Feta Salad

Weather is still somewhat undecided but I’m sure that most of you are already thinking of summer BBQs and outdoor entertaining. With this in mind, this week I shall be giving the recipe for a feta cheese salad. It has raw mushrooms added, so if you are not keen on eating raw mushrooms then you could just omit, however, if you’ve never tried them I suggest you give it a try.

As are most of my recipes, this salad is very easy to prepare, and I suggest that you prepare it a couple of hours before serving so that the flavours blend better. This is what you will need to serve 6:

4 Portobello Mushrooms (big flat white ones)
4 Tomatoes
Iceberg lettuce leaves, around 5
1 English Cucumber
200gr Feta cheese
Black olives (pitted if you prefer)
Olive oil
Balsamic Vinegar
Oregano

Start off by washing and draining the tomatoes, lettuce and cucumber. Do not wash the mushrooms but just wipe them clean with some kitchen paper. Next prepare your serving bowl preferable a white one and tear the lettuce placing them at the bottom of the bowl.

Slice your cucumber (with the skin still on) and place them by the side of the bowl, all around the top. De-seed the tomatoes and dice them into little cubes, slice the mushrooms finely and spread all over the lettuce. Now, chop the feta cheese until it is crumbly and form a small ring towards the middle, leaving enough space to place the olives at the centre of the bowl. Using the Danish feta will not give you the same crumble texture as the original greek cheese would give.

In a small bowl, mix 3 spoons of olive oil and 1 spoon of balsamic vinegar together with the oregano or any other herb of your choice. Drizzle it over the salad leaving as many of the mushrooms untouched as possible. Mushrooms that would have the vinaigrette on them will turn dark.

Apart from being tasty, presenting the salad in this way will create an edible centre piece for your table!