More fun with Greek food

Salads- done right, it's hard to argue with the appropriateness of a salad for the main course of a meal if you are trying to be healthy. Not only so most salads feature prominent vegetables (at least those conceived since the sixties), but also you will absorb fewer calories. Unfortunately you also absorb fewer nutrients, so it's good to use nutrient-dense greens like spinach and romaine lettuce. Actually the salad below uses iceberg, but that's all I had on hand.



When A suggested "greek salad" for lunch, I was gung-ho because Greek cuisine has been of special interest to me lately. I decided to compensate for a lack of a good olive in the house by making it more like a farmer's salad; the balance more on the chunky vegegetables and less on the lettuce. Greek farmer's salad minimally consists of sliced tomatoes, bell peppers and onions in an oregano-y vinaigrette (sometimes with marinated green beans and hard-boiled eggs) and feta. If it contained pieces of flat bread, we'd be talking about the Lebanese treat known as Fattoush. For dressing I wanted to try something other than my usual lemon and olive oil vinagrette with oregano, something with some added dimension, perhaps a bit more authentic. I loved the idea of whizzing green peppers in the dressing as detailed on the wonderful Kopiaste blog. (I actually found this recipe in its blogspot incarnation.) It was well worth the effort as you can see. I decorated with pieces of toasted organic french bread (LaBrea, store-bought, nonfat, no extra junk added). In retrospect I think I forgot to add onions, but it was tasty and filling.

It would be a drag if the old Kopiaste blog disappeared one day and the dressing recipe along with it. I made it exactly as specified:

Greek Salad Dressing


Ingredients

* ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
* 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
* 3- 4 tablespoons lemon juice
* 1 clove of garlic
* Bell peppers, fresh or frozen (red, yellow, orange) about 2 – 3 spoonfuls (I used frozen)
* 1 piece of feta cheese 4 x 4 x 3 cm
* ½ teaspoon salt
* ½ teaspoon oregano
* Black pepper, to taste

Directions

Place in a food processor and puree all ingredients. Taste and adjust flavour according to your taste.