Greek Salad

For some reason I have really been craving Greek food lately.  In the past week I've had a delicious Mediterranean wrap, with Greek salad and grilled chicken inside, at an NYC diner, a Greek salad topped with falafel and a side of grape leaves from a Greek restaurant in my home town and now this Greek salad that I made for dinner tonight.  This is probably the most Greek food I've had in, well, forever.  

As I mentioned in a previous post, I just started liking olives and now I must mention that I also just started liking feta cheese.  So who knows what the cause of these cravings is; all I know is that I want some Greek salad; now.

One problem I have with making salads at home is that I always feel like they are never as good as the ones I get at restaurants.  I'm not quite sure why this is, but I do have the sneaking suspicion that it might be because I never have as many ingredients on hand as they do at a restaurant so I always feel like my homemade salads are missing something.  Either I don't have the right kind of cheese or the right kind of dressing or a big enough variety of fresh produce to use.  It's always something.  But not this time.

Since I just got back to school, today it was time to take a trip to the grocery store and since I knew exactly what I wanted for dinner tonight (i.e. greek salad) I picked up everything I would need.  And for the first time, this salad was just as good as any greek salad I've had at a restaurant.  The feta makes it rich and creamy while the fresh dill brightens up the flavor and the romaine and cucumbers provide a satisfying crunch.

Greek Salad

Serves 1

Ingredients

1/4 bag of pre-chopped and washed romaine lettuce

1/3 of a large cucumber, washed, chopped and de-seeded (optional)

1/4 of a small red onion, very thinly sliced

4- 5 pitted kalamata olives, chopped

2- 3 sprigs fresh dill, chopped

about 1 tbsp feta cheese, crumbled

1 tbsp red wine vinaigrette (I used Trader Joe's brand)

* I also added some white beans marinated in harissa I got from the olive bar at Whole Foods

Preparation

Make a bed of romaine in a large plate or bowl, add all ingredients on top, mix and enjoy.