Greek Spinach Salad with Simple Greek Vinaigrette

Last week, my sister Allison made my Mediterranean chicken skewers, only she marinated and grilled the whole chicken breasts instead of making the skewers. This turned out delicious and is a great idea. A couple of days later, we made this salad with the leftover chicken.

Now, I have kind of a confession to make. I don’t usually love a salad. It has to fit certain parameters.

1. It can’t be mostly lettuce.
2. Bonus points if it contains no lettuce at all.
3. It needs to have lots of stuff in it.
4. It needs plenty of dressing.

Allison feels similarly about salads, so we made this Greek Spinach Salad with plenty of veggies, chicken, and cheese.

Where’s the cheese in the pictures, you ask? I forgot to put it on before I took the photos. Don’t be like me. I noticed my error before we ate though, thank goodness. Just imagine pearly white chunks of feta, would you? Thanks. You’re a pal.

You also might be wondering where the olives and tomatoes are, since they are usually on a Greek salad. We were just using what was in our fridges, and we had neither tomatoes nor olives. Plus, I don’t really care for olives, anyway. Feel free to put them on if that’s your jam, though.

One of the great things about salads is that there usually isn’t really a “recipe,” per se. It’s more of a list of ingredients, and you get to choose your own adventure with the proportions, depending on your preferences. This is no different. For this salad, we used:

• baby spinach
• leftover grilled chicken
• garbanzo beans
• thinly sliced red onion
• thinly sliced red bell pepper
• sliced English cucumber
• feta crumbles

The dressing does have a recipe. Those proportions need to be right, or you end up with a dressing that just tastes like olive oil, or one with waaaaay too much vinegar. Neither are good. They need to work in harmony to make your salad sing its sweet song.

This Greek Dressing uses:

• olive oil
• red wine vinegar
• dijon mustard
• 1 small garlic clove
• honey
• salt
• pepper
• dried marjoram (you could also use oregano)
• Italian seasoning

Have you ever used dried marjoram before? It’s like oregano’s more mild-mannered cousin. I like the combination of both marjoram and Italian seasoning, because it mellows the oregano, but is still present enough to pack a punch.

Greek Salad

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Prep Time 10 mins

Course Salad

Cuisine Greek

Ingredients

  

• baby spinach
• leftover grilled chicken
• 1 can garbanzo beans
• thinly sliced red bell pepper
• thinly sliced red onion
• English cucumber, quartered and sliced
• feta crumbles

Instructions

 

• This is kind of a no-recipe recipe. Just add the ingredients in your desired proportions to a bowl or platter.
• Dress with Greek vinaigrette right before serving.

Keyword Greek, salad, spinach

Greek Vinaigrette

Gracious Cooking

Zesty and fresh, this vinaigrette goes great on salads and vegetables.

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Prep Time 10 mins

Course Condiment

Cuisine Greek

Servings 4 servings

Ingredients

  

• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 2 Tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1 small clove garlic grated or finely diced
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram
• 1/2 teaspoon italian seasoning I use a Mediterranean blend, but any will work.
• 1 teaspoon honey
• juice of 1/2 of a small lemon

Instructions

 

• Add all ingredients to a small mason jar.
• Secure the lid and shake vigorously for about 20 seconds. This will emulsify the dressing.

Notes

If the dressing separates after a while, just shake it again.

You can store this in the fridge, but bring it up to room temperature and then shake before serving. Olive oil gets kind of solid in the fridge. 

Makes just over 1/2 cup of dressing.

 

Keyword dressing, Greek, Lemon, Quick & Easy, vinaigrette