Featured comment
This is my lunch all week! The copious amounts of fresh herbs totally make the dish!! Love!
Guys. Can’t stop won’t stop with this Lemony Herb-Loaded Chopped Greek Salad!
All the textures! Flavors! Colors!
It’s waking my mouth up in the best possible way.
Chopped Greek Salad situation: we’ve got quinoa, beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, greens if you want them, herbs by the bucket full, red onion, kalamata olives, and radishes if you’re feeling fancy. Toss that all up extra-generously with olive oil and lemon juice and salt and pepper (don’t be shy – a salty Greek salad is a good Greek salad), and you are ready to rock and roll your way to the most tangy, bright, can’t-get-enough, fresh n’ clean eating.
You totally could and should add feta cheese if you are into the whole CRUMBLY DELICIOUS CHEESE thing – I am very much into it, but I didn’t have any feta on hand any of the 90 times that I made this salad, so bonus clean eating points for me? Or something. But seriously. Add feta, or pepperoncini, or grilled chicken or shrimp or hummus – this combo is yours for the taking.
Chopped Greek Salad TRUE CONFESSIONS:
- Anytime a recipe calls for 3 cups – I repeat 3 CUPS – of herbs, you know it’s going to be lined up perfectly in our food zone. Guys, I love so much flavor that sometimes I probably overwhelm you. Thanks for sticking with me and this blog when I call for 3 cups of herbs. This recipe would totally get rejected from places like my beloved hometown church cookbook where every precious recipe is seasoned with the tiniest little amount of spice and flavor – Curry Chicken: 1/8 teaspoon curry powder. God bless the people who are just mild and regular about life, myself NOT being one of them. No, we go big on the lemon-onion-herb flavor game. This is very tabbouleh-like in terms of its taste and textural make-up, so embrace the herbs. Basil, mint, and parsley are my standbys but I sort of also love the idea of dill. Can someone make that happen?
- Okay disclaimer: I don’t love red onions. I mean, I do, but gah. I cry big fat tears every time I cut them (I know, it’s probably a technique thing, can someone teach me about these things?) and the flavor just completely overwhelms me. It’s the kind of thing where you open the fridge and you’re just completely knocked out by the smell of those seemingly harmless red onions, and then you have people over, and they can smell the red onions in your fridge mixed with the smell of the cookies that you’re currently baking, and it’s gross and weird. Love/hate relationship. So here’s what I do: I soak them in cold water. I don’t remember where I learned this trick, but I use it all the time and I love it. Cut those onions and then while you prep the rest of the vegetables, just let them hang out in a bowl of ice water to cut the bite down a little bit. No promises on the fridge smells, but they reduce the Red Onion Salad effect and make everything sing together in more of a Chopped Greek Salad way.
- I keep this salad for, like, a while. I mean, within reason, but it’s kind of like a tabbouleh which I feel can withstand a little more fridge time than your average salad, so even after I tossed the salad up with the oil and lemon juice and everything, I kept it around for up to 2 days and still found it just as delicious. The flavors sort of soak into the quinoa and, in my flavor-obsessed opinion, that is never a bad thing.
This Chopped Greek Salad is what I’m eating lately and I’m super love-love-loving it.
Come on in, the water’s fine!
Lemony Herb-Loaded Chopped Greek Salad bout ta make your day amazing.
Lemony Herb-Loaded Chopped Greek Salad
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 4-6 1x
Description
Chopped Greek Salad – clean eating with TONS of flavor! cucumbers, tomato, kalamata olives, red onion, mint, parsley, quinoa, and a lemon olive oil drizzle! vegan, vegetarian.
Ingredients
SALAD:
- 1 cup uncooked quinoa
- 1 14-ounce can white beans (lentil and garbanzos are yummy too)
- 3 cups chopped tomatoes
- 3 cups chopped fresh herbs – I like mint, parsley, and basil
- 2 cups chopped red onion (one should be enough)
- 2 cups chopped cucumbers (one should be enough)
- 1/2 cup chopped kalamata olives
DRESSING:
- olive oil
- salt and pepper
- lemon juice
Instructions
- Cook the quinoa according to package directions. While the quinoa cooks, chop all your veggies.
- Toss everything together!
- Dress to taste with olive oil, salt, pepper, and lemon juice.
Notes
This is so so so versatile. Add whatever you like. I actually kept it in the fridge for three days AFTER being tossed together and it was still really tasty. Just ate it for lunch today, actually. 🙂 It resembles tabbouleh in texture so it’s not a big deal if it sops together for a day or two. Also, if you want to liven it up, just toss in a handful of greens.
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 10 mins
- Category: Lunch
- Cuisine: Greek
Nutrition Facts
- Daily value: 5% Total Fat 3.6g
- Daily value: 0% Cholesterol 0mg
- Daily value: 5% Sodium 104.3mg
- Daily value: 12% Total Carbohydrate 33.2g
- Daily value: 22% Dietary Fiber 6.1g
- Sugars 4.9g
- Daily value: 16% Protein 7.9g
- Daily value: 8% Vitamin A 73.7µg
- Daily value: 20% Vitamin C 18.4mg
- Daily value: 17% Iron 3.1mg
- Daily value: 11% Potassium 516mg
- Daily value: 17% Phosphorus 210.9mg
Keywords: chopped greek salad, lemon greek salad, herb greek salad
Nutrition information includes 1/3 cup olive oil and 1 teaspoon salt / 6 servings.
One More Thing!
This recipe is part of our delicious quinoa recipes page. Check it out!
Uncooked quinoa?
Cooked!
Love Your Chopped Greek Salad with Green Salad Recipe and I Need To Try It.
This recipe is fantastic. I added in feta, and used cilantro, parsley and mint. The flavors are divine!! My husband asked “what? we’re just having salad tonight?” when he saw me making it, but it filled him up and he thought it was tasty.
So glad it was a hit, Denise!
I made this salad today. The only change I made was 2-3 TBL za ‘atar and 1 1/2 TBL sumac. delicious. Thank you
This is a great salad! I’ve added some feta cheese, falafel and a yoghurt-garlic sauce with chives. So yum!
I’m gonna try this recipe it looks so good! If you cry while chopping onions, it means your knife is a bit dull! try sharpening your knife & that should help.
great flavors here, had to check out this recipe after I saw it in a recent list on andiemitchell.com of delicious salads, have to agree this looks delicious, also very original, thank you for this!
Sadly I learned this from years of sinus infections but if you breathe through your mouth when chopping onions you won’t cry. You might look a little weird but hey it’s a trade off I’ll take 😉
Thanks for the tip, Angela!
I am so tempted to use the lemon dressing from your Salt & Pepper chip kale rice salad on this. I can hardly wait to make this. I have been craving Greek salads liek woah, and I LOVE LOVE the addition of white beans and quinoa to this one so it is a complete vegetarian style meal. YUM!
Hope you enjoy it, Kate! 🙂
This is my lunch all week! The copious amounts of fresh herbs totally make the dish!! Love!
We’d definitely agree! Thanks for the comment, Amy! 🙂
When this appeared in my in box I ran to the fridge and found I had everything put parsley. Picked up the parsley and added some freshly planted basil and its delicious! I love lemon but didn’t see how much you put in so I added the juice of 2 lemons…still not enough so I put in a little peel and that did the trick!. Thanks for this healthy/full of flavor/wow thats a lota salad!!
Glad you enjoyed it, Valerie!
What a great creation this is! I’m having this in the office and it makes me feel light after eating. Loving the taste! Fresh and rich in flavor. Please keep this kind of recipes coming!
Awesome recipe! Can’t wait to try it. Yeah, red onion has a real bite. I slice it and give it a bit of heat in a skillet with a tiny drop of olive oil. Just about 2-3 minutes. It stays crisp and the strong scent and taste lessens quite a bit.
Jane
Thanks for the tip, Jane! 🙂
Gorgeous photos, as usual 🙂 That dressing! So simple, I can’t wait to try it!
I’ve just discovered baby San Marzano tomatoes in my markets, and they are seriously flavorful-even this time of year.
Looking good! Definitely picking this for my veggie-day next week 🙂 ! such a great tip about the onion btw, trying that out as well 🙂
xx B
Made this last night to eat for lunch today. I can always rely on your recipes. It was DELICIOUS with a bit of feta and a handful of spring mix salad.
I did cut the onion down by half and it seemed just right.
This looks so simple and healthy! I bet chickpeas would be tasty in this dish too 🙂
Yum, what a great side for a leg of roast lamb!
I love greek salads and this version looks amazing!
This is totally my jam! LOVE this and your 3 cups of herbs.
This looks like a great lunch option. How long would you say it lasts in the fridge?
Kari
http://www.sweetteasweetie.com
The photos are absolutely radiant! I wouldn’t normally see quinoa in a Greek recipe but I LOVE that you blended it into one of my favorite types of salads ever! This is wonderful!
Oh, that looks so good! I am on a salad spree this Spring and I will be giving this recipe a try very soon!
Thank you,
Maria
I can’t promise that this will fix your red onion problem, but it should help. Make sure your knife is nice and sharp to start, and older onions will always make you cry more. When onions are chopped, they release a gas that makes us cry, and it does it by adhering to moisture – namely, our eyes. I always run my wrists under water and the gas sticks there instead. Good luck! And this salad looks beautiful.