1 tablespoon WATC SALAD SPRINKLES, or 2 teaspoons dried oregano
¼ teaspoon chili flakes
1 teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
2 garlic cloves, finely minced
¼ cup mayonnaise
¼ cup feta cheese
½ cup Parmesan cheese
¼ cup Italian or curly parsley, chopped
juice from ½ a lemon
For the flavour enhancements:
1 cup marinated olives
1 cup marinated red peppers
1 cup feta cheese, cubed
1 cup marinated artichokes
4 pita bread
Takes ,
serves 4-6.
Instructions
For the dressing: Place all of the ingredients into the canister of an immersion blender or food processor fitted with a blade attachment. Blend until smooth and creamy. Try then season with kosher salt and black pepper to taste. Refrigerate until use.
For the salad: Give all vegetables a rinse under cool running water.
Prepare leafy vegetables: Cut or tear romaine lettuce into bite-sized pieces. Wash and spin dry. If using, rip radicchio into bite-sized pieces.
Prepare other vegetables: Halve tomatoes. Seed peppers and cut into bite-sized pieces. Divide cucumbers down middle lengthwise and cut into 1/2-inch chunks. Do the same with the zucchini. Thinly slice the red onion. Drain, rinse and strain beans. Roughly chop parsley.
Assemble salad: Toss romaine and radicchio together. Spill into large salad bowl. Add vegetables in triangular groupings on top of the lettuces. Sprinkle with chopped parsley. Cover and refrigerate if serving later, or continue.
Assemble flavour enhancements: Transfer flavour enhancements in individual groupings to a medium-sized plate or platter. Warm pita bread, cut into triangles and serve on another plate.
To serve: Present salad with dressing, flavour enhancements and pita bread on the side. Toss and transfer to individual plates, allowing guests to add their own dressing and enhancements.
Mediterranean Salad Recipe
Ingredients
For the salad:
1 head romaine lettuce
½ head radicchio (optional)
1½ cups cherry or grape tomatoes
1 cucumber
1 orange bell pepper
1 yellow bell pepper
½ red onion
1 green zucchini
1 19 oz. can of chickpeas
handful flat-leaf parsley, chopped
For the dressing:
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
⅓ cup red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon WATC SALAD SPRINKLES, or 2 teaspoons dried oregano
¼ teaspoon chili flakes
1 teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
2 garlic cloves, finely minced
¼ cup mayonnaise
¼ cup feta cheese
½ cup Parmesan cheese
¼ cup Italian or curly parsley, chopped
juice from ½ a lemon
For the flavour enhancements:
1 cup marinated olives
1 cup marinated red peppers
1 cup feta cheese, cubed
1 cup marinated artichokes
4 pita bread
Directions
For the dressing: Place all of the ingredients into the canister of an immersion blender or food processor fitted with a blade attachment. Blend until smooth and creamy. Try then season with kosher salt and black pepper to taste. Refrigerate until use.
For the salad: Give all vegetables a rinse under cool running water.
Prepare leafy vegetables: Cut or tear romaine lettuce into bite-sized pieces. Wash and spin dry. If using, rip radicchio into bite-sized pieces.
Prepare other vegetables: Halve tomatoes. Seed peppers and cut into bite-sized pieces. Divide cucumbers down middle lengthwise and cut into 1/2-inch chunks. Do the same with the zucchini. Thinly slice the red onion. Drain, rinse and strain beans. Roughly chop parsley.
Assemble salad: Toss romaine and radicchio together. Spill into large salad bowl. Add vegetables in triangular groupings on top of the lettuces. Sprinkle with chopped parsley. Cover and refrigerate if serving later, or continue.
Assemble flavour enhancements: Transfer flavour enhancements in individual groupings to a medium-sized plate or platter. Warm pita bread, cut into triangles and serve on another plate.
To serve: Present salad with dressing, flavour enhancements and pita bread on the side. Toss and transfer to individual plates, allowing guests to add their own dressing and enhancements.
Mediterranean Salad Recipe
5 / 5. 3
Ontario greenhouse tomatoes, cucumbers and bell peppers partnered with veggies and romaine, with a creamy dressing and fixings on the side…
This MEDITERRANEAN SALAD RECIPE delivers deliciousness with every single bite!
This is one of those fresh salad recipes you’ll try once and end up making again and again. It gets top praise for good reason; it’s easy to make, as is the CREAMY MEDITERRANEAN DRESSING we’ve paired with it. No complicated instructions, fancy tools like a vegetable mandoline, nor unusual ingredients requiring a grocery scavenger hunt. It’s just Ontario greenhouse-grown tomatoes, cucumbers and sweet bell peppers in a mix of veggies associated with the Mediterranean. Our rich and flavourful CREAMY MEDITERRANEAN DRESSING is simple seasonings blended with creamy mayonnaise, feta and Parmesan cheese. The end result? A MEDITERRANEAN SALAD RECIPE that is as amazing to look at as it is to enjoy.
Before we list a few things to consider when making this at home, just a friendly reminder of all our salad recipes, we know you’ll love. Click HERE to see a round-up of more than 30 popular salad recipes, with side salads, appetizers and ideas you can present as a main course. It includes our CRISPY MUSHROOM SALAD and simple ORZO PASTA SALAD, plus a GRILLED WATERMELON SALAD appetizer and a classic TUNA SALAD NIÇOISE. We’ve also got plenty of homemade SALAD DRESSINGS to go with, so enjoy!
Ready to make this MEDITERRANEAN SALAD RECIPE? Let’s go!
INGREDIENTS
Here is a series of photos with all the different ingredients gathered to create this Mediterranean-themed salad. In a way, we want you to consider it as the expanded version of a Mediterranean chickpea salad made with balsamic vinaigrette, but this salad has way more flavour. In this first grouping are the romaine lettuce and radicchio, plus different popular vegetables grown in countries that border the Mediterranean Sea. Also included is the very flavourful homemade salad dressing that sets this recipe apart from others. We’re confident you’ll have no trouble finding the ingredients needed to make all the elements of this salad recipe.
ONTARIO GREENHOUSE VEGETABLES
As mentioned in the preamble, we created this salad recipe making sure to use three veggies that most often appear in the various cuisines of Mediterranean countries: cherry tomatoes, cucumbers and bell peppers. For this post, we specifically used greenhouse-grown vegetables from Ontario. Greenhouse vegetables are available year-round, and we appreciate the superior flavours they deliver to this salad. When purchasing, look for the FOODLAND ONTARIO signs and stickers, remembering good things grow in Ontario.
Preparing the tomatoes, cukes, yellow peppers and sweet orange bell peppers is easy. Our only suggestion is to not worry about cutting them into uniform shapes and sizes. This isn’t like a cooking class for all you chef du garde-manger wannabes. There’s no need to dice, mince, julienne or finely chop a single thing. The goal is to simply cut the vegetables into bite-sized pieces.
ADDITIONAL VEGETABLES
We selected two additional salad ingredients that further support our theme: green zucchini and red onion. Give the zucchini the same treatment as the cucumbers, and for the red onion, just slice it thin. Of course you can add additional vegetables to taste, remembering this invitation to make this salad your own. Feel free to add eggplant, shaved fennel, grilled mushrooms, potatoes, carrots and beets. We also garnished the salad with flat-leaf Italian parsley because it’s growing in the cottage herb rail, but you can add other favourite herbs too. Try it with chopped chives, fresh basil, mint, thyme and oregano. The possibilities for additional veggies and herbs are almost endless.
One final thing about all of these vegetables goes to nutritional information. Eating fresh, raw veggies will provide a wide array of nutrients, including vitamins A, C and K, as well as minerals like potassium, magnesium, folate and iron. Like we’ve been told time and time again, “Eat your vegetables!”
ADDING BEANS
We all know the expression “been there, done that”. Well, a twist on that works perfectly for this MEDITERRANEAN SALAD RECIPE: “bean there, add that!” Enter the beans. We crafted this post in answer to readers requests for more vegetarian salads. Although it can be served as a side salad too, paired with a favourite salmon, grilled steak, chicken, lamb, pork or shrimp main course, keeping the veggie vibes with some protein had us looking to a wide array of beans and pulses. Adding a can of Romano beans accomplishes this, but again, other beans will work too. If you’d like, feel free to swap them for chickpeas AKA garbanzo beans, cannellini AKA white kidney beans, lentils or lima beans, go ahead. Additionally, feel free to add a tiny bit of farro, quinoa or a cooked pasta, if you wish.
LARGE SALAD BOWL
We are asking you to pull out all the stops to grab your best salad bowl. Even if you have to traipse down to the basement or up to the attic, whether you have to pull apart the storage cupboard or get a step stool to snag it from the very back of a top shelf, do it. Sure, be careful, but please do it. Because we’re recommending this salad be presented table-side or from a central point of importance on a sideboard or buffet, presentation is everything.
My three choices included a low glass oval (tough to toss though), a very large glass salad bowl (everything’s visible) and my hand-turned wooden large bowl (classic). I went with the glass bowl since it shows how beautiful everything looks once well combined after the toss. Pro tip: Make sure you’re using a good set of salad servers, too. Now’s not the time to toss with fumble tongs. Serve it right.
SALAD SPRINKLES
And now, we interrupt this program for a bit of shameless self-promotion. Sorry, but when I’m chuffed about something so good, I just gotta share. Here’s the latest addition to WATC’s line of exceptional products, SALAD SPRINKLES. You heard it here first; the stuff in this pouch is all you need to take the dressing made for this recipe from simple to amazing. The great thing about this blend of dried herbs and seasoning is our continued commitment to provide all-natural, gluten-free products packed with flavour. This blend of oregano, dried basil, sumac, mint, rosemary and dried vegetables is mighty tasty. We add a tablespoon to this dressing. Go HERE to order online, or HERE to find a RETAIL PARTNER near you.
MEDITERRANEAN SALAD DRESSING
Don’t get me started on the amazingness of this salad dressing recipe. We went for broke to develop a dressing that again reflects the flavours most often associated with the Mediterranean. The dressing is made with a good quality extra virgin olive oil, red wine vinegar, garlic and a tablespoon of our SALAD SPRINKLES. We then put a twist on that very basic vinaigrette by adding feta, Parmesan cheese and mayonnaise. Then it’s just a quick zip, add some salt and black pepper to taste, a titch of fresh lemon juice, and you have a creamy dressing like no other. Refrigerate the dressing in an airtight container until used. Consume within a week, but seriously, it never lasts that long.
SERVING ENHANCEMENTS
During the testing of this recipe, we looked at other things that could be added to the salad to give it more oomph (not that it needed it, this is just how we think). Instead of messing with a good thing, we decided on offering just a few additional sides to support the theme. Serving this salad with a side of warmed pita bread, marinated manzanilla and Kalamata olives, feta cheese, marinated red peppers, and artichokes is a great idea.
Feel free to garnish this plate of deliciousness with fresh herbs like fresh parsley, fresh mint or fresh basil, too. Your guests with love adding these additional flavour sensations to their plates.
TO SERVE
Serving this salad couldn’t be easier, remembering you can serve it as a side dish, an appetizer, or for lunch or a light dinner. If assembled in advance, keep it in the fridge until ready to serve. Then, toss gently but thoroughly to combine. Transfer portions to plates or let guests serve themselves, inviting them to add enhancements to the side, then pass the salad dressing. This lets guests add their desired quantity of dressing too.
PIN IT!
This fresh salad idea is so easy and delicious, we suggest you PIN the recipe to a favourite salad or side dish board on PINTEREST or BOOKMARK this tab for easy access. SHARE it with friends so they can make them too. We’d also appreciate seeing pics of all the delicious dishes you’re making these days. Use #weekendatthecottage when you post those pics on Facebook and Instagram. Thanks!
Serve the flavours of the Mediterranean with this MEDITERRANEAN SALAD RECIPE. Enjoy!
Cook Mode Use cook mode to keep your screen on while cooking.
Ingredients
For the salad:
1 head romaine lettuce
½ head radicchio (optional)
1½ cups cherry or grape tomatoes
1 cucumber
1 orange bell pepper
1 yellow bell pepper
½ red onion
1 green zucchini
1 19 oz. can of chickpeas
handful flat-leaf parsley, chopped
For the dressing:
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
⅓ cup red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon WATC SALAD SPRINKLES, or 2 teaspoons dried oregano
¼ teaspoon chili flakes
1 teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
2 garlic cloves, finely minced
¼ cup mayonnaise
¼ cup feta cheese
½ cup Parmesan cheese
¼ cup Italian or curly parsley, chopped
juice from ½ a lemon
For the flavour enhancements:
1 cup marinated olives
1 cup marinated red peppers
1 cup feta cheese, cubed
1 cup marinated artichokes
4 pita bread
Directions
For the dressing: Place all of the ingredients into the canister of an immersion blender or food processor fitted with a blade attachment. Blend until smooth and creamy. Try then season with kosher salt and black pepper to taste. Refrigerate until use.
For the salad: Give all vegetables a rinse under cool running water.
Prepare leafy vegetables: Cut or tear romaine lettuce into bite-sized pieces. Wash and spin dry. If using, rip radicchio into bite-sized pieces.
Prepare other vegetables: Halve tomatoes. Seed peppers and cut into bite-sized pieces. Divide cucumbers down middle lengthwise and cut into 1/2-inch chunks. Do the same with the zucchini. Thinly slice the red onion. Drain, rinse and strain beans. Roughly chop parsley.
Assemble salad: Toss romaine and radicchio together. Spill into large salad bowl. Add vegetables in triangular groupings on top of the lettuces. Sprinkle with chopped parsley. Cover and refrigerate if serving later, or continue.
Assemble flavour enhancements: Transfer flavour enhancements in individual groupings to a medium-sized plate or platter. Warm pita bread, cut into triangles and serve on another plate.
To serve: Present salad with dressing, flavour enhancements and pita bread on the side. Toss and transfer to individual plates, allowing guests to add their own dressing and enhancements.
Until Cottage Season
