I sure hope you all enjoy salads as much as I do. I wasn’t kidding when I said they’re all I want to eat this time of year. Since they’re all I want to eat, they’re all I want to make, and therefore, all I want to post on this vegetarian food blog of mine. Who’s in favor of more summer salads? Aye!
These beauties were heavily inspired by a salad at The Mixx here in Kansas City. It’s my favorite salad place, and I find myself there when I come home from a trip to an empty fridge. They always have a fun seasonal salad.
A couple of months ago, the seasonal option was a Mediterranean wedge salad with an olive relish and everything else you see here. It was fresh, delicious, and fun to eat, so I took a photo and jotted down the ingredients.
I decided to simply halve my heads of romaine lettuce, but these salads remind me of iceberg wedge salads, so I kept the “wedge” in the title. My only mistake was mixing the feta into the tomato salad component, which muted the colors a little bit. They’re prettier when the feta is sprinkled on top, so that’s how I wrote the recipe. (The feta is optional, by the way.)
The salads are rather large, rather epic side salads as written. You can turn them into full meals by mixing chickpeas into the tomato salad, and/or serving them on quinoa. I’ve provided a little more detail in the recipe notes. Please let me know which kinds of salads you’re craving this summer! I’m open to all recipe suggestions, all the time.
Greek Wedge Salad
- Author: Cookie and Kate
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Total Time: 15 mins
- Yield: 4 salads
- Category: Salad
- Cuisine: Greek
Beautiful Greek salad made with wedges of romaine lettuce, fresh tomatoes and olives piled on top, and a lemon tahini dressing. These salads don’t store well for later, so they are best served immediately (or you can store leftover lettuce, toppings, and dressing separately, and assemble them just before serving). Recipe yields 4 rather large green salads.
Ingredients
Salad
- 2 heads of romaine
- 1 ½ cups halved or quartered cherry tomatoes, depending on their size
- ⅔ cup chopped seeded cucumber (about ½ medium garden cucumber)
- ⅔ cup chopped celery (about 2 ribs)
- ¼ cup pitted and halved Kalamata olives
- 1 shallot, very thinly sliced
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- Pinch of salt
Lemon-tahini dressing
- ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 to 3 tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons tahini
- 2 to 3 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
- ½ teaspoon fine-grain sea salt
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Garnishes
- ¼ cup crumbled feta cheese (optional)
- ¼ cup finely chopped fresh mint and/or basil
Instructions
- To prepare the salads: Halve the heads of romaine lengthwise, all the way through their bases so the halves stay intact. Set aside.
- In a medium mixing bowl, combine the tomatoes, cucumber, celery, olives, shallot, lemon juice, and a pinch of salt. Toss to combine and set aside to marinate.
- To prepare the dressing: In a liquid measuring cup or small bowl, combine all of the ingredients, starting with the lower amounts of lemon juice and garlic. Whisk to blend. Taste, and add more lemon juice if it tastes bitter or needs more zip, and more garlic if it could pack more of a punch (I like my dressing on the garlicky side). Season generously with pepper, whisk again, and set aside.
- To assemble: Place each romaine halve on its own dinner plate. Top each one generously with the tomato salad mixture. With a spoon, drizzle the dressing rather liberally over the salads, then finish them with a sprinkle of feta (if using) and chopped herbs. Serve immediately, with sharp butter or steak knives to aid slicing.
Notes
Recipe inspired by The Mixx in Kansas City.
Make it vegan: Skip the feta. You might like to make up for it by adding more olives.
To make this salad a full meal: I think you could mix a can of drained and rinsed chickpeas into the tomato salad. And/or serve the salads on a layer of cooked quinoa, which I can confirm is tasty. I’d cook up about 1 cup of dried quinoa. Here’s how to cook quinoa.
If you love this recipe: Check out my Mexican version here, and more fresh Mediterranean recipes here.
Allyson says
Summer is made for salads. I’ve never really been a wedge salad person, but I could change for this beauty.
Kate says
Agreed! I think you would enjoy this one. :)
Rosemarie Arnold (nee; Taylor) says
Will shop for the ingredients to make it this weekend. It sounds healthy and tasty.
My Maiden name is Taylor.
Thank you for putting me on your e-mailing list, I look forward to hearing from you again.
I like quick to make veggie meals. I have a wonderful Lemon tree.
I live close to a fishing town so do enjoy fish meals also.
Thank you!
Rosemarie
Kris says
Can’t wait to try this salad, though we’d swap out the Kalamata olives! We’re big on salads, too, this time of year. Our DIL is a vegetarian, so I’m always looking for something tasty to serve all of us. I’ve bookmarked The Mixx for when we get back to Kansas City – the California Club is calling out to me :)
Kate says
Thanks, Kris! I know olives aren’t for everyone. The Mixx is so good. Casual, great for when you want a meal that won’t way you down, although watch out around weekday lunch time—gets crazy in there.
Rachel @ Mesa Cooking Co. says
I love all the Mediterranean toppings! They’re amazing. I also love how it’s cut into wedges – I always think that looks so fancy :) Pinned and on my list to make soon!
Kate says
Thanks, Rachel! I think it’s fun to serve salads this way. Makes for a more interactive experience. :)
Karen @ Seasonal Cravings says
There’s something so crisp and refreshing about a wedge salad, whether it’s with iceberg or romaine. Perfect for summer!
Kate says
Thank you, Karen!
Pia says
Call me weird, but I honestly have a thing for vibrant and fresh salad photos, so keep those posts coming, because I for one sure will not tire of them :)
Oh, and I hope you got the comma situation solved, so that you can finally enjoy some downtime this weekend xx
Kate says
I don’t think that’s weird at all. ;) Thanks, Pia!
Michelle says
This looks wonderful! I am happy with any salad recipe you’d like to post. In the summer I do like to incorporate fruit into an entree salad so maybe some fruit/vegetable salad combination ideas? Thank you!!
Kate says
Thanks, Michelle! I’ll see what I can do!
Laura (A Beautiful Plate) says
I love these photos!!! And this salad. I’m not a huge traditional wedge salad girl, but I can get behind anything in the Greek salad family. Can’t wait to make this.
Henia says
I love to make chery tomatoes ,olives ,pine seeds ,dill ,with olive oil lemon juice salt and peppers
★★★★
Kate says
Sounds delicious! Thank you, Henia!
Amanda @ Anchored to Sunshine says
This looks delicious :) I love when a salad has perfect looking tomatoes on it! A tomato can make or break a salad. I must give this a try!
Sarah says
Yay for more salads – anything that keeps me away from my stove in this heat gets my vote. I love your main course salads especially with grains(they’re the thly way to convince my husband it’s not a side) so more of those would be great.
Kate says
I have a few of those on my list! Thanks, Sarah!
Medha says
This looks delicious! I’m all about salads now, so not complaining at all, keep ’em coming. Love the idea of garnishing with fresh herbs.
Dipti says
Each year I visit different part of the Europe especially in the summer season and I like most Spaniard’s food. By the by, you made the delicious salad and also attached gorgeous images which made your post so great to look. I will try it today with my family. Thank you so much.
Kate says
I would love to visit Europe every summer! Thank you, Dipti.
Jasmine says
This looks absolutely yummy! My stomach is growling just looking at the recipe!!!
Kate says
Thanks, Jasmine! Hope you get a chance to try it soon!
Celeste | The Whole Serving says
I love everything about this salad. Crisp and fresh are the first things that come to my mind. I’ve been eating a boat load of salads this summer and I will simply add this one to the list.
Tamar says
I made this last night for dinner and it was SO good!!!!! Thank you!!! I can’t wait for your cookbook to come out.
★★★★★
Kate says
Yay, thanks Tamar!
vanity says
wanted to try something different and new and must say , this was truly amazing .
Kate says
Awesome! Thank you, Vanity.
Trish says
Family and I had this for dinner last night. As per your suggestion, I did add more olives as I’m vegan and chickpeas, as this was our main. Colorful, flavorful, delicious, and healthy. Just what we needed on a hot summer’s evening. Served this with kale pesto garlic bread and it’s a meal I’m still thinking about this morning! Making your Double Tomato Pesto Spaghetti with Zucc. Noodles tonight. Thanks, Kate!!
★★★★★
Kate says
Thank you, Trish! I’m so glad you all enjoyed it. The sound of that garlic bread just made my stomach growl!
Emily says
I made this last night and it was SO good- loved the dressing especially. I skipped the shallot and marinating part because I was short on time and it was fine without. Used fresh tomatoes and cucumber from my deck pots. You give The Mixx a run for their money. Definitely will be making again :)
★★★★★
Kate says
Thank you, Emily! So glad you enjoyed this one.
Geoff Bateman says
Stumbled into you through your healthy banana bread recipe. Normally I object to healthy on principle, but I had to admit defeat on reading your recipes. Great stuff. If I could add one variant to your romain wedge salad. Try taking the romain wedges and throw them, cut side down, into a very hot dry non-stick fry pan, until they fast grill, toasty on one side. Say a minute max. Has AMAZING taste results. Keep everything else same. Serve cold obviously.
★★★★★
Kate says
Hey Geoff! Thanks for saying hi. I didn’t know you could throw romaine in a pan like that. I’m always too lazy to fire up the grill. I will be giving your trick a try soon!
Cassie says
I tried a similar salad in Palo Alto at this Italian restaurant, except the cleese was Parmesan and the lettuce wedges were grilled! SO delicious. This looks wonderful!
jasmine says
Never thought to make a greek wedge salad! Great recipe!
Kate says
This looks so great! I think I’ll make it tonight. Lovely idea!!
Dawn says
This salad looks fantastic. My 70 year old room-mate will love it! She’s teaching me how to be more vegetarian, which I have been working on for years anyway. I do have one question about this salad. How long will the tomato salad portion last once made up? There’s only two of us and we would love to take left-overs to work. (She works nearly full-time and I do work full-time.) As for The Mixx, gotta get into KC to try it as I’m in a northern suburb. :)
Kate says
Hi Dawn! I hope you both love it. The tomato salad will keep well for a day or so. Tomatoes get a little mealy in the refrigerator, but they will be good for lunch the next day! The Mixx is my favorite, hope you get in there soon. Just watch out for the crazy weekday lunch line.
Judi G says
Thanks for the recipe, Kate. I made this tonight and it received rave reviews! It was refreshing as a Greek salad always is, but the Lemon Tahini dressing made it so vibrant. It was so easy and so delicious! Next time I may add beans for a complete meal. The presentation is gorgeous–can’t wait to serve it to guests.
★★★★★
Vonna says
The dressing was the key and, most importantly the Tahini. I used Artisana Raw Organic Tahini. So fresh , so yummy, great new taste. I made 1 Romaine head for two, but made the rest of ingredients for 4. That gave me a great leftover for lunch the next day.
Kate says
Perfect! Thanks, Vonna.