©2003 Ashy's vegetarian recipes.
Maybe they serve this in Greece, I don't know. I found it in Kazakhstan where it's one of the usual vegetarian options in restaurants. If they really do serve this salad in Greek restaurants, I bet it doesn't have salt cucumbers in it. I've been experimenting with balsamic vinegar lately so I'm going to go all pretentious and specify it in the list of ingredients. It is rather good. It adds a sweetness to dishes which you wouldn't really expect from any kind of vinegar. Feel free to ignore my advice and leave the vinegar out if you wish. That's what the Greco-Kazakhs do and they produce a fine and tasty salad.
In restaurants in Kazakhstan, a cheese called 'Brinza' is usually used for this salad. It's a sour white cheese made from sheep's milk. I've used feta cheese, haloumi, paneer and even tofu myself, all quite successfully (although the paneer was a little bland).
Finally, before we begin, a quick note on cucumbers. Down at my local bazaar, the cucumbers on sale are about ten centimetres long. I notice that in the UK, cucumbers are usually about five times bigger. Now, I don't think I've weighed an ingredient in my life and I'm not going to start weighing cucumbers. This geographical variation in cucumber size should, however, be borne in mind when sorting out your ingredients.
Here we go…
Ingredients
One or two fresh cucumbers
One or two salted or pickled cucumbers
Two or three tomatoes
A handful of black olives
100-150 g of white cheese
A few shredded lettuce leaves
A splash or two of olive oil
A splash of balsamic vinegar
A large pinch of dried oregano or marjoram
A little salt
Chop the tomatoes, cucumbers and cheese into cubes. Mix all
the ingredients together and you have an authentic Kazakh-Greek salad with modifications.