A fresh, crunchy greek-inspired salad with creamy, marinated feta. Mixing the feta cheese with the dressing ahead of time adds more flavor without making the salad soggy. Serve over greens, cooked grains and/or alongside roasted chicken. Stays well in the fridge and perfect for meal prep!
Greek salad with marinated feta
- Total Time: 23 minute
- Yield: 4-6 1x
Description
A fresh, crunchy greek-inspired salad with creamy, marinated feta. Mixing the feta cheese with the dressing ahead of time adds more flavor without making the salad soggy. Serve over greens, cooked grains and/or alongside roasted chicken. Stays well in the fridge and perfect for meal prep!
Ingredients
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 tablespoon dill, minced*
- 1 tablespoon oregano, minced*
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 tablespoons artichoke oil (from jar of marinated artichokes)
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground cumin
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 8 oz feta
- 1 pint cherry tomatoes
- 1 english cucumber
- 1 15 oz can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- 1 6 oz jar marinated artichokes
- ½ cup kalamata olives
Instructions
- Make dressing by combining 2 cloves minced garlic, 1 tablespoon minced dill, 1 tablespoon minced oregano, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar, 2 tablespoons honey, 1 tablespoon of marinated artichoke oil, ¼ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon ground cumin. Slowly stream in ¼ cup of olive oil, whisking constantly to emulsify.
- Crumble 8 oz feta in a large bowl. Add 3 tablespoons of dressing and mix gently to combine. Set aside and let marinate for at least an hour.
- To make salad, halve 1 pint of cherry tomatoes, dice 1 cucumber in bite-sized pieces and roughly chop 1 jar of marinated artichokes. Add tomatoes, cucumber, artichokes, 1 can of drained and rinsed chickpeas and ½ cup of kalamata olives into bowl with marinated feta.
- Stir everything to combine, adding 1-2 tablespoons of reserved dressing to coat.
- Serve cold or at room temperature with extra dressing on the side.
Notes
- You can replace the fresh herbs, with 1 teaspoon of dried dill and oregano if that's what you have available
- This salad stays well in the fridge for a week. Keep any extra dressing on the side to keep the vegetables as fresh as possible
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 hr
- Category: Salad
- Cuisine: Greek
Keywords: greek salad, meal prep
It's greek salad + marinated cheese. Literally nothing bad about that. Yes, we're marinating cheese today! Is that weird? If it is, I'm going to need you to get over it real quick. Marinated cheese is a revelation.
If you're plant-based, don't leave now. This salad is still good without the cheese.
If you're not plant-based, what are you waiting for? GO MARINATE YOUR CHEESE.
While this salad may scream summer, it's actually great any time of year! All the ingredients are easily found no matter the season, and works just as well as a light summer dinner and hearty winter side when you want a little crunch. It is fairly straightforward and I'm sure you've seen million like it before. But! I've been making it for years and I figure it was worth sharing. It's easy to put together, keeps for days and pretty much has "meal prep" written all over it.
Sometimes I throw it over a bed of lettuce or mixed greens, but most of the time I eat it as-is. It's surprisingly filling and full of ingredients I just can't get enough of.
Did I mention the MARINATED CHEESE?!
The only thing I love more than feta cheese is feta cheese mixed with olive oil, fresh herbs and vinegar. You just shake everything together, pour it over cubed feta and wait a little bit (at least an hour if you can help it). It's good enough to eat on it's own and has naturally made an appearance on a cheese board or two in my house.
The real beauty of this is you use that exact same "marinade" as the salad dressing. A few tablespoons are gently mixed with the feta to start absorbing all those flavors, and then the rest drizzled over your fresh, crunchy salad at the end.
So why even do this? There is something extra special about cheese that has been sitting in a bowl of flavor. Not only does it absorb all that garlic and chopped herbs, but the feta cheese softens just a bit and is a perfect contrast to the crunchy cucumber and onion in the salad. When you mix it with the rest of the salad ingredients, it honestly just pops and makes that little wait time worth it.
No time? No problem. Mix everything up as-is, and it'll still be delicious. I promise!
Let's mix it up
You'll find lots of recipes for greek salads, but this combo is my favorite.
The cucumber and tomatoes are the non-negotiable ingredients for me here. I need the crunch and I need the freshness. From there I like to add the following:
- Red onion: Thinly sliced for a little bite.
- Chickpeas: Straight from the can (drained and rinsed, of course)! The dressing is flavor enough so no need to add anything else to these. I find the chickpeas help make this salad filling enough as a meal, which I love.
- Marinated artichokes: I could (and do!) eat these straight out of the jar, so in my salad they go! A little bit of the marinating oil goes in the dressing too, so less waste there. If you don't have marinated artichokes, you can absolutely use regular canned or frozen artichokes. All good!
- Kalamata olives: I, uh, forgot the olives when I took these photos, but they are a must for me with this dish! I love that extra salty, briney bite.
Perfect salad for meal prep
This greek salad is amazing for meal prep! You can do it a couple different ways:
- Mix everything up and let it sit in the fridge as-is. The vegetables will soften a little, but your cucumbers will stay pretty crunchy and the flavors will just get better and better. If you do this, you don't even have to marinate the cheese ahead of time!
- Make as directed, but keep extra dressing on the side. This way you're combining the marinated cheese and vegetables together and letting those flavors meld, but the overall salad stays really fresh tasting throughout the week. Just drizzle on as much dressing as you want when it comes time to eat.
- Keep things separated. Still mix up the vegetables, chickpeas and olives together. But pack up the marinated cheese separately from the rest of the salad and dressing. Combine everything when ready to eat!
Hope you all love this one!
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