Authentic Greek Salad

Have you ever been to an Authentic Greek restaurant and ordered one of their salads and the taste just explodes in your mouth. Well the salad is almost the same as an American Salad, however we tend to add to it to spice up the flavor. We make our own salad dressing also which enlivens the taste.

1 head of lettuce
2 ripe red tomatoes
1 cucumber
1 Vidallia Onion
6 radishes
4 jalepeno peppers (small)
1 Green Bell Pepper
¼ pound feta cheese (can be found at your local Ethnic Store, sometimes can be found in local grocery stores, get the Balvarian imported if at all possible because that one tastes the best)
12 Kalamata Olives (black olives with the pits inside can be found at the local Ethnic Store)

Take the lettuce and pull the leaves off by hand, and tear them apart. Rinse with cool water, drain and place in the salad bowl. Rinse the two tomatoes with cool water and slice them into eights and place into the salad bowl. Peel the cucumber and slice into circles and include into the salad bowl. We like using the Vidahila Onion because the flavor is just so much more intense then a regular onion and the Vidahila adds color to the salad, peel off the outer layer and throw that away, slice the onion and add to the salad. Cut the top off of the Bell green pepper, core the insides and throw away the seeds, slice the bell pepper into the salad. Take the ¼ pound of feta cheese, here you can either crumble the cheese up and scatter over the salad,or as we do it cut the cheese into half inch slices and sprinkle through the salad, add the 4 jalapeno peppers uncut into the salad and mix in the dozen black Kalamata Olives. Toss the salad together.

Now it is time to make your own salad dressing, this is where the flavor of a Greek salad comes into play. We hardly every use a store bought dressing we make our own.

¼ cup of water
¼ cup of vinegar(white or red does not matter choose the vinegar that suits your taste)
¾ cups of Virgin Olive Oil
1 tablespoon of Ground Oregano flakes
1 tablespoon of Garlic Salt
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of pepper
1 crushed bay leaf

Mix these all together in a container, shake well and add to your salad.

You have created an Authentic Greek Salad. Enjoy