Greek Salad - Spartan Village-style

If you wanted a traditional Greek salad in Greece, you'd go to just about any restaurant or taverna and ask for a "horiatiki salata", i.e. "village salad".  In the villages are where the freshest ingredients can be found, but it's the simplicity of the salad that makes it great and tasty. 

Ingredients:

• 2 large tomatoes (the juice from large, ripe tomatoes adds to the dressing, but throw in some cherry tomatoes to step up the presentation)
• 1 medium cucumber (seedless varieties are preferred)
• 1/2 green pepper (or a banana pepper!)
• 1/4 red onion (step it up with chives as an alternative)
• 1/8 cup black olives
• 1/4 cup feta cheese
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• Sea salt, to taste (probably won't need much if the feta is sufficiently salty)
• 2-3 tbsp Spartan Oil ;-)

Cutting: Don't worry too much about precision--the point is to get chunks small enough to fit two or three items on a fork at once. Cut each tomato into approximately 12-16 pieces. Cut cucumbers into half-moon pieces. Green peppers and onions should be cut into smaller pieces approximately half the size of one of your cucumber chunks.

Combine all ingredients into a large bowl, except for feta, oregano and Spartan Oil. Mix gently to blend. Place chunks of feta on top, then liberally drizzle the entire salad with Spartan Oil. Place oregano in palms and rub oregano over salad. Prior to plating, toss entire salad.

Pro tip: Add some chopped fresh basil for an extra flavor kick.