I’ve only recently discovered Greek salads. Where have these things been all my life? A lady that I work with lives a gluten free lifestyle, mostly because she has to for health reasons, and whenever our group at work orders pizza, there she is with her salads. I always sat back and admired her discipline, while chomping down on my cesspool of puddling fat in the form of a slice of pie, while she ate her salad. After a few months it occurred to me that I too had the option of ordering a salad. I wanted to order a salad but found myself giving in to the temptation of pizza.
One day I decided “I’m doing this” and got a Greek salad. And it was delicious. What a fantastic way to consume mass amounts of veggies without sacrificing taste or walking away hungry. I don’t eat a lot of salads and I’ve always blamed The Golden Girls for this. Anyone remember the episode where Dorothy says that she had a friend that went to Paris and consumed a watercress salad, only to walk out of the restaurant and have a giant gargoyle fall onto her head and kill her – and here her last meal was a watercress salad? So when I go to a restaurant, my last thought is “if I walk out of here and die, what is the last thing I want to eat?” Thanks Dorothy.
If my last meal is a Greek salad, I would be content. I wouldn’t go to heaven and say “seriously Jesus? Yesterday I larged my value meal, you couldn’t call me home then? Or what about tomorrow when I would have dipped into that king size Hershey bar? That couldn’t have been when I kicked the bucket?” No no, a Greek salad will do me justice.
I make my Greek salad a little differently than most because I’m not into olives (I’m a texture person and those things are just ewww) or pepperoncini. Here is how I make my Greek salad (this is my first recipe that I’m posting…I’m glad I can lose my recipe virginity with all of you in attendance):
Ingredients for Heather’s Famous Greek Salad:
- Grab yourself a big bowl and if it has a lid, grab the lid
- Chop up 2-3 heads of romaine, add to bowl or if you’re using bagged, dump the bag into bowl
- Add a handful of broccoli slaw (I bought a bag of broccoli slaw without any dressing to use for eggrolls and had leftover from that recipe and I love it!)
- Throw a few rings cut off a purple/red onion
- Add 10 cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
- If you’d like additional crunchiness, throw in some croutons, any kind
- Add 1/2 cup feta cheese
- For the dressing, I added Garlic Expressions and put probably 1/4 cup on it (because let’s get realistic, who really puts 2 tbsp. of dressing on a salad?)
- Top bowl with lid, close tightly, and shake shake shake, shake shake shake, shake your booty
And voila, you have my famous Greek salad. Whatever I don’t eat, I save for later because it will keep for one day in the fridge without getting soggy. I don’t put croutons on mine so I can’t vouch for those but everything else is fine. Sometimes I throw in a few extra things if I have some veggies I need to get rid of, i.e. carrots, cauliflower, green/red peppers. Also, if you do use Garlic Expressions, the side effects are bad garlic breath but I find it totally worth it. It’s also beneficial in keeping everyone away from you on those days when you just don’t want to be bothered.
It’s a great way to get at least 5 servings of vegetables and it’s a nice vegetarian meal. Some places add chicken but I prefer to leave meat out of it because first and foremost, I don’t want to go through the hassle of cooking meat for my salad, and I try to eat at least 3-5 meatless meals a week.
I have been eating a ton of these salads lately and I always feel amazing afterwards. I know that these ingredients are bringing tons of nourishment and an influx of vitamins to my body and you can’t go wrong with that. As a side note, I do tend to buy organic produce as often as I can. I don’t find the price to be that much higher than non-organic produce, regardless of what anyone says. I do find the benefits to be abundant and that’s why I make the decision that I do to purchase organic.
I’m always looking for new variations to this salad because I don’t want to tire of it! I’ve always preferred Mediterranean food and my cardiologist even recommends a Mediterranean diet!
How do you make your Greek salads?
I love everything except for the feta. Great photo!
Yum! I’m mostly a feta fan…I’ll even use it on “fruity” salads. (Greens, blueberries, strawberries, poppyseed dressing or a light vinagrette, and feta or bleu cheese). Hope you post more recipes later on! I always love getting new ideas!
I’ve seen recipes for it on fruity salads but haven’t dared to try it yet. I may just try it!
Nice story but that name “Dimples in the Wrong Cheeks” cracked me up. Thanks
The name definitely has relevance to my plight. Haha.