Description
This is a bright summer salad full of texture and flavour contrasts. The addition of barley rusks means that it can stand alone as a perfect hot weather meal. The ingredients and amounts here make a salad that I love, but taste as you go to end up with your own favourite balance.
Ingredients
Scale
- 4 small cretan rusks, or 1 or 2 larger rusks
- 1 large red ripe tomato, cored and sliced into wedges
- 1/2 medium or 1 small lebanese cucumber, peeled in parts, seeded and sliced
- 1/2 a small onion, very thinly sliced
- 1 smallish piece of feta (as much as you like to eat in a salad)
- 5 or 6 stalks of purslane, rinsed and picked over (you don’t want the thickest part of the stem)
- a couple of sprigs of Greek basil (or regular basil), leaves picked
- a big spoonful (or to taste) of Kalamata olives
- a couple of cherry tomatoes, halved
- some nice salt (Maldon, sea salt etc)
- white wine vinegar (nothing too strong – sherry vinegar is nice!)
- good olive oil
- rigani, or dried Greek oregano
Instructions
- Run your cold tap and pass the rusks under until wet all over. Leave for a few minutes to drain and moisten through.
- Combine tomato, cucumber, onion, feta, purslane, greek or regular basil leaves and the moistened rusks and toss to combine.
- Add your olives and halved cherry tomatoes to make it look a little more pretty. Sprinkle with a good pinch of salt, or to taste. Add a few drops of vinegar (holding your thumb over the end of the bottle if it doesn’t have a pouring thingy) over the salad. Top this with a few glugs of olive oil. The salt should have travelled through the salad on the little streams of oil and vinegar and the dressing. Genius, huh? Sprinkle with dried oregano and tuck in.
Notes
If you cannot find Greek rusks, substitute roughly torn and toasted peasant-style bread and skip the initial moistening process.
- Prep Time: 10 mins