Chopped Greek Salad
This Greek salad recipe is the best! It features chopped romaine lettuce and colorful garden vegetables, plus irresistible olives, feta cheese, and a simple Greek vinaigrette.
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on July 25, 2024
Raise your hand if you’re ready for warm weather and refreshing green salads! I may have jumped the gun on spring and summer veggies here, but I just couldn’t wait any longer. It feels like spring here in Kansas City today and I’m celebrating with Greek salad.
This chopped Greek salad is crisp, fresh and overflowing with bold Greek flavors. You’ll see romaine lettuce, tomato, cucumber, bell pepper, Kalamata olives and feta cheese in my bowl. I opted for cherry tomatoes, since they’re delicious no matter what time of year.
Combined with crisp lettuce and a simple homemade Greek vinaigrette, you have a big, irresistible Greek salad.
Here’s my trick to making the best Greek salad: I chop the ingredients small. That way, you get maximum fresh flavor in every bite.
Authentic Greek salads often don’t contain greens. Greek salads at restaurants in the U.S. typically include awkward and distracting pieces of sad iceberg lettuce. This chopped version with fresh romaine is my favorite of them all!
I made this salad with the help of my partner OXO’s handy kitchen tools, including their salad spinner (which I frequently recommend to friends), cutting board (love the grooved edges to catch liquid and the anti-slip edges), and their large, sturdy 4.5-quart glass bowl.
Watch How to Make Chopped Greek Salad
This salad is a continuation of my “giant salad challenge,” in which I make a big salad at the beginning of the week and store the dressing separately so I can enjoy fresh salad all week long.
I find that when I have a delicious crisp salad in the fridge, ready to go, I reach for salad instead of tortilla chips. I really do.
Greek Salad Recipe Notes
You can serve this Greek salad with any Mediterranean meal that needs a refreshing side salad. It would also go great with veggie pizza, pita sandwiches and lentil soup.
For extra protein, you can top it with crispy baked falafel or add cooked chickpeas or lentils. This salad packs up beautifully for lunch. Just store the dressing separately until you’re ready to serve.
As always, please let me know how you like this recipe in the comments. I’m looking forward to hearing what you pair it with.
Looking for more “giant salads”? Here you go!
- Italian Chopped Salad
- Colorful Chopped Salad with Carrot Ginger Dressing
- Mexican Green Salad with Jalapeño-Cilantro Dressing
- Fattoush Salad with Mint Dressing
Chopped Greek Salad
This Greek salad recipe is the best! It features chopped romaine lettuce and colorful garden vegetables, plus irresistible olives, feta cheese, and a simple Greek vinaigrette. Recipe yields 6 to 8 side servings or 3 to 4 meal-sized servings (that’s a lot of salad!). If you store the salad separately from the vinaigrette, it will keep well for up to 4 days.
Ingredients
Greek Salad
- 10 ounces chopped romaine lettuce* (about 2 medium or 3 small heads, chopped)
- 1 pint cherry tomatoes, quartered
- 1 medium cucumber (about 8 ounces), seeded and chopped
- 1 yellow or orange bell pepper
- ½ medium red onion, chopped (about 1 cup)
- ½ cup chopped fresh parsley
- ½ cup pitted and halved Kalamata olives
- 6 ounces feta cheese, sliced into ¼” cubes (about 1 ¼ cups)
Greek vinaigrette
- ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
- ¼ cup red wine vinegar
- 2 medium cloves garlic, pressed or minced
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon honey or maple syrup
- ½ teaspoon salt, more to taste
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- Pinch of red pepper flakes, for heat (optional)
Instructions
- In a large serving bowl, combine the chopped lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, pepper, onion, parsley, olives and feta. Toss the ingredients together and set aside.
- To prepare the vinaigrette, combine all of the ingredients in a liquid measuring cup and whisk until blended. Taste, and add more vinegar if you’d like a more tangy dressing, or more honey for a more tame dressing.
- If you’ll be serving all of the salad at once, go ahead and drizzle enough dressing in to lightly coat the salad and toss to combine. I prefer to store the salad and dressing separately so I can enjoy salad for a few days. Whisk the dressing again before drizzling (if the olive oil solidifies a bit in the refrigerator, don’t worry, that’s normal—just let it warm up for about 5 minutes at room temperature or microwave for 10 to 20 seconds).
Notes
*Romaine note: If you want to make this salad in a hurry, just buy two bags (5 ounces each) of chopped romaine, and chop it into even smaller, bite-sized pieces.
Make it dairy free: Omit the feta cheese! To make up for feta’s salty punch, you might want to add some extra olives or some sliced pepperoncini peppers.
Make it vegan: Omit the feta (see notes above). To make the dressing vegan, use maple syrup instead of honey (or skip the sweetener altogether).
Change it up: To make this salad more of a complete meal, add chickpeas (1 can, rinsed and drained, or 1 ½ cups cooked chickpeas).
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
This post was created in partnership with OXO and I received compensation for my participation. Opinions are my own, always. Thank you for supporting the sponsors who support C+K!
I cook and prepare salads for over 1500 college students everyday. You are the first blogger I’ve subscribed to because all of your food looks beautiful. Thanks for the inspiration…be making this one tomorrow to go with falafel.
Thank you for saying hi, Lisa! I’m so glad you found my blog and hope you love the salad. Now I’m craving falafel!
Well, this popped up in my email inbox this morning and I just finished eating a big bowl of it. I could not resist as soon as I saw the recipe; I have been on a “spring is here!” kick even though here in Canada I am sure we are going to have at least one more snow storm before spring actually arrives. This was a perfect salad. I did add the chickpeas to bulk it up a bit, as you suggested. Thanks for another great recipe!!
Dani, thank you so much for letting me know! Delighted to hear that you loved this recipe. Stay warm up there!
I always LOVE Greek salads! Strange, because I hate olives! However, the freshness of the cucumbers, tomatoes, and lettuce never fail to dazzle me. This salad is always so amazing on the side of a Mediterranean entree, or just lots of hummus… ;)
Lots of hummus, yes! This salad, pita bread and hummus would make the most perfect meal (my stomach just growled as I typed this).
I also raise my hands for salad in any seasons xD
Mixing many ingredient to make salad is my favourite hobby!
However, I’ve never tried with the Greek vinaigrette, It must be awesome for my salad tomorrow :)
YUM! Greek salads are my fave because of how fresh they are—just like yours :)
Right?! Thank you, Gaby!
I used to really like your blog but it is now so inundated with so many adds that it’s rather hard to deal with on my phone. I know you need to make some money but I hate to see you gonthis way as I will leave if this is the new norm with your blog.
Hi Brenda, I’m sad to hear that you aren’t enjoying your experience on my blog. I built this website myself and your experience here matters a whole lot to me. The number of ads on my pages is consistent with other reputable websites such as The New York Times, and the ads allow me to do what I love for a living. All my best, Kate.
I made this tonight for dinner, and it was delicious and filling! We aren’t vegetarians, so we added some chopped chicken breast to the mix instead of the chick peas. It is such a colorful, hearty salad- and the servings are gigantic! This one will be entering the regular rotation!
I just wanted to add that I halved the recipe and still have two salads leftover. It was our main dish, without any bread, and I just barely finished it!
Hi, Renee! I’m so glad to hear you all enjoyed this salad! Thank you so much for the comment and review.
This recipe is delicious and an easy weeknight dinner!
Yay! Thank you for the review, Coleen!
Yummy! I made this tonight to go with our dinner and it was delicious! It’s quite a large salad but I added chickpeas to the leftovers and will eat it for lunch at work. The dressing was absolutely perfect. So good. It was pretty quick to assemble including the chopping.
Thank you, Annika! I’m glad to hear you liked it.
Made it today; came out delicious!! Looking forward to eating the leftovers for lunch next week.
Yay! Happy to hear you loved it. Thank you for the review!
This is a great salad that makes a ton and will be welcome all week for lunches. Served with falafel, tzatziki, and homemade pita crisps. Thanks for another great recipe!
You’re welcome, Vivian! Thanks so much for the review.
Looks good. I took your Greek nachos recipe from the book and turned it into a salad with pita croutons this evening. My husband said it was delicious and I loved it too.
I love the creativity! Thank you, Tara for sharing.
Another amazing salad. The dressing is great, too.
Thank you for the review, Catherine!
Looks like a healthy salad! Love the Feta Cheese, I will make it with your helpful instruction. Thanks for sharing!
You’re welcome!
Made this for dinner on Wednesday and then ate the leftovers at the counter on Thursday at 9:00 pm! Yummy, fast and easy!
Fantastic! Thanks, Rebecca!
Fantastic, Rebecca! Thanks for your review.
Yummy as always! Would definitely recommend paying attention to the quantities for the dressing though… I ended up free styling and the vinegar was a bit overpowering. Could’ve easily fixed by measuring better, using better quality red wine vinegar, or tasting and adjusting the dressing before pouring on the salad!
Yes, vinegar can overpower for sure! Thanks, Elise for sharing.
Loved it! I couldn’t fit two heads of romaine in my salad bowl, so it was loaded with vegetables! I made Greek chicken kabobs and tzatzik on the side. Thank you!
Sounds like a great combination! Thanks, Jackie for sharing.
Thank you for this recipe it looks lovely & I will make it tomorrow. I only found this website today when I was looking for a vegetarian lasagna, I found yours and it was delicious. Also I managed to purchase your book in th UK so I’m looking forward to finding more recipes.
THANK YOU
Marian
I’m so happy you came across it, Marian. Thanks for sharing!
I was ‘assigned’ a green salad for a pot luck last weekend and of course I searched Cookie and Kate because wanted something delicious. This Greek salad fit the bill – and was a big hit with the group. I chopped and chopped (and chopped!) earlier in the day and then combined everything in a pretty bowl for serving. Agree that the small chop makes a great difference – every bite was great.
I like that the blog was your first thought, Sue! Thanks for sharing.
Currently eating salad for my lunch at work! Delicious! I will definitely add this recipe to my rotations of salads. Perfect for hot days (going on day 4 of 90 degree weather). Next time I make it I will add chickpeas.
It’s hot here too! Perfect recipe for sure. Thanks, Allison.
I made this recipe and it came out excellent. I only made a few minor changes. My local grocery store doesn’t carry feta blocks so I used crumbles. I didn’t have honey or maple syrup. I had pomegranate syrup (used in fattoush salads) and used that instead; it was incredibly delicious. I also added a little lemon juice to it and extra garlic. I love this recipe and will be making it again. Thank you for this recipe!
Thanks for sharing! If you would like to leave a star review since you liked it so much, I would appreciate it.
Beautiful refreshing salad
Thank you, Alison!
I’ve made this salad so many times I lost count. Love it! Thanks for sharing :)
Great! Thank you, Kim. I’m happy it’s a favorite for you.
I was so inspired by this recipe as I love a Greek salad with all my heart. When I made my vinaigrette, I used the vinegar from my pickled red onions–it is slightly sweet, garlicky and hot, as I add 1 T. of sugar, two garlic cloves, and a heaping t. of red pepper flakes to my pickling liquid. So, so good. Thank you for putting great recipes out there!!
You’re welcome!
Hi. I made this salad last night for a family party. It was a huge hit. The dressing is great.
Really, really good recipe. It is a keeper in my family.
Happy to hear that, Heidi! Thanks for your review and taking the time to comment.
This recipe looks great. Chopping the greens into smaller pieces makes for sense to allow all the veggies in one bite. I love how you used one recipe and gave suggestions for specific dietary preferences.
Anyone tried this with Kale?
I do love kale! If you try it, make sure to massage it first. Or, try my Greek Kale salad!
Awesome recipe.
i used balsamic vingear instead of red wine vinegar and its just lovely. and i agree cutting it all up small is the key!!
also just a quick question – is the nutritional info correct? i thought 21g of fat for a small salad seems odd?!
I didn’t make the entire salad, just the dressing and it was wonderful. I added an extra tablespoon of vinegar and some black pepper. It’s now my go to instead of bottled dressing!
I’m glad you loved the dressing, Christy!
This is a fantastic salad. I made it last week for company and am doing the same tonight and serving it with mediterranean chicken pizza.
I’m happy you love it, Michelle!
A salad, yes. Maybe even quite a nice salad. But old Greek housewives would be turning in their graves at you calling it a Greek Salad. No!
I’m sorry you feel that way about this recipe. I appreciate your feedback, Dan.
Delicious!!! Made enough for a few days and having again today for lunch. Always enjoy trying your recipes – just don’t always remember to take a pix or email you!!
Thank you, Beth! I bet it was delicious.
This is more of a commercial site than a recipe site. Not worth the time scrolling through throughbthe nonsense to finally find a recipe.
Hi Joan, I’m sorry you are disappointed by my blog. Are you referring to the ads present? I do try to keep them more minimal. I do understand they can become frustrating. You can always choose to not see ads via your browser settings.
This looks so good that it’s going on the menu plan for this week!
A great salad for the week!
Looks good, but this isn’t a real Greek salad, as it never has lettuce or any dressing except olive oil, vinegar and oregano. But surely a nice alternative to the authentic thing.
This salad ROCKS! The fresh, crunchy ingredients made for a colorful and delicious side to my lobster dinner. The vinegar in the dressing perfectly balanced the buttery baste on the lobster. Only made 1/2 the recipe but had plenty for the next couple of days. Thank you for this right-on-time recipe! Will definitely make this regularly in the future.
This was a big hit!! Thanks for the recipe ❤️
Loved this salad! I added some garbanzo beans that I had sitting in the fridge and swapped jarred roasted red peppers instead of fresh. The dressing was delicious!
Wow watching your recipe gives me new ideas for my Xmas lunch…and for later in the new year having friends over for dinner. Real excited thanks so much
Hi Kate, I just discovered your site and am anxious to try your Chopped Greek Salad. I’d like to make the accompanying Greek Vinaigrette and was wondering if the maple syrup called for in the recipe is the usual pancake syrup or pure maple syrup. Thank you.
Hi! Pure maple syrup. I hope you love it!
Thank you for your quick response. I’m excited to try it. I’m going to make it for Father’s Day!
Hi Kate, I made your Greek salad and dressing using Pure Maple syrup. It was delicious! Hubby loved it, but wanted a little more dressing, so will be doubling next time. Thank you again for the recipe!
You’re welcome, Cindy!
Hi there! This has been my go to salad recipe for dinner parties, events and just day-to-day runs. It’s really delicious! I personally omit the red onion and parsley because I’m not a fan of those. Instead, I add more peppers and the salad still tastes wonderful! Sometimes if I don’t want feta, I add avocado. Overall, thank you very much for sharing this recipe! :)
You’re welcome, Maryam! Thank you for your review.
I can’t do dairy, so I used Violife’s plant-based feta, and the salad was still superb. I was tempted to use up our go-to vinaigrette from a bottle, and I’m so glad I didn’t. Every ingredient earned its spot and the dressing, much like the Dude’s rug, really tied the whole thing together. I’ve sent my son off to grad school this week with your blog bookmarked.
Hi Maggie! I’m happy that worked out well for you.
First off, I LOVE everything you make. I made this Greek salad and the dressing for our Christmas dinner. It was absolutely perfect. Everyone loved the dressing. And we paired it with lasagna.
Simple and delicious.
Thank you!
Thanks for the recipe! Perfect for a summer side dish.
You’re welcome, M! I appreciate your review.
I love adding farfalle or tortellini to this to bulk it up – so yummy! Very fresh and crunchy!
Great to hear, Erika! I appreciate your review.
Obsessed with this salad! SO GOOD. I am vegan and have been using the Violife Feta – yum!
Hooray! That’s great to Hear, Heidi.
Do you eat the romaine greens right out of the bag? I dont know whether to wash the greens after opening or not.
Chris
Hi Chris, if it’s prewashed, not need. I do wash them otherwise.
This is my absolute go-to salad right now. I’ve served it for many friends to rave reviews every time! So easy to make it a whole meal with an add-in or two. Love your site.