Greek Village Salad {Horiatiki}

Greek Village Salad {Horiatiki} is a classic Greek salad with no lettuce.  It’s simple, rustic and comes together in minutes!

I visited Greece many years ago, and ate some of the most delicious food I’ve ever had in my life.  I ate my weight in souvlaki, tzatziki, Greek yogurt with fresh fruit and honey, along with an array of Greek pastries that surpassed anything I’d eaten here at home.

The interesting thing was that it was the Greek village salad, which is known as horiatiki salata in Greece, that really blew my mind.  The ingredients were simple but they were so fresh and flavorful.

The quality of these simple ingredients came together and shined.  Once I returned home I couldn’t eat Greek salad for a very long time because I knew it wouldn’t hold a candle to the salads that I had in Greece.

Of course, quality tomatoes and cucumbers at their peak of freshness are the key to preparing a mind blowing Greek village salad.  I’ve been making Greek village salad with my garden grown tomatoes and cucumbers that definitely rival the ones I had on my trip.

Minus the Greek island of course. 🙂

Greek Village Salad {Horiatiki}

Village style Greek salad is rustic and simple with large chunks of tomato and cucumber, thinly sliced red onion and whole kalamata olives.

The salad is topped with a thick slice of feta cheese, which is drizzled with extra virgin olive oil and sprinkled with dried oregano.

The dressing is the simplest part of this Greek village salad recipe.  Simply toss the salad with red wine vinegar first so that the vegetables can absorb it, then toss with some extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper.

It’s the easiest salad dressing ever.

Village Salad vs. Greek Salad

The biggest difference between Greek Village Salad {Horiatiki} and Greek salad is that Greek salad normally includes lettuce.  Here in the United States, if you order Greek salad at a restaurant it almost always includes crisp, chopped romaine lettuce.

Salads that don’t include lettuce are a nice change of pace for me, and I love that there’s one less ingredient to chop!

Next, Greek salad isn’t rustic and chunky.  The vegetables are chopped smaller, the olives are halved and the feta cheese is crumbled into smaller bits.

Another difference between Greek village salad and Greek salad is the dressing.  As I mentioned, Greek village salad is simply dressed with red wine vinegar and extra virgin olive oil, whereas Greek salad is tossed with something similar to my Easy Greek Salad Dressing.

Recipe Tips

Make sure you have quality ingredients for this salad to truly shine.  Use the freshest tomatoes and cucumbers that you can find!  I love using a block of feta in its brine for this recipe, as well as a good quality red wine vinegar.  There’s no need to buy a $20 bottle of vinegar — I use Colavita Aged Red Wine Vinegar which is under $10 and it’s perfect.

This Greek Village Salad {Horiatiki} is great to make in advance because there’s no lettuce that will get soggy on you.  You can put it together a few hours in advance, or assemble it mason jar style in beautiful layers for picnics or your work week lunches.

The recipe below is for 2 servings, but it’s easily scaled to feed a crowd!  You don’t even have to dress the salad in advance — simply place the red wine vinegar and olive oil out for guests to drizzle for themselves if you prefer.

This salad is a great way to bring the flavors of the Greek islands into your home.  It’s effortless yet mind blowing at the same time, but nobody needs to know that.

It’ll be our little secret. 🙂

More Greek recipe inspiration:

30-Minute Chicken with Greek Avgolemono Sauce

Greek Panzanella

Greek Pasta Skillet with Burst Cherry Tomatoes

Slow Cooker Greek Lemon Chicken Soup {Avgolemono}

Check out the recipe video below and subscribe to my YouTube Channel to stay up to date on my latest videos!

Greek Village Salad {Horiatiki}

Yield: 2 servings

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 10 minutes

Greek Village Salad {Horiatiki} is a classic Greek salad with no lettuce.  It's simple, rustic and comes together in minutes!

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Ingredients

• 1 large tomato, cut into wedges then halved
• 1 medium cucumber (I used seedless)
• 1/4 cup thinly sliced red onion
• 12 kalamata olives
• 2 ounces feta cheese, cut into thick slices or cubes
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
• dried oregano, for serving
• salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Instructions

1. Place the tomato, cucumber, red onion and kalamata olives in a medium bowl (If using cubed or crumbled feta instead of a thick slice, add that now as well).
2. Add the red wine vinegar and stir to combine.
3. Add the olive oil, salt and pepper, to taste, then stir until incorporated.
4. Divide the salad between (2) plates and top with a slice of feta, a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of dried oregano.
5. Serve and enjoy!

Notes

• Recipe is easily scaled to feed a crowd! This salad may be assembled a few hours in advance and is great as meal prep mason jar salads.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

2

Serving Size:

1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 219 Total Fat: 17g Saturated Fat: 6g Trans Fat: 0g Unsaturated Fat: 11g Cholesterol: 25mg Sodium: 526mg Carbohydrates: 13g Fiber: 3g Sugar: 7g Protein: 6g

Nutrition information is mean to be an estimate only. The numbers will vary based on the quantity consumed, brands used and substitutions that are made.

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