This authentic Greek Salad, or Horiatiki, is vibrant and fresh, a perfect use of summer's fresh tomatoes. This simple salad is easy to make and tastes just like summer in Greece.
A handful of humble ingredients combine to make this Horiatiki, or classic Greek salad. It's best using the summer's bounty of fresh tomatoes.
Add crisp cucumbers, crunchy peppers, zesty red onion, briny olives, aromatic oregano and of course a splash or red wine vinegar and extra-virgin olive oil. Finally, salty feta cheese takes this simple salad to the next level. You read that correctly, there's no lettuce in a traditional Greek salad.
This vibrant and juicy salad is the perfect complement for grilled meats, souvlaki, fish, and more. It's easy to make, and easy to adjust to make less or more servings as needed. You can certainly make a single serving with one tomato and scale everything else down accordingly.
Ingredient notes
- Tomatoes: Ideally, use fresh ripe summer tomatoes. If making Horiatiki off-season, your best bet would be vine-ripened tomatoes, which are bright red and juicy year-round.
- Cucumber: I like English or hothouse cucumbers. They're crisp, sweet, and uniform in size. No need to peel them unless you want to.
- Onion: Red onion is the way to go here as it's more mild than brown or white onions.
- Bell Pepper: Green bell peppers are the only traditional colored peppers for this classic Greek salad.
- Kalamata Olives: Although you could use other olives, kalamata are pretty common and easy to find. Use either pitted or unpitted, whatever you prefer.
- Extra-Virgin Olive Oil: Use good quality extra-virgin olive oil. As this is such a simply dressed salad, the quality of the ingredients (namely the olive oil) is paramount.
- Red Wine Vinegar: The classic acidic element in horiatiki is red wine vinegar. It may be tempting to use lemon juice (and it's your business if you do), but it just won't taste the same.
- Dried Oregano: I can't imagine a proper Greek salad without this ubiquitous dried herb. Oregano provides that signature flavor that rounds out this salad.
- Feta Cheese: Although my preference of feta cheese is Bulgarian (I said what I said!), it's typically far too soft and crumbly for this purpose. Definitely use real Greek feta here. Cut it into slabs and place it on top or roughly crumble it.
How to make it
Combine tomatoes, cucumber, pepper, red onion and olives in a serving bowl. Drizzle with the olive oil and vinegar and season with dried oregano, salt and pepper.
Gently toss to combine. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed.
Top with feta cheese. If desired, finish with a pinch more of dried oregano and another drizzle of olive oil over the feta. Serve immediately. If it sits too long, it will get soggy.
Please scroll to the bottom of the post for the full recipe (in a printable recipe card) including ingredient amounts and detailed instructions.
Expert tips
To cut my tomatoes into bite-size pieces, I divide each tomato into 8 thick wedges (4 wedges from each half) and then cut each wedge in half crosswise.
You can cut all of the vegetables about 1 to 2 hours in advance (don't refrigerate the tomatoes!) and then dress the salad right before serving.
I like topping my horiatiki with a slab of feta cheese instead of crumbles. Not only does it look prettier this way, but you can break off chunks of feta for whoever wants it, and avoid serving feta to anyone who doesn't (my mom, for example). You can also increase the amount of feta if that's your vibe (honestly, just measure with your heart).
Other recipes you may like
- Strapatsada (Greek Scrambled Eggs with Tomatoes)
- Gigantes Plaki (Greek Baked Beans)
- Spanakorizo (Greek Spinach Rice)
- Fasolakia Giaxni / Lathera (Greek Stewed Green Beans)
- Skordalia (Greek Garlic and Potato Spread)
Tried this recipe? Please leave a star ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating in the recipe card below and/or a review in the comments section further down the page. You can also follow me on social media on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest!
Horiatiki (Greek Salad)
Ingredients
- 4 medium ripe tomatoes cored and cut into wedges or bite-size pieces
- 1 medium hothouse/English cucumber sliced into half moons (peeling is optional)
- 1 green bell pepper stemmed, cored and sliced
- 1 small red onion peeled and sliced
- 1 cup kalamata olives
- ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 4 ounces (115 grams) feta cheese cut into slabs or crumbled (or more if desired)
Instructions
- Combine the tomatoes, cucumber, pepper, red onion and olives in a serving bowl. Drizzle with the olive oil and vinegar and season with dried oregano, salt and pepper. Gently toss to combine. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed.
- Top with the feta cheese. If desired, finish with a pinch more of dried oregano and another drizzle of olive oil over the feta. Serve immediately. If it sits too long, it will get soggy.
Notes
- To cut my tomatoes into bite-size pieces, I divide each into 8 thick wedges (4 wedges from each half) and then cut each wedge in half crosswise.
- You can cut all of the vegetables about 1 to 2 hours in advance (don't refrigerate the tomatoes!) and then dress the salad right before serving.
- I like topping my horiatiki with a slab of feta cheese instead of crumbles. Not only does it look prettier this way, but you can break off chunks of feta for whoever wants it, and avoid serving feta to anyone who doesn't (my mom, for example).
Nutrition
*All nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered estimates. Actual nutritional content will vary with brands used, measuring methods, portion sizes and more.*
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