Sep 8, 2014

Greek Salad for G

This is the second week for this International theme in This month BM. Since we are cooking our recipes with alphabetical order, in between we take a break on Sunday. So today is the seventh day with the seventh letter G. My choice for G is Greek.
                           Greek cuisine is a very ancient cuisine in the world. This cuisine has a culinary tradition of some nearly 4,000 years. Greek cuisine is typically Mediterranean cuisine. they use a wide range of vegetables, grains, herbs. Olives take first place in heir cuisine whether it is oil or olives it self . Greek cuisine have a large array of vegetable dishes specially eggplant, okra, spinach and green beans, green peppers, onions.  Greek cuisine typically flavored with garlic, onion, oregano and mint, thyme and fennel seeds. Cheese is widely used in salads and snacks specially Feta cheese. Kalamata olives are very popular in Greece cuisine widely used in salads and thyme is the most popular and traditional herb. Honey is  used in almost of all sweets.
                                                 Today my recipe from Greece is Greek salad. Greek salad is a traditional salad with it's original flavors of olive oil, lemon and oregano. In a original Greek salad they use Tomato, European cucumber, onion, feta cheese and kalamatta olives are must in this salad. But there are many inspired salad s in other cuisines.  In original Greek salad they don't use lettuce, bell peppers  or any other meats . There are some other salads in Greek cuisine like Potato salad, beet salad but this one is most popular salad and my all time favorite.
                                    From long time I wanted to make this salad but didn't get chance to make it. Because it is a bit difficult to get feta cheese here, and I don't want to make it with out feta cheese. Some people told me that you can use paneer in the place of feta!!!!! but how can?. If I use paneer it won't be a real greek salad we can give other Indio- Greek name to that salad.. So I was very disappointed that I couldn't post my favorite salad recipe . Every time when I go to Bangalore I try to bring feta cheese from there but some how I miss that. This time I made it I brought a box of feta cheese from bangalore. I pick it from the shop just before I am leaving to airport and asked my cab driver to keep it in front of the AC.. I was so much afraid till I reach home finely I brought it home safely. With in few days I used the cheese, finally here is my favorite salad recipe  
                                                                       


INGREDIENTS:---
Red onion ---  1 big sliced
Tomatoes  ---  2 medium cut in to cubes
Cucumber  ---  2 cut in to cubes
Salt and pepper to salt
Olive oil --  4 tab sp
Dried oregano  ---  1 and half tea sp
Feta cheese  ---  200 gms
Kalamatta olives (greek black olives) ---  one hand full
METHOD:---
1. In a big salad bowl, combine tomatoes, cucumber, onion sprinkle salt mix once and let it sit for a while.
2. Add oregano, olive oil, pepper to taste give a good stir then add kalamatta olives, feta cheese mix once gently
Serve immediately  with bread
Note:-- no need to add any lemon juice or vineger because when you add salt to vegetables they leave their juices. Once you mic the salad these vegetable juices will blend with olive oil and work as a wonderful dressing. That gives a wonderful flavor and you can enjoy the real flavor of vegetables natural flavor.


16 comments:

Srivalli said...

Very interesting salad Padma..love your setup!

Varada's Kitchen said...

Very colorful salad and a nice mix of ingredients.

cookingwithsapana said...

Such a colorful and healthy bowl of salad !

Usha said...

This is such a simple delicious tasting salad. Wonderful choice for Greece. I had this salad as a back up for G.

Suma Gandlur said...

A simple and healthy salad! Appreciate your efforts in acquiring authentic ingredients for the recipe.

vaishali sabnani said...

I am bookmarking all the salads in this marathon...I make a new salad practically every second day..and this one looks so tempting..healthy and colourful.

Harini R said...

That salad looks so fresh and tempting, Padma!

Hamaree Rasoi said...

Colourful and healthy looking preparation.
Deepa

Priya Suresh said...

This salad is just asking me to enjoy rite now, apart from feta cheese, can have this salad anytime.

Unknown said...

wow such an simple and hearty salad :) looks fantastic dear !!

Padmajha said...

So nice that you could find feta cheese Padma and the salad looks so good.

Pavani said...

What a colorful and delicious Greek salad.

Gayathri Kumar said...

I was wondering abouth the feta cheese in the salad until I read how you brought it home from Bangalore. The salad looks so colourful and I have this in my to do list for long...

Chef Mireille said...

a classic executed perfectly

Priya Srinivasan - I Camp in My Kitchen said...

Very colorful salad and good that you could lay hands on Feta to create this dish!!!

Archana said...

Padma I love the salad. In fact we all love it and waas my first choice for G.Love the pics.