Name: Traditional Greek Salad (Horiatiki)
Prep time: 15 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Greek
Ingredients: 4 large ripe tomatoes, cut into thick wedges; 1 cucumber, halved lengthwise and sliced into thick half-moons; 1 green bell pepper, cored and sliced into rings; 1 small-to-medium red onion, thinly sliced into rings; 12–16 Kalamata olives (whole, unpitted for authenticity, or pitted for convenience); 150–200g (5–7 oz) block Greek feta cheese, in one or two thick slabs; ¼ cup (60 ml) good-quality Greek extra virgin olive oil; 1–2 tablespoons red wine vinegar; 1 teaspoon dried oregano, plus extra for garnish; Sea salt, to taste

Traditional Greek Salad (Horiatiki)

Horiatiki, literally "village salad," is the dish most people picture when they think of Greek food — and yet the version served at countless tavernas abroad gets it wrong. There is no lettuce in a real horiatiki: just sun-ripened tomatoes, cucumber, onion, green pepper, and briny olives, dressed simply with olive oil and finished with a whole slab of feta rather than crumbles. It's less a "salad" in the leafy sense and more a plate of Greece's best summer produce, meant to be scooped up with bread.

Instructions

Wash all the vegetables and pat them dry so the dressing isn't diluted by excess water.
Cut the tomatoes into thick wedges directly over a wide, shallow serving plate so their juices collect in the dish — this juice becomes part of the dressing.
Slice the cucumber into thick half-moons and add to the plate. If the peel is thick or waxy, peel it in alternating stripes for texture and looks.
Add the green pepper rings and red onion rings, scattering them over the tomatoes and cucumber rather than mixing everything into a uniform toss.
Scatter the olives over the top.
Season lightly with sea salt, then drizzle the olive oil evenly over the vegetables, followed by the red wine vinegar.
Gently turn the vegetables once or twice with a spoon just to coat them — horiatiki should stay loose and chunky, not tossed like a leafy salad.
Place the whole block (or two thick slabs) of feta on top of the vegetables; do not crumble it.
Sprinkle the feta and salad with dried oregano, and add a final light drizzle of olive oil over the cheese.
Serve immediately at room temperature with crusty bread to mop up the juices and oil at the bottom of the plate.

Tips for Success

Tomatoes make or break this dish: use the ripest, most in-season tomatoes you can find, ideally ones that are slightly soft and fragrant rather than firm supermarket tomatoes bred for shipping.
Splurge on real Greek extra virgin olive oil — since the dressing is just oil, vinegar, and salt, its flavor carries the whole dish.
Keep the feta in a slab rather than crumbling it; a good barrel-aged sheep's or sheep-and-goat milk feta holds its shape and gives a creamier bite.
If raw red onion tastes too sharp, soak the sliced rings in cold water for about 10 minutes and drain before adding.
Make and serve horiatiki right away — the vegetables are meant to stay crisp, and the salad doesn't keep well once dressed.