Greek-style chopped salad
This Greek-style chopped salad is the perfect BBQ side. Marinating the feta takes no longer than five minutes, and imparts the salty cheese with plenty of zingy flavour.
Ingredients
For the marinated feta
- 200g/7oz feta, patted dry with kitchen paper
- 150ml/¼ pint extra virgin olive oil
- 1 red chilli, finely chopped including seeds
- small handful fresh mint leaves, finely sliced into ribbons
- 1 unwaxed lemon
For the salad
- 1 small red onion, finely sliced
- ½ tsp caster sugar
- 250g/9oz vine tomatoes (about 4), roughly chopped
- 1 green pepper, de-seeded and roughly chopped
- 15 pitted black olives, roughly chopped
- salt
Method
To make the marinated feta, roughly break the feta into 16 irregular pieces, and place in a 600ml/20fl oz jar or glass. In a separate bowl, stir the olive oil, chilli and mint together. Peel the lemon skin with a potato peeler and nestle the pieces of peel around the feta in the jar twisting them slightly as you go to release the aromatic oils. Pour the flavoured olive oil, along with all of the mint and chilli, over the feta and cover with a lid or cling film. Leave to marinate at room temperature while you prepare the salad - from 10 minutes, up to 2 hours in advance of the time you want to serve.
To make the salad, juice the lemon into a medium mixing bowl and add the red onion, along with the sugar and ½ teaspoon of salt. Mix the onion in the lemon juice with your hand, ensuring that the slices separate and begin to soften. Set aside for 10 minutes.
Add the tomatoes, pepper and black olives to the onion and stir to combine. Lift the feta pieces out of the olive oil marinade with a fork and add to the vegetables. Stir the oil to loosen all the mint and chilli from the base of the jar, then pour 2 tablespoons of the flavoured oil over the salad before serving.
Recipe Tips
Any leftover oil can be used to dress grain salads, or to roast tomatoes and peppers.