It’s blazing hot outside and I don’t feel like a heavy meal. Let’s make the Best Greek Summer Salad Ever! A great salad can be refreshing, light, and satisfying when it’s just too hot to cook. A tomato-cucumber salad with a tasty vinaigrette is a very good starting point. From there all you need to do is add any other of your favorite veggies and ingredients to personalize the dish for your family.

What’s Our Options?

Let’s talk about options… I like to think about the 5-tastes when playing with my recipes; sweet, salty, sour, bitter and the 5^th one being umami. Utilizing the various tastes can take your dish from ordinary to extraordinary! So how does this relate to our summer salad?

Sweet – A fresh, ripe tomato will bring some sweetness to our salad. Check out what’s available at your local farmer’s market if you have the chance. That’s where you can typically find the perfect tomatoes for your salad. I’m always looking for heirloom tomatoes. They come in all different sizes and shapes and are delicious! Sometimes your local grocery store will have them.

Heirloom tomatoes I used on my **Beet / Burrata Salad**

Sour – Our Champagne vinegarette is just right to help offset the sweetness of the tomatoes. The combination of white wine vinegar or champagne vinegar definitely works well. Check out my recipe for Champagne Dressing here! Adding in some lemon juice and zest even makes it better!

Salty – Generally speaking from listening to the experts, every dish you make should have at least a small amount of salt in it. Even if you are on a low salt diet. Sodium is a mineral found naturally in some foods and plays an important role in maintaining normal fluid balance in the body. The kalamata olives and the feta in our dish are fairly salty so be aware. If you are on a low salt diet reduce the amount of those ingredients so that this recipe will work for you.

Bitter – The use of cracked black pepper and our use of fresh oregano brings a fresh bitter taste to our dish. Just enough bitterness to balance the sweetness from the tomatoes. Check out the herb section at your local grocery store for fresh oregano.

**Fresh oregano – Check the herb section at your grocery**

Umami (Savoriness) – Umani is the 5th taste and is usually described as savoriness found in some of the foods we eat such as mushrooms, soy sauce, tomatoes, Parmigiana-Reggiano cheese, Worcestershire sauce, and other fermented foods. These umami-rich foods have naturally occurring glutamates which makes us sit back and say, yum! Glutamates are naturally occurring in tomatoes, kalamata olives, and avocados.

My recipe includes feta cheese, kalamata olives, lemon juice, and zest. They give this recipe a little bit of a Greek-Mediterranean twist. In the list of ingredients, I have included some additional options for your salad. Add or drop ingredients to make the salad that will make you and your family happy and as always, thanks for Spending Time in My Kitchen!

The Best Tomato-Cucumber Salad!

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Recipe by David Frank – Spending Time In My Kitchen

Servings

servings

Prep time

minutes

A Greek-Mediterranean inspired Tomato-Cucumber Salad!

Ingredients

16 oz 16 Cherry or heirloom tomatoes
1 1 English (Hot House) Cucumbers
4 oz 4 Kalamata olives
15 oz 15 Garbanzo beans / Chickpeas
1/2 Medium 1/2 Red onion, minced
6 oz 6 Feta cheese, small cubes
1 tsp 1 Chives, small mince
4 Stalks 4 Oregano, fresh
Cracked black pepper to taste
1 1 Lemon – juice and the zest
Champagne dressing, see directions
Options
Avocado
Artichoke hearts
Hearts of palm

Directions

Make the champagne dressing. Check out my recipe here!
If you have cherry tomatoes, cut them in half and place them in a large salad bowl. If you have any other tomatoes, cut them into bite-size pieces.
Cut your cucumber into bite-size pieces and add them to your salad bowl.
Mince your red onion and add it to your salad bowl. (As an option you can do a quick pickle to your red onion. Place your red onion into a small container. Add your champagne vinegar to the red onion and place a top on your container. Shake to mix the vinegar with the minced onion and let sit for an hour. Then add to your salad as desired. I’m a big fan of pickled red onion!)
Cut your feta cheese into small cubes and add to the salad.
Zest your lemon and place it in your salad. Juice the same lemon and add to your salad.
Add your kalamata olives, chickpeas, and oregano to your salad.
Add cracked pepper to taste.
Cut up any of the optional ingredients into bite-size pieces and add to your salad as desired.
Drizzle on the desired amount of your champagne vinegarette to your salad; mix well and you are ready to serve!
Enjoy!