'Mini' Greek Salad (Humour Me!)

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This salad is perfect for the heat wave (mid-30 C / high 90-F!) that we are currently simultaneously loving and complaining about at the same time.  It's fresh, refreshing, healthy, and cool.

It's also obviously not brain science or rocket surgery!  I'm not re-inventing the wheel here...essentially this salad is the exact same concept as a regular sized Greek Salad except with baby, pint-sized, itsy-bitsy, minikin vegetables (I know - tomatoes aren't vegetables, and Pluto isn't a planet, but I'm still going to pretend that they are!).  Also, it's hot and hard for me to care about cooking or picking up my camera to take a picture while cooking or using my insanely hot laptop (seriously, why is it so hot!?) to talk about my cooking.  I made a really, really, really delicious pasta the other night and The Hubby kept asking why I wasn't taking pictures.  Answer - I was too hot and too lazy, and all I cared about was watching Big Brother, and am now way full of regret because I don't remember all of the steps for that pasta to be able to recreate it!  Sigh, sigh, sigh!

Back to the salad.  In this version, I have traded in full-sized cucumbers, bell peppers, and tomatoes for their ridiculously cute baby versions.  The other ingredients aren't tiny...I was considering using shallot or pearl onions in place of the red onion, but chose not to because who knows what that might have been like.  The olives I had no teeny substitute for other than capers, and that seemed weird.  The feta is also not mini...in fact, the the less mini you get with cheese in any recipe the better/tastier/merrier, amiright?

Baby Love

Baby versions of vegetables seem to be the new fad, and you can see them all over grocery stores and farmer's markets these days.  They are so cute!   I posted a super-yummy Mini Pepper and Goat Cheese appetizer a couple of weeks ago.  Definitely check it out.

Oh, and do make sure to add the salad dressing a couple of hours before eating.  The tomatoes won't get soggy because they are in a protective mini shell, and allowing time to 'marinate' will take the bite out of the onion (while adding a whole lot of flavour in the process!).



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One Year Ago:  Watermelon Salad with Feta and Fresh Mint
Two Years Ago:  Buffalo Chicken Tacos

Mini Greek Salad

Serves:  8 side salads

Ingredients (use however much of each vegetable you want...this is just a guide!)

• 6 mini cucumbers, sliced
• 8 mini bell peppers (seeds and stem removed), sliced
• 16 - 20 grape or cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
• 1/2 cup red onion, thinly sliced
• 16 - 20 pitted Kalamata olives
• 1 1/2 cups light feta, crumbled
• 6 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper 

Directions
Put the first six ingredients into a salad bowl.  To make the dressing, place the remaining ingredients into a sealed container such as a jar with a lid and shake well to combine.  Pour dressing over salad (you may not need to use all of it), and toss well.  Refrigerate for a couple of hours before eating to marinate the flavours (don't worry - your tomatoes won't get soggy) and to take the bite out of the onion.