Greek Salad

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Greek Salad is easy to make and bursting with flavor. With only six ingredients — cucumbers, tomatoes, bell pepper, red onion, olives, and feta — it’s one of the best healthy salad recipes. 

A big bowl of Greek salad
Photo: Gayle McLeod

This classic Greek salad highlights the beauty of the Mediterranean diet, where a few simple, fresh ingredients in their most natural form turn into a dazzling salad. Pair it with my homemade Greek salad dressing and you’re good to go! 

What I love most about this Greek salad recipe is that it’s veggie-packed and contains no leafy greens. That means all of the ingredients can be prepped ahead of time (as I showed in my summer meal prep), then tossed together when you’re ready to serve. So needless to say, it’s the perfect summer salad recipe that’s always on repeat. 

Ingredients for Greek Salad

Greek Salad Ingredients

Since a traditional Greek salad is only made up of 6 simple ingredients – quality matters! For vegetables, pick the freshest ones out of the bunch. For cheese and olives, keep an eye out for quality brands you love. 

  • Cucumbers: Make sure to use English cucumbers versus field cucumbers. The thinner skin is preferable with no peeling needed. 
  • Tomatoes: In Greece, you’ll most often find large tomatoes used, but cherry tomatoes or grape tomatoes are much easier to dice.
  • Bell Pepper: Typically, a Greek salad uses green bell peppers. But you can switch it up and use yellow or red peppers. 
  • Onion: Red onions are the ideal choice for that pop of red, and softer onion flavor. 
  • Olives: Grab your favorite jar of kalamata olives. You can keep them whole in your salad, or slice them in half for even, bite-sized pieces. 
  • Feta Cheese: When it comes to cheeses, I always buy a fresh block. It’s better quality and guarantees a fresher taste and texture. But for convenience, you can also use crumbled feta.

Find the printable recipe with measurements below.

Greek salad dressing in a bowl

This Homemade Greek Salad Dressing is Best

You’ll often find Grecian locals simply drizzling olive oil and red wine vinegar straight on top of the salad, with a sprinkle of dried oregano. Honestly, I also like to use this method for a quick and easy “dressing”.

But, I will say my homemade Greek salad dressing really gives this salad some oomph. All you need to do is whisk together a simple combination of olive oil, red wine vinegar, lemon juice, minced garlic, Dijon mustard, dried oregano, salt, and pepper. Plus, you can make it a few days in advance and store it in your fridge for easy access.

Ingredients for Greek salad in a bowl

How to Make a Greek Salad

Once you’ve got all the ingredients, it’s as simple as slicing and dicing them to about the same size (large chunks are preferred over fine dice). Then, drizzle your salad with the dressing and give it a gentle toss. That’s all there is to it!

Add Protein to this Greek Salad

I love to amp up this salad into a full meal by adding slices of herb baked chicken breast on top (like in my Greek chicken salad). But here are a few other ways to elevate this fresh, Mediterranean recipe:

A close up of a Greek salad

Storage Tips

It’s easy to devour this salad, especially on a summer day. But any leftovers will keep for 4 to 5 days in the fridge.

Make-Ahead Tip: Since there are no leafy greens involved, you don’t have to worry about anything wilting! Everything can be pre-sliced 1 to 2 days in advance, then tossed together the day of.

Greek salad in a white bowl next to dressing.

More Easy Summer Salads

Heat waves call for an endless list of salad recipes, and easy ones at that! 

I hope you enjoy this Greek salad recipe all summer long! If you make it, let me know how it turned out in the comment box below.

A white bowl of Greek salad

Best Greek Salad Recipe

4.95 from 68 votes
Prep: 5 minutes
Total: 5 minutes
Servings: 4 servings
Author: Lisa Bryan

Description

This Greek salad is fresh, easy, and made with the best homemade Greek salad dressing! Watch the video below to see how it all comes together.

Video

Ingredients 
 

Salad Ingredients

  • 1 large cucumber, diced
  • 1 pint grape tomatoes, halved
  • 1 green bell pepper, diced
  • ½ red onion, thinly sliced
  • ½ cup Kalamata olives, halved
  • 4 ounces feta cheese, crumbled
  • salt and pepper, to taste

Greek Salad Dressing

Instructions 

  • Add the cucumber, tomatoes, bell pepper, onion, olives, and feta cheese to a large mixing bowl.
    A bowl of Greek salad ingredients
  • In a separate small mixing bowl, add the vinegar, lemon juice, mustard, garlic, oregano, salt, and pepper. Slowly add the olive oil and whisk vigorously while pouring until the dressing is emulsified.
    Making Greek salad dressing in a bowl
  • Drizzle the dressing on the salad and gently stir to combine. Season with additional salt and pepper, if desired.
    A bowl of Greek salad next to wooden serving spoons

Lisa’s Tips

  • Also, watch the video above for meal prep ideas and tips on how to add more protein to this salad! 

Nutrition

Calories: 396kcal | Carbohydrates: 14g | Protein: 7g | Fat: 36g | Saturated Fat: 8g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 23g | Cholesterol: 25mg | Sodium: 757mg | Potassium: 537mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 6g | Vitamin A: 1348IU | Vitamin C: 58mg | Calcium: 194mg | Iron: 1mg
Course: Salad
Cuisine: Greek
Keyword: greek salad, greek salad recipe, greek salad recipe
Did you make this recipe?Mention @downshiftology or tag #downshiftology!

Recipe originally published August 2018, but updated to include new information and tips.

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About the author

Lisa Bryan

Lisa is a bestselling cookbook author, recipe developer, and YouTuber (with over 2.5 million subscribers) living in sunny Southern California. She started Downshiftology in 2014, and is passionate about making healthy food with fresh, simple and seasonal ingredients.

4.95 from 68 votes (6 ratings without comment)

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Recipe Rating




137 Comments

  1. Without a doubt, the best Greek salad I have ever tasted! Thank you! I foIlowed your recipe exactly. I just recently started following you and have been making some of your recipes. They are wonderful!5 stars

  2. Excellent Greek Salad. Have made it several times. Grilling out tonight and serving this as side dish along with grilled chicken! Have also added chickpeas to it and it delicious!
    Highly recommended this!5 stars

  3. hi Lisa, I don’t know what I’m doing wrong with the dressing, every Time I’ve made it, I end up checking to see if it turned out good, and I choke on it, it’s too acidic for me, so am wondering if there is something I can change? maybe it’s the lemon and combination of vinegar . please help me here. I’m going to have to make a creamy salad for it tonite. ;o(

  4. I loved this Greek Salad and will definitely make it again! I chopped the ingredients just a bit smaller than called for due to limited chewing ability of older folks. I personally liked it that way -especially the smaller slices of onion. Thanks Lisa for your consistently reliable recipes!5 stars

  5. Very easy to make and so delicious and healthy! This Greek salad was a big hit at our family barbecue last weekend. Thank you!5 stars

      1. I love this recipe and have made it several times. I use an immersion mixer to make the dressing and store it in a small mason jar. I use roasted red peppers or pobalos instead of green. It’s so healthy.5 stars

    1. Absolutely the Best!!! Since I’m not a fan of cheese, just added lesser amounts; But the flavor….. incredibly delicious 😋5 stars

  6. I made this recipe yesterday and made it without really noticing the quantities of the dressing ingredients. The dressings was way more than was needed and extremely acidic. I have always used a 3:1 ratio for my dressings, 3 being the oil to one part vinegar/lemon juice. This had more acid than vinegar once I’d squeezed the lemon. I had to add a lot more EVOO and some honey to try and mellow it out. I am intending to try plenty more recipes from this website so I hope this one was just a blip.3 stars

    1. Hi Fiona – the ratio of oil to vinegar is definitely personal preference. I find a 3:1 ratio to be a bit too oily for my liking, and do prefer a more acidic flavor. But always feel free to adjust my recipes to your liking!

  7. This is a great salad! I have always had an issue with the chunky, large pieces in Greek salad. I decided to make everything smaller, diced and the feta crumbled. I prefer it that way as the flavors seem to blend better in my mouth. I know chunky is traditional, but since I’m not Greek I’ll make that change lol. Love the dressing!5 stars

  8. This was a great and simple and easy recipe! Everybody loved it I thought it tasted really good. The only modification I would probably due to this recipe is probably put only 3/4 of the tomatoes in there and I would only do a 1/3 cup for the red wine, vinaigrette, and olive oil. Otherwise there’s a little bit too much liquid.4 stars

    1. Hi Sally – Happy to hear you enjoyed this salad! And yes, you can always adjust the amount of dressing that’s added.

  9. Hi, I am just off to the supermarket to get the ingredients but could you tell me if ( a big if as it looks so amazing) if any left how long can it keep in a fridge.5 stars

    1. Hi Johanna – This salad can be kept for 4 to 5 days in the fridge. I also almost always provide storage instructions in the post :)

  10. Hi Lisa just wondering is it necessary or helpful to take out seeds from cucumber &or tomatoes, I no you didn’t but some say to

      1. Curious how you would remove seeds from cherry/grape tomatoes? You didn’t remove them in your video or mention removing them. Wouldn’t that be kind of a tedious and unnecessary job? I could see maybe removing them if using larger slices of tomatoes.

  11. I could eat this every day! I’m pretty sure it’s become my new pregnancy craving too. So glad it’s healthy. Haha
    I add the chicken when I have some left over to make it more of a meal, and lately I’ve just been using it as a side for dinner.
    Thank you again for a simple and DELICIOUS recipe for my whole family.5 stars

  12. Hi, Lisa, tonight I made your Greek Salad with chicken marinated in your Greek Marinade because my kids kindly asked for a Greek salad. It was a hit from start to finish with my two sons (ages 16 and 19) and my husband. The salad dressing is just right (not too acidic, not bland) and the marinade was perfect (and I hadn’t marinated chicken in ages). Thank you!5 stars

    1. Hi Julie – That’s great to hear the whole family enjoyed this Greek salad along with the chicken marinade!