Talk:Greek salad

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For an October 2004 deletion debate over this page see Votes for deletion/Greek salad

Is this similiar to salad that is commonly served in Greece? As an American, I always hear that the international food I eat (for example Chinese) is nothing like what they eat in that particular country. ike9898 19:40, Oct 7, 2004 (UTC)

By the way, tomatoes are not 'of Greek origin'. There were NO tomatoes in Europe until they were brought from the New World in the 16th century. Hard to believe, but it's true. Never the less, the are good on a Greek salad! ike9898 20:24, Jan 11, 2005 (UTC)
 * The peanut in Thai cuisine is another interesting one. That's why you can get authentic Thai food but not much traditional Thai food. Ari 03:20, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

Cleanup and usage
OK, I tried to clarify some of the usage issues, add some further info, cite sources, etc. While I'm quite familiar with both the American and the Greek versions, I don't really know about other anglophone usage. If there are any Aussies in particular who can comment, that'd be great, as I have no idea what is normally meant by "Greek salad" in the Antipodes. I'm not sure on British or South African usage either. Tkinias 13:35, 22 July 2006 (UTC)


 * Doh! It just occurred to me to use my head (i.e. Google it with "inurl:.au" etc.).  Aussies use the American version.  Brits too, it looks like. Tkinias 13:39, 22 July 2006 (UTC)

cucumber tomato salad
The description in the lead (without extras) sounds like what I order as angora-ntomates salata (sorry for messing up the transliteration). What appears (on tourist menus, at least) as "Greek Salad" is the same thing, with many or all the extras, esp feta.

Is this a new distinction? Jd2718 (talk) 23:10, 25 March 2008 (UTC)

This is a good article, but misses out on the fact that the horiatiki salata is a restauranteurs invention. We don't eat it at home, unless we have guests, particularly non greek guests. The ordinary salasd in greece in the summer, is tomato and cucumber. Feta is served, but not in the salad. Also in cyprus a horiatiki salata, in a restaurant(it is unknown in peoples houses, unless they make it 'specially') always contains cabbage and plenty of it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Hotspury (talk • contribs) 18:13, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

So just because it has Feta doesn't make it Greek. This type of salad is common to Balkan peninsula, as well as parts of the Middle East and is typically served with tomato, cucumber, olives, and feta. Other variations include parsley, and scullions, and sometimes red/green pepper and/or in rare occasions nuts. Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Russia, Iran... so many places... They all serve similar salad with minor variations. An by the way, no, it doesn't have lettuce. The lettuce addition is a western world kind of thing. It seems they are married to their cheap nutritiousness lettuce. I mean lettuce?!? WTF. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.25.209.193 (talk) 19:03, 13 February 2013 (UTC)

Question on this also, and I opened a discussion on it - when was the ‘Greek Salad’ actually introduced to greece? Because tomatoes were from the Americas and introduced only around late1800’s to Greece (in common use) and cucumbers were introduced from Asia and only really made it to Greece in the 1700’s. So perhaps the ‘Greek Salad’ is really a very recent invention, around 19th century? Mrgriwi (talk) 15:43, 25 October 2020 (UTC)
 * It seems to have been invented in the 1960s-1970s; see below. --Macrakis (talk) 18:31, 25 October 2020 (UTC)

The Lettuce Debate...
I'm in Canada and I've never encountered lettuce in a Greek salad (anywhere, and I've never been to Greece). GReek Salad here is typically cucumber, onion tomato, feta cheese and olives. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.180.199.227 (talk) 19:49, 21 May 2012 (UTC)

It is extremely unusual to find Lettuce as an ingredient in an authentic Greek salad in Greece. I recommend that this ingredient is deleted from the main entry, and that Lettuce is called out as an ingredient in an "American-style Greek Salad". —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kuzzer (talk • contribs) 13:25, 16 June 2010 (UTC)
 * I second that. I'm Greek, born and raised in Greece and I've never encountered lettuce in Greek salad anywhere, ever - regardless of whether the salad was served at home or in a restaurant. We can take this recipe for Greek salad as an example (it comes from a Greek website, as one can see from the TLD in the link). The list of ingredients is as follows:


 * 2 ντομάτες (2 tomatoes)
 * 1 μεγάλο αγγούρι (1 big cucumber)
 * 1 μεγάλη πιπεριά πράσινη (1 big green bell pepper)
 * 1 μέτριο κρεμμύδι (1 onion of average size)
 * λίγες ελιές (some olives)
 * λίγη ρίγανη (a little oregano)
 * 1 μέτριο κομμάτι φέτα (1 average piece of Feta cheese)
 * αλάτι και πιπέρι (salt and pepper)
 * λάδι και ξύδι (oil and vinegar)


 * Another recipe can be found here. No mention of lettuce at all. Same here. And here And here - conveniently, this one is in English. Another variation can be found here (this one adds rocket leaves to the mix). Therefore, I believe that there is no reason to list lettuce as an ingredient of Greek salad. Moderatelyaverage (talk) 17:17, 4 April 2012 (UTC)

Additional Sources / Original Research
Sourcing one paragraph of an entire article doesn't meet Wikipedia's verifiability requirements. Additional sources are needed, this all reads like original research based on experience with the topic. Reliable, third-party references are needed; see Wikipedia's Reliable sources and Verifiability. Mention is made of having Googled some information; surely internet publications / some of the larger cooking websites (Martha Stewart, for example - not home-grown ones) have information on this topic? This article qualifies for several "sourcing" templates; I've chosen only one to include. Others would be in regards to original research and missing in-line citations. Lastly, shame on the WikiProjects for classifying this article without leaving information as to how it needs to be improved. 68.20.21.168 (talk) 10:35, 14 July 2010 (UTC)


 * I certainly agree we need better sources for the article. One difficulty is that for food topics, there is a lot of nonsense out there.  In particular, cooking sites (like Martha Stuart or Cooks' Illustrated) are full of personal versions of recipes, and their historical information is usually all wrong.  For example, Cooks' Illustrated recipe for Greek Salad includes lettuce and is dressed with a vinaigrette, which is clearly all just "innovation". --Macrakis (talk) 15:36, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

"Many names" to avoid confusion?
Currently the article states "... may be called by the Greek term horiatiki or by such terms as "country salad", "peasant salad", or "village salad", to avoid confusion...".

It's not clear why having many names avoids confusion. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 196.210.106.41 (talk) 15:24, 6 February 2016 (UTC)


 * Good point. Bad wording. I've rewritten it. --Macrakis (talk) 17:01, 6 February 2016 (UTC)

History of the Greek salad
When did this salad come to be recognised as a Greek staple? Because tomatoes were from the Americas (c.1500) so it doesn’t strike me to be something that originated in Greece from antiquity. Anyone? Mrgriwi (talk) 15:38, 25 October 2020 (UTC)


 * Antiquity has nothing to do with it. The modern Greek salad (horiatiki) containing tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, feta, and olives, seems to be a fairly recent invention as a named dish. For one thing, Greeks only started eating raw tomatoes around the turn of the 20th century, and the so-called "country/peasant/village salad" seems to have become a thing sometime in the 1960s or 1970s in Athenian tavernas. The story goes that cucumber salad had a government-set price, but by adding feta on top, the restaurateur could charge what he wanted. I'm not sure I believe this, because I remember that feta was often ordered (and billed) separately at the time. If I get a more reliable source, I'll add it to the article. --Macrakis (talk) 18:29, 25 October 2020 (UTC)

Vinegar
As in the article itself it is only mentionend for the others, does this mean is "normal" greek salad really predominantly without vinegar? --Alien4 (talk) 17:11, 15 April 2021 (UTC)

Lemon Juice
In my experience, lemon juice is a key ingredient in the dressing. MYH1979 (talk) 19:03, 2 February 2024 (UTC)


 * What country/country's have you had greek salad with lemon juice? it might be a specific county variation? Kogren the Wizard (talk) 14:41, 21 April 2024 (UTC)