EASY GREEK SALAD RECIPE - with healthy dressing

Hello my friends, it's Dani, and today I'm showing you how to make my easy and delicious Greek salad with a healthy Greek salad dressing, because every good salad needs a really good dressing. Now, I attempted to share this video with you last week via live stream. If you came to that video, you know it was a bit of a fail. My apologies, we did have some technical issues. But I really want you to have this recipe, so today we are going to take it from the top. Now, traditionally a Greek salad is made with a bunch of chopped vegetables and no lettuce, but I personally love to use some crunchy romaine lettuce at the base of this salad. So I start with a couple of hearts of romaine lettuce, I buy them just like this, and then I trim off the edge, slice them in half lengthwise, then come across the other ways and cut them into nice thin ribbons. Then I just transfer this into the basket of my salad spinner, give it a good rinse under some cold water, and then I spin it, so not only is it clean, but it pulls away all of the excess moisture, which is really important when you're making a salad, because if the lettuce is wet, the salad dressing won't adhere to the greens. I'll be sure to link the salad spinner that I'm using down in the description box below if you want to check it out. And keep in mind, pretty much any kitchen tool or gadget or important ingredient that I use throughout my videos, I link for you down in the description box so that you have that as a resource. Next I'm going to chop and prep the rest of the veggies, starting with a bell pepper. Now, you could use any color pepper that you like or that you have, what I like to do is slice off the sides of the pepper, I like to call these the pepper cheeks, and then the bottom as well, and then I slice them into strips, come back across the other way, and create a checkerboard. Next a little bit of thinly sliced red onion. Now I like to cut the onion into quarter moons, so I start by cutting off the stem side of the onion, that's this side right here, leaving the root intact, because that's what holds the onion together. Then slice the onion in half, remove this thin outer layer of papery skin, make a cut right down the center, making sure not to cut through the root, and then slice straight down, and you're going to see that you have these thinly sliced quarter moons. So perfect size, perfect texture. Then I'm going to need a heaping cup of chopped up cucumbers, I like to do these in quarters, and personally I love to use the English cucumbers for this salad because they don't have any seeds and they're extra crunchy. I'm also going to cut one cup of cherry tomatoes right in half, and then I have a half a cup of Kalamata olives, which are really salty and buttery and briny, and I'm going to slice those in half as well. Okay, so that covers all our veggies, then all we have left are chickpeas and feta cheese. So you're going to want one cup of chickpeas, also known as garbanzo beans, and what I like to do is just drain them out and then rinse them under some cold water. Now for the feta cheese, whenever possible, try to buy your feta in a full block like I have here, because when it's pre-crumbled, they need to use stabilizers and anti-caking agents so that it doesn't end up sticking together, and you're going to notice that when you buy it in the full block like this, it has such a better flavor and such better texture. It's nice and creamy and tangy, and it's not in tiny little crumbs. You can do nice, hearty chunks of feta like I have here. Okay, so that's everything you need for the base of the salad. Now I'm going to show you how to make my Greek salad dressing, which is a really light, bright fresh dressing, which is, of course, very easy to make. Now personally, I love to make my salad dressings directly in a mason jar because you can see the measurements right on the side of the jar, it's easy to shake, and it's easy to store. So we're going to start this dressing with a nice, big, fat clove of crushed garlic. Then I have one teaspoon of dried oregano. If you crush dried herbs between your fingers, just give them a little rub before adding them into your dish. It's going to release the essential oils, which is also going to release more flavor. Then I have a quarter teaspoon each of sea salt and black pepper, a half teaspoon of Dijon mustard, which is going to act as our emulsifier, then a quarter cup each of fresh squeezed lemon juice, and a red wine vinegar, along with one third cup extra virgin olive oil. And remember, this is when you want to use the good stuff. Use the best olive oil you've got in the house. Pop on the lid, give it all a good shake, you want to just get it really well combined, and then this dressing is ready to go. So now it is time to assemble our salad. So I've got my crunchy romaine in a nice, big bowl, and all we're going to do is layer on our toppings, starting with the bell peppers, the cucumbers, chopped tomato, the chickpeas, our briny olives, red onion, and then that delicious, tangy, creamy feta cheese. Drizzle your dressing right over the top. You want to do this right before serving. You may or may not use all the dressing, depending on your personal preference. And then gently toss this all together so you can get all of the dressing lightly coated on all of those ingredients, and get a little bite of everything when it's time to enjoy. Oh, this salad is so beautiful, it's so bright and fresh, such a flavorful recipe. This recipe would pair beautifully with some grilled chicken or some salmon, yet it is 100% substantial enough to stand on its own. So good. I can't wait to see how you take this recipe and make it your own, and when you do, come on down to the comments and share. And if you enjoy recipes like this, make sure to take a moment to hit that notification bell and subscribe to the channel so you never miss a new clean and delicious recipe. Thank you so much for watching. I'm Dani Spees, and I'll see you back here next time with some more clean and deliciousness. Cheers! I usually... Boom. Now, if you're in the market for us, if you yourself are...