High Summer CSA

The first five or six weeks of our CSA here in RVA, we were up to our ears in green food. Chard, kales, green onions, leeks, beet greens, arugula, lettuce heads, zucchini. We began to grow tired of thinking of ways to eat green food, in fact. Thankfully high summer has arrived. It's hot and muggy, but the veggies are colorful!

This week we got 4 summer squash and zucchini, a great big bag of beets w/o their tops, enormous cukes, basil that's going to seed, fresh full-sized onions still on their stalks, kale, curving purple Chinese eggplants, green peppers, early tomatoes, and cantaloupe melon!

To celebrate the return of salad days we ate: salad. Specifically Greek village salad, χωριάτικι.We've also laid in a quart of black olives and 2 lbs of Dodoni Feta to enjoy all July.

Greek village salad, χωριάτικη, is simple food, and the recipe is simple too.

Serves 2
1 green pepper, sliced
1/4 onion, sliced so that the onion falls apart
1-3 tomatoes, quartered if small or cut into eighths if larger
1 cucumber, sliced into tomato sized chunks
a handful of black or green olives
One thick slice of feta cheese on top, to be divided by the salad eaters
crumbled oregano
Olive oil, vinegar or lemon juice, salt and pepper (optional)


Photo credit: Christos Proukakis flickr

We love this salad over here, and have some strong opinions about it. I've never been to a restaurant that actually serves Greek salad in the US.
Anything with Lettuce? Not χωριάτικη.
Crumbled up feta? Not χωριάτικη.
This salad really depends on the quality of its tomatoes, so we can only enjoy it during the summer time.
Want more protein? This isn't exactly Greek, but we often add a can of tuna. It's good, believe me! This salad makes the perfect summertime dinner with thick, crusty bread when you don't feel like cooking in the heat.