Crisp & Colorful Summer Salad {Greek Salad}

It feels like Summer arrived overnight! We’ve had the fans on full blast and wondered if we were back in Hawaii again!:)

It’s on hot days like this that I like to pull out recipes that seem “cool”. This one is a Summertime favorite around here. We eat it with anything barbecued ~ chicken, sausage, or even burgers. It’s also one of those recipes that is even better the next day, so I like to make a big batch for leftovers. It does require a fair bit of chopping, but after chopping a kazillion things in the camp kitchen, I’ve developed a few techniques that make it a bit quicker. I’ll fill you in on that as we go.

This salad can be adapted for your vegetable preferences, but this is what we use for ours: red pepper, yellow pepper, green pepper, red onion, tomato, and usually an english cucumber (but I forgot to buy one!).

Rinse all the veggies well. To chop the peppers, cut each pepper in half, remove the seeds, and cut into long, thin strips.

Once the strips are cut, grab an entire handful of strips (I did a whole pepper as a handful) in your left hand, and dice the whole bundle at once. {Of course, you MUST use a sharp knife. I like serrated edged knives for peppers and tomatoes.}

To dice the red onion, cut a checkerboard pattern in the onion by slicing almost to the bottom of the onion in two different directions.

Then, turn the onion on its side and slice all the way through.

Ta da! Instant dices!

I do the tomato the same way.

If I had remembered to buy an English cucumber, I would have diced it as well…  Once all the veggies are diced, stir them together in a big bowl.

Don’t they look so colorful and pretty? Once they are stirred together, add drained, pitted black olives (or Calamata olives if you want a true Greek salad flavor) and feta cheese.

I will include the homemade dressing recipe below (which is really easy and yummy), or you can serve it with Kraft Greek with feta dressing.

We use the leftover of this salad in lots of ways. Adding chopped grilled chicken makes it a great dinner salad, and for lunch today I put it in a tortilla wrap with ham and guacamole. I thought it was delicious!

What are some of your favorite summertime salad recipes?