Tomato and Cucumber Salad with Garlicky Feta Dressing

Do you ever try a recipe and say two things? First, I could eat this everyday, and second, why had I had not thought of this before?

The genius of this recipe is creating a garlicky yogurt, then mushing feta into it—which creates this magical Greek-ish dressing that hits every spot. Also, pre-salting the veggies to bring out their flavor is a good twist too. Most good home cooks know that salt and tomato are a marriage made in heaven, and this recipe taps into that.

Served with anything, anything on the grill—any protein or veggie kabobs, this salad is a winner.

Tomato Cucumber Salad with Garlicky Feta Dressing

Serves 4. Adapted from Ali Slagel for the NYT.

Ingredients

1/2 cup whole milk Greek yogurt

1 large clove garlic, grated

1 1/2 pounds cucumbers, use English, Persian or mini seedless cucumbers if possible

1 pound ripe tomatoes

4 ounces feta, crumbled

Sea salt and ground pepper

Stir together the yogurt and grated garlic, add some grated ground pepper and set aside.

Wash and do a typical decorative peel on the cucumbers. Roughly chop them into bite size pieces and put them in a colander. Cut the tomatoes into bite size pieces and add to colander. Sprinkle 1 teaspoon of salt over the cukes and tomatoes, stir and mix, and let absorb the salt and drain for about 10 minutes.

Add the crumbled feta to the yogurt and mash it together with a fork until it is well combined. Add the well-drained vegetables and stir together. Check the seasonings now for additional salt or pepper.

Note: You can easily add some sliced radishes (1/2 cup) or pitted, halved Kalamata olives (1/2 cup).

Ready for serving, I’ve been plating it up on top of fresh local lettuces just kissed with a bit of olive oil.