Chopped Salad with Chick Peas, Feta Cheese and Zatar Vinaigrette

For us, summer means salad. Not just leafy greens and tomatoes for starters to a meal. We eat bulky filling salads for dinner. Like this chopped salad, which of course could be served with other salads or as a side dish to grilled fish. But it’s also satisfying on its own, just like this. Add a crust bread and some fabulous olive oil for dipping and that’s all you need (except for dessert of course).

Chopped Salad with Chickpeas, Feta Cheese and Zatar Vinaigrette

• 1 large cucumber, peeled, deseeded, and chopped

• 1 large red bell pepper, chopped

• 2 large ripe tomatoes, chopped

• 3–4 scallions, chopped

• 1 (15-ounce) can chick peas, rinsed and drained

• 1 cup crumbled feta cheese

• 1/4 cup minced fresh parsley

• 1/2 cup tangy black olives, pitted and halved

• 3–4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

• 2 tablespoons lemon juice

• 1/2 teaspoon zatar

• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

• Pita bread or crisps, optional

Place the cucumbers, bell pepper, tomatoes, scallions, chick peas, cheese, parsley, and olives in a bowl and toss ingredients gently. Just before serving, mix together the olive oil, lemon juice, and zatar. Pour over the salad. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Salad tastes good with Pita bread or crisps.

Makes 4 servings.

Herbed Feta Cheese with Sundried Tomatoes and Olives

A few weeks ago I took a quickie trip to Berlin with my daughter. We took a stroll through the Turkish outdoor market, where I saw someone selling a gorgeous hunk of feta cheese, scattered with sundried tomatoes and olives, seasoned with herbs and sprinkled with a drizzle of olive oil.

I noted the ingredients and took a photo. 

It looked so delicious that the moment I saw this cheese thing I knew I had to make it at home.

I did.

It is as good as I thought it would be. I served it to guests last weekend.

They raved.

Here's the recipe. 

Herbed Feta Cheese with Sundried Tomatoes and Olives

• 1/2 pound feta cheese
• 3 sundried tomatoes in oil
• 8-10 imported black pitted olives
• 2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh parsley
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• Aleppo pepper
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

Cut the feta cheese into thick slices and place on a serving dish. Chop the sundried tomatoes and scatter them over the cheese. Scatter the olives around the cheese and dish. Scatter the parsley over the ingredients and sprinkle with the oregano and some Aleppo pepper to taste. Drizzle the olive oil on top.

Makes 8-10 servings

Egyptian Feta Cheese Dip

When in Egypt, eat as the Egyptians do.

So I have, as I’ve been here for just under two weeks. Breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Some of the traditional breakfast food is actually not so different than what I eat at home, which usually is plain yogurt with fresh fruit or dried apricots. There’s lots of yogurt here for breakfast, all plain rather than being mixed with so much stuff that you can’t taste the yogurt.

But for breakfast here there’s also hummus, baba ghanoosh, tahini, olive salads and falafel, so I’ve been having a feast. I love all that food, but normally it’s for snack or hors d’oeuvre, not breakfast. This will change my company brunch menu for sure. All of these dishes are ones I can make ahead so there’s no fussing when people are over.

Think New Year’s weekend.

One of the more interesting breakfast dishes is the variety of feta cheese mixtures. I love feta cheese. But it’s the kind of cheese I crumble into a salad or spinach pie. In Egypt they mash it up and mix it it with lemon juice and olive oil to make it creamy, add some chopped tomatoes, scallions and sometimes parsley or mint and it becomes a spread for pita bread.

Terrific breakfast food. Great change from toast and jam.

The photo shows the way it’s served: with a drizzle of olive oil and chopped tomatoes. Try it. The recipe is something like this — use amounts of lemon juice and olive oil that suit your fancy and make the feta as creamy as you like.

Mash 6-8 ounces of feta cheese with about 2 tablespoons olive oil and about 2 tablespoons lemon juice. Beat until creamy. Add plain yogurt if desired for a creamier consistency. Add 3 chopped scallions, 8-10 chopped cherry tomatoes and 2 tablespoons chopped parsley or one tablespoon chopped fresh mint if desired. Mix thoroughly. Serve drizzled with olive oil and chopped tomatoes. Serve with pita bread. Makes 6 servings