Greek salad
Horiatiki salad with Feta cheese as served on Hydra Island, where cucumber is peeled. In other regions, cucumbers are left unpeeled.
Place of originGreece
Main ingredientsTomatoes, cucumbers, onions, feta cheese, olives (usually Kalamata olives), salt, oregano, olive oil

Greek salad or horiatiki salad (Greek: χωριάτικη σαλάτα[a] or θερινή σαλάτα[b]) is a popular salad in Greek cuisine generally made with pieces of tomatoes, cucumbers, onion, feta cheese (usually served as a slice on top of the other ingredients),[1] and olives (typically Kalamata olives) and dressed with salt, Greek oregano, and olive oil. Common additions include green bell pepper slices or caper berries (especially on the Dodecanese islands). Greek salad is often imagined as a farmer's breakfast or lunch, as its ingredients resemble those that a Greek farmer might have on hand.[2]

Outside Greece

An American-style "Greek" salad, served with lettuce

Outside Greece, "Greek salad" may be a lettuce salad with Greek-inspired ingredients, even though the original dish is distinguished by the absence of lettuce. Meanwhile, the variant without lettuce may be called horiatiki, 'peasant salad', or 'village salad'.

However in most European countries, including the UK, the dish broadly resembles the original, albeit often with non-Greek substitutions such as another cheese since feta cheese enjoys protected designation of origin status.

In an American-style Greek salad, lettuce, tomatoes, feta (often served in multiple cube-shaped cuttings mixed with the vegetables), and olives are the most standard elements, but cucumbers, peperoncini (pickled hot peppers), bell peppers, onions, radishes, dolmades, and anchovies/sardines are common. Regional variants may include unusual components, e.g. in Detroit, beets, and in the Tampa Bay Area, potato salad. Dressings containing various herbs and seasonings are frequently used in the U.S. These styles of Greek salad are rarely encountered in Greece.

Various other salads have also been called "Greek" in the English language in the last century, including some with no apparent connection to Greek cuisine. A 1925 Australian newspaper described a Greek salad of boiled squash dressed with sour milk;[3] a 1934 American newspaper described a mayonnaise-dressed lettuce salad with shredded cabbage and carrots.[4]

Other salads in Greece and Cyprus

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Cretan salad

There are many other salads in Greek cuisine. These include:

Some spreads and dips found in the meze of Greek cuisine are also called "salads" in Greek, such as melitzanosalata, taramasalata and tzatziki.

Gallery

See also

Notes

Explanatory notes

  1. ^ horiatiki salata, pronounced [xorˈʝatici saˈlata], lit.'village salad' or 'rustic salad'
  2. ^ therini salata, pronounced [θeriˈni saˈlata], lit.'summer salad'

Citations

  1. ^ Ingredients in Greek Salad. Rin Recipes, July 23, 2023.
  2. ^ Zhang, Jenny. "A Modern Tradition: Greek Salad". Organically Blissful. Retrieved 15 December 2016.
  3. ^ "The Age – Google News Archive Search". google.com. January 13, 1925. p. 7.
  4. ^ The Daily Times (Rochester and Beaver, Pennsylvania), March 13, 1934
  5. ^ "Cypriot Salad".