Greek Salad Cravings

Before two years ago, I was never a big fan of Greek salad.  I had tried it several times at restaurants, but something always seemed off.  Either there was too much dressing, the feta or dressing was too salty, or something else was off.  Nothing ever impressed me to be like, "Oh my God, I have to have that again!"  But then two years ago, I went to South Africa and let me tell you, they know how to do Greek salad right!  And it was everywhere I went, I swear I had it twice a day!

When this time of year rolls around, I actually start to crave the deliciousness of that Greek salad, but am still very nervous to order it at restaurants.  I had to learn to recreate this goodness at home, and I quite believe I have now.  I made it on Monday night to go with the salmon and I was so happy with the results.  I had to take some creative license though, as we were out of feta, but had gorgonzola cheese  It was still pure awesomeness!

Salad fixings:
Chopped romaine lettuce
Halved cherry tomatoes
Diced red onion (I only had about a 1/4 onion and I was making a lot of salad)
A leftover scallion already chopped up (to make up for the missing red onion)
1 cucumber cut into quarters lengthwise and then sliced into pieces
Two handfuls of pitted black kalamata olives chopped (this was a big salad!)

Feta cheese (on the side to put on at the table) - or in our case we used the gorgonzola we had

Salad dressing:
3 cloves garlic put through a garlic press
1 tsp dijon mustard
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp fresh cracked pepper
2 Tbsp red wine vinegar (I used balsamic)
1 Tbsp honey
1/2 cup olive oil

I mixed the salad dressing up first and let it sit while I chopped and constructed the rest of the salad.  At the table, we served the salad on our plates, added the cheese per the person's taste or omit if they don't like it and drizzled the dressing over the top.  This salad dressing reminded me so much of what I had in South Africa, I was so happy!!!!

I prefer not putting salad dressing on the salad in the bowl as my husband really hates any kind of vinaigrette salad dressing.  He's more of a ranch or honey mustard kind of guy.  It also makes leftovers easy to put away, as salad with dressing on it, doesn't keep as leftovers very well.  When you make a salad this big, it leaves a lot of leftovers, but that encourages people to have salad if they get hungry. There's no excuse as it's already made.  It also makes me packing a salad for lunch that much easier.  I love anything that promotes easy, healthy eating!