Mediterranean Greek Salad: A Wonderful Side Dish!

 For dinner last night, I decided to make a salad side dish. But I didn't want just an ordinary lettuce and ranch salad. I opted out for a fancy Mediterranean Greek Salad, comprised of cucumbers, Roma tomatoes, red onion, and crumbled feta (oh...and black olives, but I decided to leave those out! I wish I liked olives!)

I started out by cutting the vegetables up in order and adding them to the mixing bowl as I went. I first chopped up 3 cucumbers, then added 1 1/2 cups feta cheese. Next, I added the Roma tomatoes. If you aren't familiar with Roma tomatoes, they are about the size of a kiwi, so I had to guess how many would make up 3 cups worth. I ended up buying 9 Roma tomatoes, and it worked out just perfectly! About 3 tomatoes makes up 1 cup.

I know that a lot of the juice in the tomatoes comes from the middle part where all the seeds are, and I didn't want a pile of tomato juice sitting at the bottom of the bowl, so I took out a lot of the juice/seeds before adding it to the bowl. This way it doesn't make the salad really soggy and overly tomato-y.

Then you add 1/3 cup diced sun-dried tomatoes. These come in a jar, and luckily we had some in the refrigerator! You also want to use the juice (about 2 Tablespoons) to go into the salad. This will be kind of like the dressing/oil, but healthier! Add the red onion, and chill about an hour before serving. (That's just my preference.)

This salad was a perfect side dish for any summer meal! Although my family isn't too fond of olives or tomatoes, we really enjoyed all the flavors. In the end, (since we are big fans of cucumbers!), we decided we could have cut back on the tomatoes (maybe use 2 cups next time). But I would highly recommend this refreshing salad to anyone!

On a final note, I would like to add a comment from my mom regarding the salad: "It's so GREEK-Y!"