MONDAY MORNING RECIPE POST - FINELY CHOPPED, GREEK-INSPIRED CHICKEN SALAD - 4 servings

I have been looking for a salad recipe that is a little different from our usual throw-together veggie salad. I also wanted the protein included. When I came across this one it was just what I was looking for. I found it at The Natural Nurturer hosted by Taesha Butler, and the original recipe can be found at this link. I try to remember to do this each week, and recommend you visit Taesha’s recipe. Her photos are great, there is good advice, many tips and also other great recipes to try in the future.

Finely Chopped Greek-Inspired Chicken Salad

Servings: 4

Calories per serving: approximately 331

For the salad: 

1 romaine heart

½ English cucumber

2 cups cherry or grape tomatoes

1 small bell pepper, any color you like

½ small red onion, or 4 scallions

½ cup pitted kalamata olives, or mixed Greek olives

1 cup feta cheese , about 6 ounces

1 large cooked chicken breast, about ½ pound

½ cup fresh herbs of choice , such as mint, parsley, dill and/or basil..whatever you have on hand. These are optional but they add a nice fresh flavor to the salad (our choice was dill)

For the Dressing:

4 teaspoons red wine vinegar

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

½ teaspoon garlic powder, or one small clove of fresh garlic, grated

½ teaspoon dried oregano

½ teaspoon kosher salt

ground black pepper, to taste

1 medium lemon, juiced (we added this ourselves as wanted a little bit of extra zip)

Pita Bread 

Prepare and measure all ingredients.  

Dice vegetables and put into a large bowl. 

Whisk the dressing ingredients together. Set aside. Just before serving pour over salad and toss to combine. Taste and add more salt and pepper as needed. 

At this point we felt it needed extra zip. The juice of 1 lemon was added. If you do the same you may prefer to use less, so best to add a little at a time and taste test. And then again you might prefer leaving it out and like the dressing as is.

(Also, since we have tried it again, we found we enjoyed it with no dressing at all.)

We didn’t add any of the salt asked for.

Taesha's notes: To make this salad vegetarian, you can simply leave out the chicken and add 2 cups of cooked chickpeas instead. (I personally think it would be great just with the main ingredients minus the chicken.)

To make this salad dairy-free, omit the feta cheese.

The salad is very nice eaten in a pita bread or rolled into a tortilla wrap (we used a pita bread half and that was excellent but this salad can stand alone.)

Did we change anything? 

A very tasty recipe and we went to the supermarket just before we made it. The ingredients were either bought that day or were already in the pantry/fridge. 

The only change was the addition of lemon juice for the dressing mentioned above.

There is quite a lot of preparation work, and the vegetables are cut into small dice. I started early.

I made a poached chicken recipe which you can find at this link. You could also use an already cooked rotisserie chicken, which would speed things up a little.

My thyme for the chicken recipe had leaves that were larger than usual. I couldn’t pass an opportunity for photos. The leaves were a pretty burgundy color on the back. 

As we had leftovers, we added only enough dressing to the first two portions and put the rest in the fridge, storing separately. Taesha had said to only add the dressing right before serving. Perhaps the ingredients get soggy if they are mixed too soon.

I would probably cut back on the olive oil and not add as much. 

My next meal I left the dressing off and ate as is.  It was tasty enough to do that, but I have never been a fan of salad dressings.

For those who prefer to copy and paste rather than use the links at the beginning of this recipe.

https://thenaturalnurturer.com/finely-chopped-greek-inspired-chicken-salad/

I think that's all but if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask in the comment section.