# In need of improvement... Greek salad



## Talyn (Mar 13, 2006)

Hey guys!  I was wondering if you could share some of your culinary expertise with me.

I'd been preparing a salad for the FHA-HERO regional competitions. It's a greek salad that I'd been practicing for months. I won first place (yay!) but now I'm going to state competitions and we have to use the same salad. We can still add or subtract ingrediants to our recipes, so I was wondering if you guys could help me decide what I can do to make it better. (I really want to place at state!)

Currently I have a pretty basic salad recipe that consists of
-romaine lettuce
-red onion
-sliced black olives
-orange, yellow, and red bell peppers
-tomato
-cucumber
-feta cheese

The vinaigrette I'm making consists of
-olive oil
-red wine vinegar
-oregano
-basil
-garlic
-onion powder
-salt
-pepper
-dijon mustard

I was thinking I could probably add some hauss avacado and some sundried tomatoes. Please give me some critique!!

Currently, for garnishing, I have it on a glass blue plate with the skin of a red onion crescent (kind of like the shape of a 'C') and an olive holding it in place at the top of the salad, and brunoise bell peppers kind of sprayed around. It looks a little like:







except a little more three dimensional... 

Please tell me what you think will make it better!

(I really hope other fha salad prep people aren't around here...)


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## auntdot (Mar 13, 2006)

Sounds great and congratulations.

My first thought is if it ain't broke don't fix it, particularly if you don't have a lot of time to play with it.  But then again you know what you are doing, have never been in a competition.

One idea, that might or not work at all, is to substitute or add some real ripe olives, Greek type, e.g. Kalamata, for the black olives (I guess you mean the Lindsey canned type onions).  Or mix 50/50.

For the dressing might want to consider adding some finely minced shallots for the onion powder, might give it a little bit of crunch and I love shallots.

A bit of another green in addition to the lettuce you are using might give it a more complex taste.

You asked for ideas, but you are the expert.  Just bouncing off ideas here.  Truly wish you luck in the competition.

God bless.


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## Talyn (Mar 13, 2006)

Thank you so much for the ideas!  I'll be sure to try them out, and I'm not really an expert. Regionals was my first competition and it was only for my high school gourmet class (requred to get an A), although I must say I'm pretty good at knife skills. =] (for someone my age at least)

do you think that maybe spinach could be good as well?


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## Zipfisch (Mar 13, 2006)

It sounds good they way you have it listed, but you could always add some garbonzo beans and keep with the Greek theme thing.  I like lemon juice rather than vinegar, but that's just my personal taste.  I also make a "Greek" salad using alot of the things you listed plus some orzo pasta and parsley.

I think the spinach would be ok, but I like the crisp lettuce with the other stuff you've listed.


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## urmaniac13 (Mar 14, 2006)

At this point the key seems to me the freshness and quality of each ingredients.  Try not to cut any corners in this aspect... especially a good quality evoo makes a world of difference to salad dressing.  Since you are doing a greek salad, try and see if you can find one from Greece.  Also for herbs (oregano and basil) use the fresh leaves, instead of the dried one.  I like the idea of auntdot about shallot in place of onion powder.
Also, you must remember the dressing is meant to enhance the flavour of the salad, not to overpower.  How much dijon you are using?  It seems to me, though I may be wrong and this could be a surprise twist, a bit of overload... have you tried one without?


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## Suus (Mar 14, 2006)

I love Greek salad, it's one of those things I could eat every day.
I'd go with Zipfisch' s idea and use lemon juice instead of the vinegar. I think the combination of lemon juice and feta is just the best! And the big difference can be in the type and quality of the feta cheese you use. Try some different ones, I personally love the very fat, smooth feta for my Greek salad. It seems to give more flavour to the salad than the crumbly type.
And maybe scallions instead of onion powder?
When I was in Greece, the Greek salads were made with only a few ingredients, but very good ones. They used kalamata olives, wonderful sun-ripened tomatoes, the sweetest bell pepper I ever tasted, peeled cucumber, red onion or scallions and loads of a very smooth, fat feta cheese. The dressing was never more than olive oil and lemon juice with salt & pepper. 
I think it might be hard to get ingredients with the same kind of quality this season, but maybe where's you're from that's different.

Good luck!


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## marmalady (Mar 14, 2006)

I'm in agreement with using kalamata instead of black olives.  Could you also make a little olive tapanade and maybe some little 'pita points' to set on the side of the plate?


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## GB (Mar 14, 2006)

You already took first place in the regional competition so I would not mess with success too much. I agree with urmaniac that the freshness and quality of your ingredients is a good thing to focus on. Are you using spices spices from the supermaket that might not be as flavorful as spices from a spice market? Look at things like that to make your award winning salad even better.

If you really are looking to change something though I agree with the others who mentioned kalamata olives.


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## buckytom (Mar 14, 2006)

every greek salad that i've ever had was topped with stuffed grape leaves and anchovies. 
i also agree about kalamata, and the toasted pita points is a great idea.


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## ironchef (Mar 14, 2006)

Is the competition being judged more by presentation or taste, 50/50 scoring, etc.?


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## jpmcgrew (Mar 14, 2006)

Sound real good to me but I would skip the avocado.All I can think of is maybe adding a couple of articoke hearts.May a peperoncini garnish


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## ella/TO (Mar 14, 2006)

As Aunt Dot said: if it ain't broke, don't fix it!....you did well with your first attempt....
when we were in Greece, we had "Greek Salad".....romaine;fresh, fresh tomatoes;cucumber;red onions; feta cheese; kalamata olives...whole, not sliced; dressing, I would guess, e.v.o.o., preferably Greek, lemon juice or wine vinegar and either fresh or dried Greek oregano.....Good Luck!!!!!... Be sure and let us know how you did.


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## Constance (Mar 14, 2006)

I agree with the others..."If it ain't broke, don't fix it."  The lemon juice sounds good, but since you already won a prize with the one you have, maybe you should stick with it. Perhaps add a somed fancy lemon slices as a garnish, along with a few Kalamata olives and artichoke hearts. That doesn't mean you have to leave out your sliced black olives...toss some of them in with the salad. 
We had a salad similar to this at a very fancy restaurant iin Key West, and it was outstanding. 
The toasted pita triangles will be perfect as an accompaniement. Just toss them in a little olive oil, spread out on a foil covered baking sheet, and toast both sides. If you want to sprinkle them with the same herbs you use in you dish, it will set them off. Dried herbs are best for this use. 
You can do this the day before, and store in a paper bag.


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## mish (Mar 14, 2006)

Welcome to DC, Talyn. Your salad sounds delish! I hesitate to suggest something, since it is for a competition, but an idea to play around with for yourself, first, might be something like...

Lamb, Tzatiki sauce, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, Kalamatas, garlic, feta... still thinking on it. Maybe eggplant? Again, it's just a thought to experiment with for yourself, if the idea is appealing.


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## Talyn (Mar 18, 2006)

Thanks for all of the suggestions!  I think I'll try them all out (before competition) and see which ones I like best.

The original recipe I had used lemon instead of vinegar and a simpler ingredients, but the flavor fell flat. (Maybe it was the quality of the ingredients I was using, not too sure) I think I'll try a twist with the olives. ;D My dad was playing around with olives (since he's doing the low carb thing and loves olives) and stuck a green one in the black one... it was actually pretty good, so I'll see what I can do with that. 

Thanks again for all of the suggestions!


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## Suus (Mar 19, 2006)

Good luck!!


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## Hopz (Mar 19, 2006)

Three things to say... lemon juice, kalamata, and CAPERS!


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## Talyn (May 8, 2006)

Hey guys, thank you so much for the ideas! I ended up not changing it much, just added kalamata  and cut the amount of black olives in half. I was in fresno last week for the state competition and managed to come away with third place out of 20. I am a little disappointed in myself though. I would have gotten second place if I'd've remembered to say 'I'm going to prepare an Olympic Salata with a Dionysus Vinaigrette Dressing.' (You have to say it or else you'll lose 10 points...which I did..  )

But I guess I am happy to say that if it were based on the salad and my knife skills alone, I would have pulled away with 2nd.  I plan to complete again, so all isn't lost. ^_^

I'll be posting the salad along with a picture later on when I'm on my own computer.


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## Chef_Jimmy (May 8, 2006)

congrats talyn


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## GB (May 8, 2006)

Wow that stinks that a cooking contest judges you on remembering to say something. As far as I am concerned you got second place. Great job!!!


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## Talyn (May 8, 2006)

Thanks guys! ^_^

Anyway, here's the recipe. The salad is fit for 1 large serving or 2 small servings, and the dressing is 1-2 servings (because we had to have some extra)

---

*Olympus Salata***​ *1 serving*​ * *
* *
*Ingredients:*
 
1/6                        head romaine lettuce, chopped to bite size
¼-1/8                     red onion thinly sliced
3                           colossal black olives, sliced
3                           Kalamata olives, pitted and roughly chopped
1/6                        orange bell pepper, julienne (1”)
1/6                        yellow bell pepper, julienne (1.5”-2”)
1/6                        red bell pepper, cut to lozenge
1/2                        large tomato, quartered and then cut into fourths width-wise
1/4                        cucumber, 1/2 small dice, 1/2 bruised w/ fork & cut into crescents
1/3c                       crumpled feta cheese (save some for the top)
* *
*Dionysus Vinaigrette Dressing:*​ *1-2 Servings*​ * *
1/3c                       olive oil
1                           medium clove garlic, minced
1T                          fresh oregano, chopped
1T                          fresh basil, chopped
1/2t                       pepper
1/2t                       salt
1/2t                       onion powder
1/2t                       Dijon mustard
1/3c                       red wine vinegar
 
*Directions:*
 
  1.[FONT=&quot]       [/FONT]     In a large salad bowl, combine Romaine, onion, olives, bell peppers, tomatoes, cucumber, and cheese.
  2.[FONT=&quot]       [/FONT]Whisk together all of the Dionysus dressing together and toss with salad.
 
*Garnishing:*
 
1/6               red bell pepper, brunoise
1/6               yellow bell pepper, brunoise
1/6               orange bell pepper, brunoise
1                  onion peel, sliced to curve
1                  small wine cup
1                  black olive
Leftover feta
 
*Directions:*
* *
  1.[FONT=&quot]       [/FONT]Sprinkle bell peppers on top of the plate and salad.
  2.[FONT=&quot]       [/FONT]Place onion curve on the top of the salad and hold in place with olive.
Adjust appearance to desired look. Place wine cup to the side with dressing inside.


---

Notes: Dionysus is the Greek god of wine. ;D Unfortunately I don't have a picture on the computer. 

Tell me what you guys think! I'm already developing a recipe for next year  >.> something along the lines of a stuffed avacado...


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## katluvscake (May 10, 2006)

I am not sure it this will keep it greek but how about some type of homeade crouton??


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## Banana Brain (Jun 15, 2006)

I like my greek salad with no lettuce, just lots and lots of juicy marinated sliced mushrooms.


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