This traditional Greek salad, made with our incredibly easy and authentic Greek salad dressing, is a family favorite. It’s so simple and delicious that you’ll find yourself craving it on repeat!
This delicious, lettuce-free Greek salad, inspired by the classic Horiatiki, celebrates fresh ingredients. It’s incredibly simple to prepare and features fresh tomatoes, cucumber, and generous slabs of feta cheese. I love serving it with crusty bread, soft and fluffy pita bread, or quick flatbread. For a little extra creaminess, add a spoonful of homemade tzatziki! It’s also excellent topped with juicy chicken marinated in our Greek chicken marinade.
This salad is one of the quickest, simplest salads you can make, and we love it for that! It’s so much of a favorite around here that it inspired our Greek pasta salad! For more easy salads, explore our collection of salad recipes!
Key Ingredients
- Tomatoes and Cucumbers: For the best flavor, use the freshest produce you can find. Ripe summer tomatoes are ideal! I prefer thinner-skinned cucumbers (like Hothouse or Persian varieties). If the skins are thicker, you should peel some or all of them away. For more crunch, in addition to tomatoes and cucumbers, you can also add sliced green bell peppers.
- Red Onion: I love the color of red onion, but sweet onion works well too. Since I’m sensitive to raw onions, I slice them and soak them in cold water for 10 minutes. After draining and rinsing them, the raw onion flavor is much milder, but they retain their crispness.
- Olives: I use Kalamata olives with the pits, just like Greek chefs have served it to me. However, pitted olives are lovely too!
- Feta Cheese: The cheese is key to this salad, so I try to buy the best quality feta I can find, which is always sold in blocks, not crumbles. I love adding big pieces to the salad.
- Best Greek Salad Dressing: We don’t pre-make a dressing for this salad. Instead, we add everything to taste right before serving, sometimes even at the table! The only thing I add ahead of time is the dried seasonings (salt, pepper, and oregano). Seasoning the veggies at least 5 minutes before serving allows them to release their own flavorful juices, which mingle with the vinegar and olive oil when added.
Perfect Greek Salad
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Our traditional Greek salad is simple to make and filled with some of our all-time favorite ingredients. Cucumbers, tomatoes, onion, olives, and feta come together for a seriously good salad. For the best Greek salad, use the freshest ingredients you can find.
Watch Us Make the Recipe
You Will Need
8 ounces ripe tomatoes, cut into bite-sized pieces or sliced
1/2 large English or hothouse cucumber, sliced into half moons, 6 ounces
1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced, 2 ounces
1 medium green bell pepper, sliced, optional
3/4 cup Kalamata olives, 4 ounces
3/4 teaspoon dried oregano, plus more for serving
Salt and fresh ground black pepper
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar, plus more to taste
3 tablespoons olive oil, plus more to taste
4 ounces feta cheese, cut into generous slices
Directions
1Optional: Add the sliced onions to a bowl filled with cold water. Set aside for 10 minutes, drain, and then rinse. This tones down the raw bite of the onions while keeping them crisp.
2Combine the tomatoes, cucumber, red onion, bell pepper, olives, oregano, 1/4 teaspoon of fine sea salt, and a generous amount of fresh ground black pepper in a large salad bowl. Toss well, and then set aside for five minutes.
3Toss the salad once more and drizzle over the red wine vinegar and olive oil.
4Nestle, the feta into the top of the salad, add an extra sprinkle of oregano and serve.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- Storing: Greek salad can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days. As it sits, the tomatoes may become softer, but they will still taste great. If the olive oil in the dressing solidifies in the refrigerator, let it sit at room temperature for a few minutes before using.
- The nutrition facts provided below are estimates.
This is really good. It reminds me of a salad I used to get in Tarpon Sorings, FL. This city has the largest Greek population in the United States. There’s a restaurant famous for their Greek salad and they would add a dollop of potatoe salad. It was so good.
It’s very hard for me to find a good salad, but i’ve been making this 2/3 times a week for lunch and i just love it so much. I occasionally add prawns to it and it taste even better. Thank you for the recipe.
I’ll try this as soon as I can. Does anyone know how long this would keep in the fridge?
Hi Dave, The salad should keep (covered) for a day or two in the fridge.
Made, this it’s very good. big serving too. i love how simple and easy it was to make
please add me to your free newsletter. you food looks delicious!!
Thank you for getting it right. This truly is a Greek Salad. Us Greeks NEVER add lettuce to it. Thank you for being culturally aware of a true recipe, and not bastardizing it with a new, U.S. version of it.