Traditional Greek salad

I love neighbours and ours is just the lovely bunch one could ever wish for. I will definitely miss the Kopsias' when we do our inevitable move. And that's not even mentioning Mr King on the other side of the fence who is just as lovely with his usual smile and neighbourly wave every time.

We were invited over for a weekend dinner and we brought salad!

I must admit I'm not a salad person. Its not something we have every day, although I try to make dishes with vegetables all the time, salads are not just something we always have. When it comes to salads, we are the usual caesar-salad-bunch. Some shreded lettuce, toasted bits of bread fried in olive oil in the pan, some hard boiled egg and store-bought caesar salad dressing is just about the salad we can get. An occasional rocket salad with parmesan topping and balsamic dressing is another basic. Aside from that, vegetables are almost always cooked in our home.There are a variety of salads that I love - the Lebanese Tabbouleh but its not something I'm up to making at home as its readily available in tubs in local deli and even the supermarket.

Its embarrassing that I have to refer to a recipe book to make this one, but its as simple as it gets. Its a traditional Greek salad with olives and fetta cheese, olive oil and lemon for dressing.

Ingredients:

Serves 4

200g/7oz Greek feta cheese

1/2 Webbs lettuce or 1 lettuce such as cos or escarole, shredded or sliced

4 tomatoes, quartered (I used Roma tomatoes)

1/2 cucumber, sliced

12 Greek black olives, stoned

2 tbsp chopped fresh herbs such as oregano, flat-leaf parsley, mint or basil


Dressing

6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

2 tbsp fresh lemon juice

1 garlic clove, crushed

pinch of sugar

salt and pepper, to taste