Cretan Salad - A Taste of Summer in Crete

Lunch is served!

If there is one thing I love about Cretan cooking, it’s that nothing needs to be too complicated. The best dishes are often made from whatever is growing in the garden, picked up at the market, or hiding in the kitchen.

This Cretan salad is a perfect example. It’s somewhere between a salad and a proper meal: creamy potatoes, juicy tomatoes, crunchy cucumber, salty olives and capers, with hard-boiled eggs for a little extra substance. Add some feta or mizithra, a handful of purslane (glistrida) if you can find it, and plenty of good olive oil.

There isn’t really a strict recipe here. Cretan cooking is wonderfully forgiving, so use what you have and don’t worry too much about exact quantities.

The result is simple, filling and very Mediterranean, the sort of lunch that tastes even better eaten outside with a piece of crusty bread and absolutely nowhere else you need to be.

Ingredients

The Salad

• 1–2 medium waxy potatoes, such as Yukon Gold

• 3 hard-boiled eggs, quartered or sliced

• 2 ripe tomatoes, sliced or roughly chopped

• 1–2 cucumbers, peeled and sliced

• 1 small handful of capers

• ½ cup Greek olives, such as Kalamata

• Optional: boiled courgette, mizithra instead of feta, 1 small onion, thinly sliced raw or lightly marinated

• A handful of fresh parsley or purslane (glistrida), if available

• 150g Feta

• 2-3 rusks
  

The Dressing

• 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

• 1–2 tbsp red wine vinegar or fresh lemon juice

• 1 tsp dried Greek oregano

• Sea salt

• Freshly ground black pepper
  

Method

1. Cook the potatoes: Boil the potatoes in salted water until just tender when pierced with a knife. Don’t overcook them, you want them to hold their shape. Drain, allow to cool slightly, then cut into chunky pieces.

2. Prepare the dressing: Whisk together the olive oil, vinegar or lemon juice, oregano, salt and plenty of black pepper. Taste and adjust, it should be bright, herby and generous with the olive oil.

3. Assemble the salad: Arrange the potatoes, tomatoes, cucumber, eggs, olives, capers and onion on a large platter. Add any optional ingredients you’re using, such as courgette, onions, mizithra or purslane. If the rusks need a bit of water, make sure to dampen them and give them a good slug of olive oil.

4. Dress generously: Pour over the dressing and gently toss, taking care not to break up the potatoes or eggs too much. Finish with a little extra olive oil, oregano and black pepper.

Make It Your Own

This is one of those recipes where you really don’t need to follow the rules. Add boiled courgettes, swap the feta for creamy mizithra, throw in some purslane (glistrida) when it’s in season, add onions (raw or pickled work) or leave out the eggs if you want a lighter version.

And if you’re lucky enough to have really good tomatoes and Cretan olive oil, don’t overthink it. They’re doing most of the work already.