So Many Dishes

Today has been a day dominated by salads, and that’s a good thing!

We had a church picnic after our service today. It may sound strange to be having a picnic in October, but this is Florida, so we can picnic pretty much year round. The weather was gray and threatening, but the rain held off. Unfortunately, it was very humid, so most people at tables indoors. We opted to sit outside. We’ve been in Florida so long, I guess we’re used to the humidity, although we really are ready for some cooler, drier, weather.

I opted to take horiatiki salad as my contribution to the picnic spread. Horiatiki is often referred to here as Greek peasant or farmer salad. It doesn’t include lettuce; most American “Greek salad” does include lettuce, although it’s not commonly used in Greece. Instead, the salad is comprised of tomatoes, cucumber, and onions. Sometimes it will include bell peppers, which mine did. Olives are obligatory, as is feta cheese. Dressing is based on olive oil and lemon juice, sometimes including garlic and herbs.

A friend asked for the recipe, but that’s hard for me to do. The proportions change every time I make it. Today I started with an English cucumber, which I cut lengthwise into quarters and then cut into about 1/2-inch chunks. I cut two bell peppers into cubes about the same size, and chopped two medium tomatoes into similar size pieces. I coarsely chopped a couple slices of red onion, but I’m always careful not to have it dominate the salad. Kalamata olives are my favorites, and I added maybe a half cup of pitted olives. I crumbled some good sheep’s milk feta over top, again probably about a half cup. It’s very much “until it looks right” proportions. Because I had fresh dill, I sprinkled about two tablespoons of coarsely chopped dill over the salad before I dressed it with the ladolemono dressing recipe I included in the Super Shrimp post. I’m happy to say that I brought home an empty container.

We knew that the picnic lunch would be more food than we normally eat for lunch, so had planned a lighter dinner. It didn’t hit me until I was fixing dinner that it was a variation on the horiatiki! Shredded cooked chicken breast, cooked orzo pasta, more finely chopped cucumber, bell pepper, onion, and dill, mixed with leftover ladolemono and topped with feta became lemony orzo-chicken salad. Ordinarily I’d make the dressing that’s part of the original recipe, but this worked just fine. Our next salad, however, will be something completely different, though!

Happy eating!