Best Greek Salad Recipe
Posted Jun 30, 2021, Updated Feb 26, 2024
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This Greek Salad is loaded with fresh vegetables, crispy homemade pita croutons, creamy feta and the best from-scratch Greek dressing. It’s a dreamy mixture of bold flavors and textures that’s a delicious fresh and light meal or side dish.
Mediterranean food is my absolute favorite. I love a great falafel, Greek meatballs, homemade tztzaki, and Greek Salad is my favorite kind of salad!
This Greek Salad is loaded with fresh vegetables, crispy homemade pita croutons, creamy feta and the best from-scratch Greek dressing. It’s a dreamy mixture of bold flavors and textures that’s a delicious fresh and light meal served topped with grilled Greek chicken, or side dish.
Greek Salad Recipe: Ingredients & Substitutions
This recipe is easily customizable – so we will discuss some of the ingredient substitutions.
- For the Greek Salad Dressing substitutions see this post: Greek Salad Dressing.
- Spring mix.Use your favorite lettuce variety: romaine, baby spinach, baby lettuce, butter lettuce, etc.
- Baby tomatoes. You can use any type of tomato in this recipe with great results.
- Cucumber. I personally think cucumber is an important ingredient in Greek Salad, but you can omit or replace it if you would like. Some suggestions would be: carrots, bell pepper, and avocado.
- Red Onion. I love the pop of color and bold flavor that red onion imparts in this recipe, however you can use any onion you prefer.
- Kalamata olives. my love for kalamatas runs deep, especially in mediterranean cuisine. You can use any olive variety you choose.
- Feta cheese. Another key component of a Greek salad in my opinion, however you could substitute goat cheese or your favorite cheese if desired.
- Pita croutons. I love the addition of these pita croutons to this salad – however you can use regular croutons if you’d prefer. Or, you can make these crunchy roasted chickpeas instead of pita chips for a yummy, high-protein crunch.
How to Make Greek Salad
As always, we’ll walk through how to make Greek salad step-by-step, and don’t forget to watch the video.
Make the Pita Croutons
The first step in this Greek salad recipe is to make the pita croutons so they have time to bake and cool slightly (I love fresh, warm croutons my salad – yum). You can make these crunchy roasted chickpeas instead of or in addition to pita croutons as well.
To make them, combine pita, olive oil and sea salt in a large bowl.
Then spread the coated pita pieces in an even layer on a baking sheet and bake or 10 minutes, stirring once halfway through. Then set them aside to use later.
Make the Greek Dressing
I wrote an entire post dedicated to this Greek Dressing (it’s that good). So for more in-depth instructions on how to make it check it out here: Greek Salad Dressing. Basically you just combine the ingredients and set them aside for later!
Assemble the Salad
To make the Greek Salad, combine the ingredients and pita croutons in a large serving bowl. Be sure to save about 2 tablespoons of each ingredient (cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, cheese, etc.) to top the salad with after dressing for presentation.
Then, toss the salad with dressing and top with remaining ingredients.
Serve
Serve this Greek salad as a delicious main dish, or as a side dish to your favorite Mediterranean recipes. Here are some suggestions:
- Top it with sliced grilled Greek chicken for a hearty and complete meal.
- Make a side of tabbouleh salad!
- Add a dollop of this homemade tzatziki for the best salad you’ve ever had – literally. This baked hummus chicken was made to serve alongside this recipe. They’re a match made in heaven.
- Serve it with these baked falafels for extra protein but still a meatless main dish.
- Add a side of crusty no-knead bread.
- Balsamic pot roast is a great main dish to serve alongside this Greek salad.
- Add some crunchy roasted chickpeas instead of pita chips for some yummy, high-protein crunch.
Store
This Greek salad doesn’t store very well or last long after it’s made. So I suggest eating it all if you can (serve it to a lot of guests)! You can make it last longer if you choose not to dress it all at once, but instead mix up the veggies, make the croutons, and then dress the individual servings as you eat them.
You can store dressed Greek salad in the refrigerator but I’d suggest eating it within 1-2 days.
Greek Salad Recipe FAQs
This recipe contains lettuce, but you can use baby spinach, spring mix, etc. instead.
This Greek salad is the whole package – full of veggies, cheese, olives, and bread. A healthy and fresh well-rounded meal.
To be honest, this Greek salad is best when eaten the day it’s prepared. You could wash and chop all the ingredients so they’re ready to go to make the process quicker, but I can’t recommend preparing the entire salad a day in advance
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Best Greek Salad Recipe
Ingredients
Greek Salad
- 2.5 ounces spring mix
- 1 pint cherry tomatoes halved
- 1 cucumber peeled and diced (about 1 cup)
- ½ cup red onion finely sliced or diced
- ½ cup Kalamata olives roughly chopped
- 4 ounces feta cheese
Pita “croutons”
- 2 pita rounds sliced into 1” pieces (1 pita = 85 g)
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil
- ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
Greek Salad Dressing
- 2 Tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
- 3 Tablespoons olive oil
- ½ teaspoon minced garlic
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 2 teaspoons granulated sugar (or honey)
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- ⅛ teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
Make the Pita Croutons
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. lightly grease a large baking sheet.
- In a large bowl, combine pita, olive oil and sea salt.
- Spread in an even layer on prepared baking sheet.
- Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes, stirring once halfway through.
- Set aside.
Make the Greek Salad Dressing
- Either whisk ingredients together in a small bowl, put them in a mason jar and shake to combine, or blend together in a blender. Set aside.
Assemble
- In a large bowl, combine salad ingredients and pita croutons, saving about 2 TBS of each ingredient to top the salad with after dressing.
- Toss with dressing.
- Arrange remaining ingredients on top and serve.
Video
Notes
- For the Greek Salad Dressing substitutions see this post: Greek Salad Dressing.
- Spring mix. Use your favorite lettuce variety: romaine, baby spinach, baby lettuce, butter lettuce, etc. My favorite is spring mix.
- Baby tomatoes. You can use any type of tomato in this recipe with great results.
- Cucumber. I personally think cucumber is an important ingredient in Greek Salad, but you can omit or replace it if you would like. Some suggestions would be: carrots, bell pepper, and avocado.
- Red Onion. I love the pop of color and bold flavor that red onion imparts in this recipe, however you can use any onion you prefer.
- Kalamata olives. my love for kalamatas runs deep, especially in mediterranean cuisine. You can use any olive variety you choose.
- Feta cheese. Another key component of a Greek salad in my opinion, however you could substitute goat cheese or your favorite cheese if desired.
- Pita croutons. I love the addition of these pita croutons to this salad – however you can use regular croutons if you’d prefer. Or, you can make these crunchy roasted chickpeas instead of pita chips for a yummy, high-protein crunch.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
