This crisp Greek Salad is full of flavor. Cucumber, bell peppers, red onion, tomatoes, and olives add texture and color.

May 4, 2022 Updated May 10, 2022 Jump to Recipe
This crisp Greek Salad is full of flavor. Cucumber, bell peppers, red onion, tomatoes, and olives add texture and color.
I love Greek salad.
I hate soggy Greek salad.
You know exactly what I’m talking about.
It happens often, a Greek salad water-logged by too much dressing and liquid.
Those once crisp veggies effectively turn to acidic mush.
This doesn’t happen with my Greek salad recipe. Here are my tricks that keep this salad crisp:
Greek salad entails lots of chopping. Red onion, bell pepper, tomato, and cucumber are all chopped to bite-sized pieces.
Take the time to chop the romaine, too. It’ll be crisper—and stay crisp longer—than using a bag of pre-washed and chopped romaine.
I use kalamata olives in my Greek salad recipe. Olives have better texture if bought whole, rather than pre-sliced. Buy whole olives, and slice them yourself. This simple trick adds great texture to Greek salad.
The chopped veggies and dressing in my Crisp Greek Salad recipe are mixed together. The veggie juices add more flavor to the dressing, and the dressing adds more flavor to the veggies.
But don’t mix the veggies and dressing together too early: the dressing will soften the veggies over time. I recommend keeping the dressing and veggies separate until about a half hour before serving the salad.
Spoon the dressed veggies over the romaine just before serving. Mixing the romaine in with the dressing/veggie mixture will make the romaine soggy fast.
This Crisp Greek Salad is a favorite veggie side in our house. It makes enough to feed us over two meals. My trick to keeping the salad crisp on day 2 is dividing the romaine, veggies, and dressing in half. On day 1, only mix together half of the veggies and dressing, and only use half of the romaine. Store the second half of each ingredient separately in the refrigerator. About a half an hour before serving the salad on day 2, mix together the second half of the dressing and the second half of the veggies, and serve over the remaining romaine.
Follow these easy tricks for a flavorful, crisp Greek salad, and never be disappointed by soggy salad again.
Make this salad a meal by pairing it with my Greek Tabbouleh and Aquafaba Hummus recipes.
Using a high-quality olive oil is important for any homemade dressing. I recommend PJ KABOS [aff. link] for the red wine vinaigrette in this recipe. This olive oil comes from the olive groves of the Panagiotopoulos family in Greece. You can find PJ KABOS olive oil in my Amazon Store here.
This Post Has 2 Comments
I can totally relate to your first two statements, too. Indeed, I usually barely use any dressing – just a little drizzle of olive oil and balsamic / lemon work perfectly for me. But I can see this version is perfectly dressed without being soggy. Fantastic colours, too!
I do know what you’re talking about. I don’t like a soggy salad, either. But my husband does! What a weirdo!