Greek Salad From Jim’s Garden (With Homemade Pita)

I have to give a BIG thanks to our long time family friend, Jim, for sharing the abundance of his garden.  Just look at all of this gorgeous produce – lemons, cucumbers, lemon cucumbers and a huge assortment of varying sizes and colors of tomatoes (check out the super cool green ones!).  He really is an expert gardener! (Stay tuned later in the year when his guava trees come into season).  Awesome!

So, I am going to recycle my earlier post on Greek Salad because, this time of year, most of the ingredients are fresh and plentiful in many peoples’ gardens.  There is nothing more vibrant and healthful than garden fresh produce, prepared in a nice salad, accompanied by fresh made pita. By the way, there is nothing your family won’t eat on a fresh, hot, homemade pita.

Greek Salad

10 oz tomato (hopefully garden fresh like these beauties, cut into bite sized pieces, as appropriate)
1/2 red onion cut into 1/16 inch strips
1/2 large cucumber cut into 1/8 inch slices, then quartered (I used Jim’s regular cucumbers plus his lemon cucumbers)
2 cups distilled white vinegar
1 tablespoon freshly chopped basil
1 teaspoon freshly chopped oregano
1 teaspoon fresh thyme
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound deli style (marinated, not pickled), pitted calamata and green Greek olives
10 oz container of crumbled feta cheese

In a large bowl, soak tomatoes, cucumber and red onion in vinegar for 20 minutes. Pour into a collander and let strain 20 minutes more. Put mixture back into the bowl and toss with olives, basil, oregano, thyme, garlic and olive oil. Top with feta cheese. Serve plain or with pita (pita recipe follows). Keeps in refrigerator a week or more.

Homemade Pita

3 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon dry crushed or chopped fresh parsley
1 teaspoon yeast
1 egg
2 tablespoons olive oil
¾ – 1 cup warm water

Preheat oven to 450 degrees with an oven safe griddle or cookie sheet on the bottom rack of the oven.

Combine all dry ingredients together, then add olive oil and egg and incorporate well. Add the water and knead dough about 5 minutes until a smooth, elastic dough forms.

Cut dough into 12 equal portions and roll them out into rounds on a floured board with a rolling pin.

Bake each round on a preheated, ungreased pan in the oven until they puff up (around two minutes). Flip the pita and cook for an additional minute or two until the second side puffs up. Remove from oven and store in a covered container until ready to serve. Store leftover pita in an airtight container or plastic bag.

To reheat pita: Brush both sides of pita with olive oil and cook on a pan preheated to medium heat.  The pita should “puff” when done.  If desired, sprinkle with a little herbed garlic salt (I like Johnny’s Garlic Spread).

Thanks, Jim!  What a great couple of dinners!

Eat Well!

~Trish