At one time Frossene King had four small children to feed. Her life was constantly just under the boil, so she had little time for culinary subtleties such as cooking of vegetables. To provide a necessary variety of tasty vegetables for her gang of four, she relied on uncooked salads.

This recipe was a cornerstone of her salad strategy. It is also authentically Greek. Frossene got it from her mother Nacia, who received it from her Greek mother, Lula Polyzois. Nacia always understood that this was the way Lula and her friends made the salad in the old days in Greece.

Frossene lives now in Oregon, but was raised in Napa, California, the northern limit of the Gourmet Ghetto as defined by some.

This salad is best chilled.

Serves four

Place olive oil and vinegar in the bottom of a salad bowl. Add feta cheese, broken into pieces the size of a fingertip. Season with salt, pepper, and oregano.

Add the tomatoes, cut into wedges. Add onion, cut into thin wedges. Add cucumber, peeled and sliced.

Toss all ingredients together, and correct for seasoning.

Variations

Use split cherry tomatoes in place of tomato wedges.

This can be a basis for improvisation. Try adding cooked green beans, tuna fish, roasted red peppers, Calamata olives, diced cooked potatoes, lettuce chiffonade, green peppers, corn, etc.

Two Classic Greek Salads

The first salad below is simpler than the above, the second more complicated.

Follow the recipe above for Greek Tomato Salad I, but omit:

Use ingredients for Greek Tomato Salad I, plus:

Break up the feta cheese into pieces the size of a fingertip.

Rub the salad bowl with the cut garlic. Place tomatoes in the bowl. Stir in cucumber, sliced onions, green peppers, olives, and feta.

Mix olive oil and vinegar, and season with salt and pepper. Pour over salad and toss lightly.

Sprinkle with parsley and serve immediately.

Variations

Add capers.

Substitute dill leaves for oregano.

Nina and I have made our own adaptation of Lula Polyzois’s formula.

Cucumbers seem to us the basis for this salad, so we use lots of these and not many tomatoes. Cucumbers are steeped, feta cheese is mashed Peloponnesus style into the olive oil, onion is omitted.

This is capable of formal presentation. Arrange a bed of lettuce and (at the last minute) place Greek Salad on top. Romaine lettuce, preferably the inner leaves, seems the best choice.

The salad can be eaten immediately, but improves if made several hours ahead and refrigerated.

Serves four

Pour olive oil into the salad bowl. Add oregano, salt, and pepper. Whisk with a fork. Add feta cheese and crumble it. Mash cheese into the olive oil. Let stand 10 minutes, stirring once or twice.

Peel cucumber and split in half lengthwise. Scrape out seeds with a spoon. Dice. Place in a small bowl and stir in a little salt, sugar, and vinegar. Let steep a minute.

Cut the tomatoes into wedges.

Stir cucumber and tomatoes into the olive oil mixture. Toss gently. Correct for salt, pepper, and vinegar.

Variations

See variations for Greek Salad I above.

This is particularly good with Moussaka or Kima Fournou.

Wash and dry the lettuce. Roll it up along the axis and cut in ribbons (chiffonade). Wrap in paper towel and refrigerate until needed.

Just before serving, stir lettuce into the Greek salad. Stir in a little vinegar and olive oil to taste.

This is broadly similar to Greek Tomato Salad I above, with cucumber omitted and cumin replacing the feta cheese.

Mix tomatoes, onion, cumin, and parsley in the bowl. Mix the dressing in another bowl and pour over.

Or: arrange the tomatoes in overlapping rows. Pour the dressing over them, then sprinkle with onions, chopped parsley, and cumin.

Variations

In the Middle East, cooks will often use our standard 3 parts oil to 1 part lemon juice. Other times they will use more lemon juice, as much as 1 to 1 (Claudia Roden, A Book of Middle Eastern Food, see Bookstore).

Common additions to Middle East salad dressings include fresh or dried mint, and fresh coriander.

The Spanish have a salad remarkably similar to the Middle Eastern salad above, with the cumin replaced by roasted sweet red peppers.

Try this if you like, but our household judged this less exciting than the other tomato salads above. It does suggest that a few red peppers, raw or roasted, might be added to a Greek tomato salad.

Nacia liked to make this salad. It is unclear whether she invented it or learned it from her Greek grandmother Lulu Polyzois. 

Above ingredients, plus:
Sweet Bermuda onion, slices to taste
Cucumber, ½ or more to taste

Peel cucumber and split in half lengthwise. Scrape out seeds with a spoon. Dice.

Cut onion in half lengthwise. Cut as many thin wedges as desired.

Add sliced onion and cucumber with the tomatoes to the cheese dressing. Stir in vinegar to taste.

Variations

Flavor the cucumber with sugar and salt (see recipe)

Add calamata olives.