Can food be a cultural value? It turns out, yes. This heritage is recognized by UNESCO Mediterranean cuisine. The nutritional style that has developed historically in the Mediterranean countries has been beneficial to health, especially for the prevention of cardiovascular diseases. The dishes that are popular in this area are real culinary masterpieces, tasty and extremely appetizing. In their composition - fresh vegetables, seafood, cheese, fruit, olive oil. These products seem to be specially selected in order to help clear the vessels from harmful cholesterol, saturate with vitamins, charge with energy and prevent the appearance of excess weight. A number of Mediterranean dishes are so popular all over the world and among our compatriots that almost every woman knows their recipes. These include the Greek salad, prepared from coarsely chopped tomatoes, sweet peppers, lettuce, olives, red onions and light feta cheese. However, all hostesses fill this appetizer with different sauces, sometimes without even assuming that they do not improve, but spoil it with such amateur performances. Classical dressing for Greek salad is simple and helps to emphasize its taste as much as possible. Similar properties should have the author's versions of this sauce to be considered successful.
Cooking Features
If you understand the general requirements for the preparation of dressings for Greek salad, you can give this snack new flavors, each time surprising guests and members of the household with their culinary skills. Although a great deal of experience is not required to make these sauces, it’s enough to know a few subtleties.
- At the heart of the salad dressing for Greek salad is olive oil. You can replace it with another vegetable oil, but the taste of the dressing will lose its unique notes, and the dish itself will become less useful. The quality and freshness of the oil also matter. The preferred product is the first cold-pressed, as fresh as possible.
- Instead of olive oil, other ingredients are sometimes taken as a basis: Greek yogurt, mayonnaise. If the first option is quite acceptable, then the second is questionable. Mayonnaise has a sharp savory taste, overshadowing the taste of fresh vegetables, moreover, from the healthy turns a snack into a harmful one. In the Mediterranean cuisine such dressings are not used. If you still want to fill the Greek salad with mayonnaise-based sauce, cook the mayonnaise yourself, as a homemade product is much more useful than the purchased one.
- Do not use strongly spicy and fragrant ingredients for salad dressings that are not typical for Mediterranean cuisine.
- When it is included in the composition of garlic filling, it is better not to grind to a puree state, but to crush with a knife, so that it launches juice, and leave it for several hours in oil. Garlic will give its flavor to the oil, but will not make the dressing overly spicy.
- A Greek salad dressing can be made with Dijon mustard. You should not take it a lot, you can not replace the sharp Russian mustard.
- Fresh herbs for salad dressing are more preferable, but if necessary, they can be replaced with dried ones. In this case, they should be taken 3-4 times less than fresh ones.
No matter how tasty your salad dressing is for Greek salad, you should not add it to the snack in large quantities.
A classic dressing recipe for Greek salad
Composition:
- olive oil - 100 ml;
- lemon juice - 50 ml;
- fresh oregano - 20 g (or 5 g dried);
- salt - to taste.
Method of preparation:
- Prepare a tightly closing jar with a capacity of 0, 2-0, 3 l, pour into it the right amount of olive oil.
- Squeeze juice from a lemon and pour it into a jar of oil.
- Pour fresh oregano into the container, dried or finely chopped with a knife.
- Add some salt. This ingredient is not obligatory, as feta cheese prepared according to the traditional technology and part of the salad, and salted olives have a salty flavor.
- Close the jar with the lid and shake it several times to mix the ingredients. To obtain a more uniform consistency, the sauce can be whipped further.
This dressing is fully in line with the spirit of Mediterranean cuisine and makes Greek salad especially tasty and healthy. However, in search of new taste sensations, gourmets have invented many other sauce recipes for this popular snack.
Greek salad dressing with balsamic vinegar
Composition:
- olive oil - 75 ml;
- balsamic vinegar - 25 ml;
- brown sugar - 5 g;
- garlic - 2 cloves;
- salt, black pepper, dried oregano - to taste.
Method of preparation:
- Crush garlic cloves with the knife handle, cover with olive oil and leave for 2-4 hours, you can even overnight.
- Remove the garlic from the oil.
- Pour balsamic vinegar into the bowl with oil.
- Crush sugar in a coffee grinder to a state of powder.
- Add sugar, pepper, salt and dried spice to the vinegar-oil mixture.
- Beat with a whisk until the sauce has a uniform consistency.
Greek salad with this sauce has a more savory taste than cooked according to a traditional recipe.
Greek salad dressing with soy sauce
Composition:
- soy sauce - 40 ml;
- olive oil - 80 ml;
- lemon juice - 40 ml;
- honey - 20 ml.
Method of preparation:
- Melt the honey so that it becomes liquid.
- Mix it with soy sauce. You need to stir until the mixture is completely homogeneous.
- Squeeze lemon juice into a bowl of sauce.
- Add olive oil.
- Whisk and season the salad.
Delicate sweetish-sour sauce with a salty taste gives the Greek salad an unusual flavor. This appetizer will appeal to lovers of Asian cuisine. You should not use this option of dressing, if the cheese in the salad has a pronounced salty flavor.
Greek salad dressing with mustard
Composition:
- olive oil - 120 ml;
- dried oregano - 5 g;
- red wine vinegar (6%) - 60 ml;
- Dijon mustard - 3 ml;
- garlic - 1 clove;
- salt, pepper - to taste.
Method of preparation:
- Chop the garlic with a hand press.
- Mix with Dijon mustard.
- Add salt, pepper, oregano and vinegar.
- Stir to form a homogeneous mass.
- Add the butter and whisk.
Such a dressing gives the Greek salad a savory flavor without clogging up the taste of the main ingredients. Spicy food lovers will enjoy the snack.
Greek salad dressing with yogurt
Composition:
- Greek yogurt - 0, 25 l;
- fresh cucumber - 0, 2 kg;
- garlic - 2 cloves;
- apple or wine vinegar (6 percent) - 120 ml;
- olive oil - 60 ml;
- fresh dill - 20 g (or 5 g dried);
- salt, black pepper powder - to taste.
Method of preparation:
- Wash cucumber, peel and grate with small holes.
- Squeeze the cucumber purée to remove the juice - it will not be required for refueling.
- Mix cucumber puree with yogurt. Instead, you can use any fermented milk product (kefir, yogurt, low-fat sour cream).
- Crush the garlic with a hand press, add to the rest of the ingredients.
- Wash, shake off water and finely chop the dill with a knife. Also put in a container with yogurt. Stir.
- Season and salt to taste, stir with a spoon again.
- Pour in oil and vinegar. Beat with a whisk or mixer to obtain a homogeneous composition.
Such a dressing will make Greek salad look like Caucasian dishes. This sauce can be served separately to meat dishes, fried potatoes - it will also be delicious.
Greek salad dressing with boiled yolk
Composition:
- chicken egg - 2 pcs .;
- Dijon mustard - 50 ml;
- olive oil - 100 ml.
Method of preparation:
- Boil chicken eggs, cool in cold water, peel. Remove the yolks and crush them with a fork.
- Add a tablespoon of butter to the yolks, rub with it.
- Mix with mustard until smooth.
- Pour in the remaining oil and whisk.
This unusual dressing well reveals the taste of Greek salad, giving it a new flavor.
Greek salad dressing with homemade mayonnaise
Composition:
- homemade mayonnaise - 40 ml;
- olive oil - 60 ml;
- lemon juice - 40 ml;
- red wine vinegar (6%) - 5 ml;
- garlic - 1 clove;
- honey - 20 ml;
- salt, black pepper - to taste;
- nutmeg - at the tip of a knife.
Method of preparation:
- Crush the garlic with a knife and chop finely.
- Melt the honey to a liquid state.
- Mix all the ingredients listed in the recipe, whisk together until a homogeneous consistency is obtained.
The rich taste of the sauce does not overshadow the taste of Greek salad, but successfully emphasizes it. A real gourmet cooked snack with such a dressing will almost certainly be enjoyed.
Dressing for Greek salad may be different, but it must necessarily have a delicate taste, not too pronounced aroma. Its goal is to emphasize the organoleptic properties of vegetables and cheese, which form the basis of a popular snack.
