For Greek salad cheese which is better to pick? Original recipes

It is difficult to find a man who has never tasted Greek salad, because it does not necessarily have to go to his homeland. This delicious and healthy dish can be cooked at home. To do this, you just need to know what vegetables are included in it, what is it refueling and what kind of cheese is in the Greek salad? Now it's up to the little one to find a suitable recipe.

History of the origin of Greek salad

In Greece, in the homeland of this famous salad, it is considered a village salad. And all thanks to such an uncomplicated composition. Fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet peppers, onions, olives, olive oil and feta cheese "Feta" were the same, the main products in the diet of ordinary peasants. But the history of the appearance on the table of the Greeks of the salad is associated with one curious case.

The fact is that even in the XIX century vegetables, for example, tomatoes and even onions, it was customary to eat whole, biting off a piece and seizing bread or cheese. And only in 1909 one emigrant from Greece, returning from America to his home, decided to crush the usual products and put them together. The reason for this was a sick tooth, which did not allow the young man to bite the whole vegetables.

Later, his sister, who also liked this dish, decided to treat them to guests at a village wedding. The success was overwhelming. So there was the first and original recipe of Greek salad with Feta cheese. Now it is famous not only in Greece, but also far beyond this solar country.

Cheese for Greek salad: name, description

As the Greeks themselves consider, a salad, which is not used for feta, can no longer be called Greek. This cheese has long been a visiting card of Greece. He is made only in this country, exclusively in certain areas, for example, on the island of Crete, in Macedonia and some others.

Feta is a soft salty light cheese made from sheep's and goat's milk. For its ripening a special rennet rennet is used. An obligatory condition for the preparation of cheese is a certain ratio of milk: 70% of sheep and 30% of goat. Nothing is added, no preservatives, dyes.

The technology of cheese preparation has remained unchanged for many years. First, an enzyme is added to the milk, due to which it is fermented to a mass resembling cottage cheese. Then it is pressed into special pieces. After that, the mass is soaked in a special brine in wooden barrels for another two months. So it turns out the same cheese for the Greek salad, whose name is from the Italian language and translates as a "piece". Feta is the most famous and popular soft cheese in the world.

Original dressing for salad

According to the classic "village" recipe, the Greek salad is dressed only with olive oil. With a small addition. To create a fragrant bouquet and a unique taste for high-quality olive oil of cold pressed, lemon juice and Provencal herbs are added.

Refueling for salad should always be prepared in advance, so that all its components are joined together, and she managed to infuse and soak in their smells. It will need: 70 ml of olive oil, juice of half a lemon (can be replaced with a tablespoon of wine or balsamic vinegar), fragrant herbs (oregano, thyme or provencal).

Therefore, not only on what kind of cheese in the Greek salad will be present, but the actual taste of the dish depends on the filling itself. Now it remains to collect all the ingredients together and proceed directly to the cooking process.

Classic recipe for Greek salad

In the preparation of Greek salad there are also secrets, which must be taken into account. It seems that it is difficult here: cut the vegetables and soft cheese, fill them and mix thoroughly. But it's not like that at all. The original recipe for Greek salad with Feta cheese does not involve mixing ingredients, but layering them.

To prepare this dish you need the following ingredients:

• 4 medium-sized tomatoes;
• 2 cucumbers;
• 1 large sweet pepper of green color;
• ½ onion head (sweet, purple);
• 150 g of feta;
• 8 pieces of black olives;
• Some capers;
• Dressing, prepared according to the above recipe.

All the ingredients for the salad are cut large and laid in layers in a certain sequence.

1. Cut cucumbers: small in circles, large once again in half. Put on the bottom of the salad bowl.

2. Peel the pepper from the core and cut into half rings. Place on top of cucumbers.

3. Peel the tomatoes from the stalk and cut into four parts.

4. The onion is cut into half rings. After this, it must be rinsed in cold water to remove the bitterness. Onion is pressed and laid out next, after the tomatoes, a layer.

5. Decorate the dish with capers and olives, which you do not need to pre-cut.

6. Season with salad, do not stir.

7. Top with a whole piece of cheese and pour it with the remaining dressing.

8. Immediately before serving, you need to salt, pepper and mix Greek salad. Cheese "Feta" while carefully breaking down into large pieces.

This is how they prepare the Greek salad in his homeland. However, many chefs in different countries have long gone from the traditional recipe, and offer visitors a restaurant dish, which includes other types of cheese.

What to replace cheese "Feta" in Greek salad?

If you can not find a feta before preparing the Greek salad, you can try to replace it with another pickle cheese. The cheese has a similar taste. For a Greek salad, this cheese is also suitable, as it is also soaked in brine, but unlike feta, it does not crumble so much and is more compressed, so when added to a dish, it still has to be cut.

Brynza has a more brackish taste. For a Greek salad, the cheese of such a plan fits less only in the sense that it is very easy to overdo the dish. To prevent this, the cheese must be soaked for a few hours in cold boiled water. So it will become less salty and will look more like traditional Greek cheese.

There are other options for replacing feta. Often the recipes use Greek cheeses sirtaki and fetaksa. Both of them have a pronounced salty taste, so use them in recipes is cautious. Otherwise, you can greatly overdo the dish, which, as a result, spoil it.

Greek salad with Fetax cheese: step-by-step recipe

This is not the original salad recipe originally from Greece. And it's not just another kind of cheese. Instead of onions, lettuce leaves are used here. The rest of the ingredients are similar. The recipe for Greek salad with Fetax cheese requires the presence of such components: tomatoes (2 pcs.), Cucumbers (2 pcs.), Bulgarian pepper, lettuce, olives, fetax (150 g), olive oil (30 ml), salt.

Step-by-Step Recipe:

1. Cut cucumbers, tomatoes and Bulgarian peppers into large pieces.

2. Take the salad leaves with hands.

3. Fetax cut into large cubes. It has a dense structure, so unlike feta, it will not crumble.

4. Olives can be cut in half or added to the salad as a whole.

5. Mix all the ingredients in one salad bowl, season with olive oil and salt to taste.

The recipe of the Greek salad with the "Fetax" cheese suggested above is not inferior in taste to the classical variant. If you want, you can change the dressing to the salad by adding lemon juice and aromatic spices to olive oil.

Greek salad with sirtaki

Stepping back from the original recipe, you can prepare an equally delicious salad, but with another cheese. Sirtaki also comes from Greece, but he learned to successfully cook in Russia from cow's milk. In structure, it is denser than feta. Well cut into cubes, do not crumble.

The recipe for Greek salad with Sirtaki cheese suggests the use of tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet peppers, olives, olive oil and fresh basil. All the ingredients are taken to cut large, so that you can feel the taste of each of them. Dressing salad with olive oil and fresh basil (½ pencil) or dry (1 tsp). Sirtaki is salted cheese, so salt is added at the last moment when refueling salad. Otherwise, the dish may be spoiled.

The recipe for a Greek salad with Sirtaki cheese is an excellent alternative to the traditional cooking option. It can be served both on a festive table, and for breakfast.

Mozzarella in Greek salad

A tasty and healthy dish of fresh vegetables can be prepared with the addition of Italian mozzarella. It has a dense consistency, but it has a delicate, brackish taste. For a Greek salad, Mozzarella cheese is no worse than sirtaki or fetax.

In this recipe the same ingredients are used, as in those that were suggested above. Tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, olives, soft cheese and olive oil are the essential ingredients of the salad. But whether to add a bow, depends on the cook's excellent preferences.

The Greek salad is dressed with traditional dressing from olive oil, lemon juice and Provencal herbs.

Greek salad with Adyghe cheese

A real Greek cheese made from sheep's milk can not be found in every store. Of course, he learned to do in Russia from cow's milk. But the taste of such cheese (feta, sirtaki or fetax is not important) is not at all the same, but the price remains high. How to find a way out?

There is another option, which is ideal for Greek salad - Adyghe cheese. It is more fresh to taste, but with skillful preparation of refueling it can quite replace more expensive cheeses. In other respects, the recipe for Greek salad remains unchanged.