato and ? salads.   I like to shake it up a little.
Or a lot.

I love a good Greek salad.

Lots and lots and lots of Feta Cheese, tomatoes, onions, cucumber, Kalamata Olives all on top of some Romaine lettuce.

Drizzled with a little fresh dressing made out of some Pomegranate Quince White Balsamic Vinegar, EVOO, chopped Kalamata Olives and some fresh chopped Oregano. 

Heaven to my mouth.

And waist friendly as well.

Recipe:  Greek Salad    Serves 6 people as a side dish.

1 head Romaine Lettuce, roughly cut
1 English Cucumber
1/2- 1 red Onion, thinly sliced
1 cup pitted Kalamata Olives + 6-8  olives
2- 3 red ripe Tomatoes
1/2 lb. Feta Cheese, either crumbled or whole, cut into chunks
1/2 cup Pomegranate Quince White Balsamic Vinegar (or other fruit infused vinegar)
1/2 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil.  Get the best you can afford here. 
1 tsp. sugar
2-3 teaspoons fresh chopped oregano
or
1 tsp. dried Oregano
Salt   (the salt is optional )
Several grinds of fresh Black Pepper.

Thinly slice the red onion and soak in a little ice water while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.  This allows the red onion to let go of some of the harshness of the red onion flavor.  In other words, it tames it down a lot.
Take the romaine lettuce, wash it, cut the stem off of it, then the top part as well, discard. Those ends don't belong in this salad.   Cut the lettuce into one inch or so pieces, just like this.  Place into the bowl.
Cut the tomato into wedges and then halve the wedges.  You want some nice bite size pieces but not too large.  Place into the bowl.  
Wash and cut the Cucumber lengthwise, then lengthwise again, in effect quartering it.  Or just cut one inch slices, and then quarter them.  If using regular cucumbers, go ahead and peel them, or not.  Your choice.  Place those into the bowl on top of the tomatoes and lettuce.
Cut the Feta Cheese into chunks, or if using the crumbles, just place them in the bowl, on top of everything else.

Cut the Kalamata Olives in half lengthwise or do a rough chop. Take one quarter of those olives aside for a minute while you put the rest of the olives on top of everything else in the bowl.  Then take the remainder of the roughly chopped olives and do a fine mince on them.    Add them to some of the best fruit Vinegar and Extra Virgin Olive Oil.   I like these from Smashing Olive.   Which reminds me, I'm getting low on some of my oils and vinegars. 

Add the soaked and drained red onion to the bowl. (I didn't forget about them, but they do need to soak for about 15 minutes or so)
Whisk together the EVOO, Vinegar and the oregano,  add the finely minced olives, and drizzle over the salad ingredients, toss to combine.  

Or just stand back and admire the beauty that you just created.

Serve.

This also goes great wrapped in a fresh piece of Naan or serve with some toasted Pita Bread.
I've also chopped the salad up the next day and added it to a sub sandwich.