Tastes of Summer + Have a Great Summer Weekend!

Summer Tomato Salad.

Hello, there! It's good to be back! Gosh, how I've missed you all!

Well, now that the bounty of summer fruits and vegetables begin to appear almost...

everywhere - in fields, in farmer's markets, and even in your grocery stores, it is a good time to think about salad recipes, inspired by the Mediterranean, where vegetable is an important part of cooking.

In this time of year, what could be better than a salad which glows with the warm and seductive tastes of the Mediterranean? What a better way to celebrate the beginning of Summer than by enjoying a delicious, colourful, and refreshing salad.

For those of us with little inclination and even less time to spend in the kitchen, here is the authentic Greek Tomato Salad recipe. 

The famous Horiatiki Salata, "rustic" salad. Pronounced haw-ree-ah-tee-kee sah-lah-tah.  

For this simple but remarkably satisfying Greek summer salad, you need just a few good quality ingredients. I really love this salad...
it makes a summer meal just by itself. Try it out. It is refreshing, healthy, and very easy to prepare.

Greek Tomato Salad

Ingredients

2 ripe tomatoes, cut into wedges
1 red onion, separated into rings
1 green bell pepper, seeded and sliced
1 medium cucumber, sliced
1 teaspoon dried oregano
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
8 ounces Feta cheese
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
Handful of Greek black olives

Directions

Cut tomatoes into wedges. Combine the vegetables in a salad bowl, put the Feta cheese on top, sprinkle with dried oregano. Sprinkle olives and sea salt over salad.
Pour olive oil over the top, (more if you like to dip bread, less if not).
Serve immediately.

Note: Do not put the salad in the fridge. (When you put salads with onions in the fridge, the entire salad ends up smelling like onions.)

Tips:

Chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes the vegetables.
If the tomato skin is tough, peel the tomatoes before making the salad.
Freshly made crusty bread is also a must!

This is the vegetable season, so we should make the most of them. Don't you think?

Have an awesome weekend, and Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there! xx

P.S. Tomatoes everybody (almost) thinks it is a vegetable, but it's really a fruit.

P.P.S. Did you know that tomato juice has been the official beverage of Ohio since 1965? :)