Recipes / Salads / Mediterranean Salads Greek Village Salad (Horiatiki) No lettuce — a real horiatiki never has any. Chunky tomato, cucumber and pepper under a whole slab of feta, with nothing but oil and oregano.
Time 15 min
Serves 4
Difficulty Easy Ingredients Servings
− +
Quantities for 4 servings
4 large ripe tomatoes, cut into thick wedges 1 cucumber, peeled in stripes and cut into thick half-moons 1 green bell pepper, deseeded and sliced into rings 1 small red onion, thinly sliced 100 g Kalamata olives, with stones 200 g block of Greek feta (do not crumble it) 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil 1 tsp dried Greek oregano 1 tsp red wine vinegar (optional) Flaky sea salt Crusty bread, to serve
Treat this list as a starting point rather than a shopping order. Swap what you haven't got, leave out what you dislike, add what you love — this is exactly the kind of dish that rewards poking around in the fridge.
Method 1 Cut the tomatoes into generous wedges rather than slices, and salt them lightly in the bowl you will serve from. Let them sit for 5 minutes — the salt draws out juice that becomes part of the dressing, and that juice is the point of the whole dish. 2 Peel the cucumber in alternating stripes and cut it into thick half-moons. Chunky is correct here; thin slices go limp and watery within minutes. 3 Add the pepper rings, red onion and olives to the tomatoes. Leave the stones in the olives — they hold their texture better, just warn whoever you are feeding. 4 Pour over the olive oil and the vinegar if using, and turn everything gently with your hands. Use good oil and be generous: there is no other dressing. 5 Lay the whole slab of feta on top. Do not crumble it — serving it as one piece is what makes this a horiatiki rather than a generic salad, and everyone breaks off what they want. 6 Crush the dried oregano between your fingers as you scatter it over the feta, which wakes up the oils, then add a final drizzle of olive oil and a pinch of flaky salt. 7 Serve immediately with bread for the juices at the bottom of the bowl. That last piece of bread is not optional. Tap a step to cross it off. Your place is saved on this device.
Cook’s notes There is no lettuce in a village salad. Restaurants outside Greece add it to bulk the dish out, but it waters the whole thing down.
Use Greek feta in brine made from sheep's or sheep-and-goat's milk. Cow's-milk versions and pre-crumbled packets are drier and far less tangy.
This only works with properly ripe summer tomatoes. Out of season, it is worth waiting.
How it should look Photos of the finished dish, so you know what you’re aiming for.
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