Spare Spoons Kitchen
The Weeknight Kitchen · Side · A few minutes, no cooking

Mediterranean Cucumber Salad
tomato, feta & olives

The dressed cousin of the quick vinegar salad — crisp cucumbers with cherry tomatoes, red onion, kalamata olives, and feta, tossed in good olive oil and red wine vinegar with oregano and fresh herbs. A cucumber-forward Greek salad; no cooking, ready in minutes.

15 min active no-cook serve fresh
Spoon cost
Time ●○○○○ Anytime
VegetarianGluten-Free
Servingsas a side
6
Units

Ingredients

This one's dressed in oil, not brined — so olive oil quality shows. There's no long soak to hide behind: the flavor is the tomatoes, the feta, and a good fruity extra-virgin olive oil, so use one you'd want to dip bread in. Still salt the cucumbers first so they stay crisp and don't water down the dressing — but this is a fresh-and-serve salad, best the day you make it rather than a keeper.

Method

    Cook's notes

    It's basically a cucumber-forward horiatiki (Greek village salad) — the traditional version leaves the feta in a slab on top and skips lettuce entirely, letting the vegetables and good oil do the work. Slabbed or crumbled is your call.

    Feta matters. Block feta stored in brine (Greek or Bulgarian) is creamier and more flavorful than the pre-crumbled kind, which is drier and often has anti-caking starch. If you can, buy the block and crumble it yourself.

    Best the day you make it. Unlike the quick vinegar cucumber salad — which keeps and improves for days — this one is dressed in oil with tomatoes and feta, so it's freshest served the day it's made. It also won't sit out at a picnic as safely with the dairy.

    Good olive oil is the whole point. With no brine to lean on, a fruity extra-virgin oil carries the dish. A splash more at the table never hurts.

    Serve alongside anything from the grill or oven — the sheet-pan chicken thighs, the garlic-anchovy thighs, lamb, or grilled fish — or make it a light lunch with warm pita and hummus.

    Easier, if you like

    • Pre-crumbled feta and a tub of pitted olives cut this to almost no prep — it's a bowl-and-toss salad at heart.
    • Skip the cucumber salting if you're rushed and serving right away; just toss everything and eat within the hour.
    • A jar of good vinaigrette can stand in for the dressing in a pinch, but oil + vinegar + oregano takes ten seconds and tastes fresher.
    Vegetarian and gluten-free as written; easily vegan

    Vegan: leave out the feta, or use a plant-based feta — the olives, oil, and oregano still make it taste Mediterranean. A handful of chickpeas adds body.

    No red wine vinegar? Lemon juice is the classic Greek alternative; white wine vinegar works too.

    Make it a meal: add a can of drained chickpeas or white beans, or a scoop of cooked farro or orzo, and it becomes a light main.