There is no cooking involved, but there is quite a lot of chopping. That is why when you see this salad at Whole Foods or Dean and Deluca you end up paying a LOT for it. The payoff is that it is fresh and crisp and can be made AND dressed ahead of time since it doesn’t have any lettuce that can get soggy. This also makes it a great dish for entertaining since it gets better and better as it sits out during your event.
You can also mix up your vegetables depending on what you prefer. I’ve made it before with all different colored bell peppers, zucchini or even celery. The dressing is really great as it sits and soaks into the ingredients. As a kid I would eat this salad in pita bread that I tore in half to make it into pockets. Sometimes I would even spread some hummus inside the pocket first before loading it up with salad. You can also feel great about eating as much of it as you would like since it is so healthy!
Chop all the vegetables into 1/2 inch cubes. Chop the olives. Crumble the feta cheese.
Mix the olive oil, red wine vinegar, honey, salt and pepper together in a small bowl. Don’t worry about it separating, we are going to pour it over the salad immediately.
Layer in the following order: red onions, cucumbers, yellow bell pepper, red bell pepper, tomatoes, feta cheese and olives.
Pour the dressing over the salad. Let sit for about half an hour if you can.
Greek Rainbow Vegetable Salad
Ingredients
- 4 medium on the vine tomatoes
- 1 large cucumber , peeled
- 1/2 red onion
- 1 red bell pepper
- 1 yellow bell pepper
- 4 ounces feta cheese (my favorite is Bulgarian Feta, but any kind will do)
- 3 ounces kalamata olives
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon honey
- kosher salt and black pepper to taste (I use 1/4 teaspoon of each)
Instructions
- Chop all the vegetables into 1/2 inch cubes.
- Chop the olives.
- Crumble the feta cheese.
- Mix the olive oil, red wine vinegar, honey, salt and pepper together in a small bowl.
- Don't worry about it separating, we are going to pour it over the salad immediately.
- Layer in the following order: red onions, cucumbers, yellow bell pepper, red bell pepper, tomatoes, feta cheese and olives.
Pour the dressing over the salad. Let sit for about half an hour if you can.
You may notice my vinaigrette ratio is 1:1 for oil to vinegar. This is a personal preference, I have always liked extra vinegar in my dressings. To make it more along the lines of a classic ratio, you can do a 2:1 oil to vinegar blend.
My friend just brought this salad over for lunch today. I’m so glad she told me it is your recipe. I love how the feta absorbed all the flavors to add another texture with the crisp veggies. Best way to eat veggies ever!
Yay! So glad you loved it 🙂
We have made this three times since last week and there are never any leftovers.
Wonderful!!
I’m not a fan of olives so I’d leave those out. I especially love the rainbow of colors and feta makes everything taste awesome.
You could definitely leave those out. I’ve even thrown in garbanzo beans in the past.
I love all these flavors! This is a perfect time of year for a Greek salad too being able to buy so many of the ingredients fresh from the Farmer’s Market.
Yes! I love farmers markets too!
This Greek Rainbow Salad looks so yummy! It’s so refreshing and I’m sure I would love it for lunch soon!
This looks and sounds like a delicious recipe! I would love to make this for our family sometime.
The colors are striking especially for summer! I need to give greek salads a try again
Cheerful, bright colors and crunchy ingredients like feta cheese and diced tomatoes make this salad so appealing. Thanks for the great recipe for Greek Rainbow Vegetable salad.
My pleasure!
I just love salads like these. They are the best. We went to the farmers market last week and I have been making new things since. Now, I have these odd ingredients and I just chopped them all up and put them in a large bowl. Some vinegar, oil and seasoning and I called it Summer Fresh. LOL It was good.
Sounds like exactly what I would do too!
This is my kind of salad! I love all of the flavors.
I love anything Greek inspired because it is guaranteed to have olives and feta! This salad looks great. I love all the colourful veggies.
Me too! I LOVE greek olives and feta 🙂
My husband would love this! Saving it to show him!
Wow, that looks so good. Nothing like fresh vegetables. I’ve been looking for ways to mix it up. I’m going to try this.
Hope you love it!
I love how colorful it is! I bet it just bursts with flavor!
Yes!
This looks amazing! I love how fresh and healthy it is too. I love bright and colorful salads in the summer.
Thank you!