Tossed Greek Salad with Greek Vinaigrette

First course in our Greek feast last night, this beautiful and bright salad brings together the best of Mediterranean flavors: crisp romaine lettuce, juicy tomatoes, piquant peppers, cucumber, red onion, and tangy crumbled feta. I'm glad I followed the advice of another All Recipes subscriber and added Kalamata olives- they are so salty, bold, and fantastic! Not to forget the vinaigrette, which turned out to be one of my favorite salad dressings I've ever made! I scaled down the original recipe (I figured I didn't need two quarts.), but now I know why it's author makes so much at once- it's incredible! It keeps at room temperature and would be great on a variety of other salads as well.

Greek Salad

INGREDIENTS

romaine lettuce, chopped
red onion, thinly sliced
Kalamata olives, pitted and sliced

pepperoncinis, sliced
tomatoes, seeded chopped
cucumber, sliced
feta cheese, crumbled

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large salad bowl, combine the Romaine, onion, olives, peppers, tomatoes, cucumber and cheese.

2. Prepare dressing, drizzle over top, toss, and serve.

Greek Vinaigrette

INGREDIENTS

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

1 tsp. Dijon mustard
1 tsp. garlic powder

1 tsp. dried oregano
1 tsp. dried basil

3/4 tsp. onion powder
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste (about 1/4 tsp. each)

DIRECTIONS

1. Pour vinegar and mustard into a food processor. Turn on low and slowly add the olive oil to emulsify. Add the garlic powder, oregano, basil, onion powder and salt and pepper. Pulse a few more times to incorporate. (Can be done by hand in a large bowl, adding the olive oil slowly while whisking vigorously to emulsify.)

2. Drizzle over salad and serve. Keeps well at room temperature.

Serves 6.

(Adapted from All Recipes)