Greek Salad (Horiatiki)

Variations

• Horiatiki (traditional): No lettuce — just vegetables and a slab of feta, the Greek standard.
• Quinoa Greek salad: Add quinoa to make it a meal.
• With chicken: Top with grilled chicken breast for protein.
• Watermelon feta: Add watermelon in summer for a refreshing twist.

Tips

• The salads around it file this one as the version with no leaves at all. Salade niçoise groups it with shopska salad as Mediterranean salads "in which the vegetables, not the leaves, are the subject"; carottes râpées notes that those two "barely dress at all"; and pai huang gua files its cucumber as "one diced component among several". With no leaves in the bowl, the rule that governs a green salad stops applying — and that is what the rest of these tips are about.
• Salt on a leafless salad is a dressing, not an accident. Salt and seasoning sets it out as a pair: salt vegetables in advance and they release water, which "in a quick-pickled salad is the goal", while the same move on a green salad gives you "a puddle on the plate. That is not." Tomato and cucumber salted ahead weep, and here the liquid they weep — with the oil, and the brine off the feta — is the dressing, which is why the bread to mop it is not an afterthought.
• Its neighbours make the other two choices on the same mechanism. Salade niçoise salts the tomato ahead and then drains it, because it has a vinaigrette that needs somewhere to be absorbed; som tam dresses at the last possible second because it has no oil at all and nothing to hold a puddle together. Salt ahead and keep it, salt ahead and pour it off, or do not salt ahead — three positions, one osmosis.
• So "barely dressed" is a consequence, and the feta is a seasoning. There is no vinaigrette to emulsify and nothing to toss — the block of feta goes on top rather than being crumbled through precisely so it stays a salty element you break into, not a dressing. Contrast Caesar salad, where the leaf is load-bearing and tossing is the whole constraint.
• A traditional Greek salad has no lettuce — the vegetables and feta are the stars.
• Don't crumble the feta — lay it on as a whole slab and break it at the table.
• Ripe tomatoes and good olive oil are 80% of it — with few ingredients, quality matters.
• Be generous with oregano — it's the key to the Greek aroma.
• Dress it just before serving so the vegetables stay crisp.