Greek Salad
In this easy Greek Salad recipe, crisp fresh vegetables, kalamata olives and feta cheese are tossed in the best homemade Greek salad dressing. It makes a beautiful and healthy side dish!
If you are feeling a bit bored with your usual salad, this zippy Greek salad is just the thing to liven up your salad bowl!
Greek salads feature a mouthwatering combination of flavors and textures: crisp cucumber and green pepper, fresh tomatoes, sliced red onion, tangy feta cheese and briny kalamata olives. Everything is chopped into bite-size pieces, making the preparation easy and the presentation appealing.
Traditional Greek salads don’t include lettuce or salad greens. If you’re skeptical of a salad without lettuce, I urge you to give this one a try. My guess is that you’ll become as enamored as I have with this fresh Greek salad!
Tossed with my easy homemade Greek Salad Dressing, this salad really is something special. The bold, vibrant colors and flavors of this easy salad recipe will have everyone going back for seconds!
Greek Salad Ingredients
- Greek Salad Dressing: My Greek Salad Dressing Recipe is made with olive oil, red wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, fresh garlic, dried oregano, salt and pepper. It takes just five minutes to mix up and is so much better than store-bought!
- Cucumber: Cucumber makes this salad so refreshing. If you use a regular garden/grocery store cucumber, you may want to halve it lengthwise and scoop out the seeds. I’ll admit I usually leave the seeds in as I don’t mind them. You may also wish to remove the skin using a vegetable peeler. Or you can use a seedless English cucumber, which has thin skin that does not need to be peeled.
- Bell Pepper: Green bell peppers are traditional in Greek salad, but you can use red, yellow or orange if that is all you have on hand.
- Red Onion: Red onion adds a nice sharp bite to the salad. Slice the onion thinly so that the flavor isn’t overpowering.
- Tomatoes: I like to use cherry tomatoes or grape tomatoes here because they hold their shape well and don’t release too many juices into the salad. You can also slice up regular sized whole tomatoes.
- Kalamata Olives: The briny, slightly fruity flavor of kalamata olives pairs especially well with the feta cheese and homemade dressing. You can substitute black olives if desired.
- Feta Cheese: Salty, tangy feta cheese makes this salad so addictive. I highly recommend buying a block of feta cheese and cutting it into cubes yourself, rather than purchasing crumbled feta. The texture and flavor is so much better when you start with a block of feta.
- Salt and Pepper: Seasoning the salad with salt and pepper enhances the flavors of the other ingredients.
Find the full printable recipe with ingredient amounts and instructions below.
How to Make Greek Salad
To make this easy salad recipe, you’ll first make the dressing. Combine all of the dressing ingredients in a small bowl and whisk them together. Set the dressing aside while you make the salad.
Chop the vegetables into pieces that are approximately the same size: slice the cucumber into half rounds and cut the green pepper into 3/4-inch pieces. Thinly slice the onion and halve the cherry tomatoes and olives. Cut the feta cheese into 1/2-inch cubes. Place all of the salad ingredients into a large bowl.
Drizzle on 1/4 cup of the dressing and toss gently to mix. Add more dressing as needed. I find it’s best to start with less dressing because you can always add more. Season the salad to taste with salt and pepper.
This salad is best served the day it is made, but leftovers can be stored for 1-2 days in an airtight container in the refrigerator. If you have leftover dressing, store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. It’s delicious drizzled over an everyday green salad.
What to Serve with Greek Salad
I love to serve this Greek salad as a side dish, alongside Baked Chicken Thighs, Turkey Burgers, Black Bean Burgers, Grilled Pork Chops, Steak Kabobs or Air Fryer Chicken Breast.
You can also make this Greek salad a meal by adding Chicken Kabobs, Grilled Chicken, Grilled Salmon or chickpeas for protein. It makes a wonderful Greek quinoa salad with quinoa mixed in. While not traditional, if you want to add more greens into your meal you can serve this salad over a bed of chopped romaine lettuce. We love this salad served with Whole Wheat Pita Bread for a delicious Mediterranean meal!
More Healthy Salad Recipes
Try my Greek Pasta Salad next!
Greek Salad
Ingredients
Greek Salad Dressing
- ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- ¼ teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1 small clove garlic, minced
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- ⅛ teaspoon black pepper
Salad
- 1 large cucumber, sliced into ¼-inch thick half rounds
- 1 green bell pepper, cut into ¾-inch pieces
- ½ small red onion, thinly sliced
- 1 cup cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
- ⅔ cup pitted kalamata olives, halved lengthwise
- 4 ounces block feta cheese, cut into ½-inch cubes
- salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Combine all dressing ingredients in a small bowl. Whisk until well combined. Set aside.
- Place the cucumber, bell pepper, red onion, tomatoes, olives and feta in a large bowl. Drizzle on dressing, starting with ¼ cup. Toss and add more dressing as needed. Season salad with additional salt and pepper, to taste. Serve.
Notes
- This salad is best served the day it is made, but leftovers can be stored for 1-2 days in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
Looking forward to making this salad as I love just about anything Greek, but I think it would be nice to mention purchasing the olives, etc, can somtimes become quite expensive. If one looks in the deli department of most grocery stores in the US, you can find an olive bar where you can purchase a mixture of the olives and cheese quite reasonably for a salad,
This salad is wonderful. I ate the whole thing
This is a classic Greek salad except in Greece, there IS no salad dressing on this salad. They pour olive oil across the top, sprinkle a bit of sea salt and oregano, and let the juices from all the ingredients create the salad dressing. Juices from the tomatoes provide the acidic flavor we know and love from salad dressing. There’s no right or wrong, of course, but I wanted to explain the way it’s usually done in Greece.
This salad looks yummy. What would a suitable alternative to cucumber be?
Cucumber is a key ingredient in this salad, but you can substitute another vegetable that you enjoy.
Um, this is DELICIOUS! Perfect blending of flavors and so nice with this recording breaking hot weather we are having! Serving it with grilled Greek chicken, tzatziki, and naan. ❤️
I’m so glad you enjoyed this salad! It’s one of my favorites. Your whole meal sounds amazing. Such a great combination!