Sirtaki cheese benefits and harms. Features of Greek cuisine

Ancient history, closely intertwined with myths and legends, sea and sun, mountains and plains created both the culture and the cuisine of Greece. The traditions of Greek cuisine date back several millennia; they have absorbed the customs of peaceful neighbors and active conquerors. Let's discuss how to cook a Greek salad at home with olives, herbs and goat cheese, because Socrates considered the combination of these products to be very healthy.

A feature of Greek cuisine, due to its geographical location, was the difference between mainland cuisine and island cuisine, and one of the signs is very long meals with a large change of dishes. These meals are akin to real feasts, Plato and Homer wrote about them. Moreover, Plato and Plutarch compiled culinary recipes that have survived to our time and these dishes are prepared in Athenian restaurants.

Features of Greek cuisine

1. Water is a symbol of hospitality, it is served at the entrance to the house, and in cafes and restaurants it is often served for free at the table.
2. In Greece, bread is highly respected; for many national dishes, special special bread is baked, which is served only very fresh.
3. The Greeks, who live on not very fertile land, often rocky, value, cherish and know how to use everything that nature has given, fruits and herbs. In every dish, in every meal, there must be vegetables and herbs. All Greek housewives know how to cook a Greek salad from fresh vegetables, what side dish is needed, what vegetables to offer for meat or fish, how to flavor them.
4. The richest and most important fruit crop is olives, the most beloved vegetables are eggplants.
5. Dishes with tomatoes, carrots, beans and artichokes are very common.
6. The main herbs and spices in Greek cuisine are onion, garlic, cinnamon, celery.
7. Everything is cooked in olive oil, seasoned with lemon juice.
8. The most popular meat is lamb, poultry is chicken. Most meat dishes are prepared from minced meat.
9. A huge number of dishes with seafood. Eels, swordfish, octopuses, shrimp and squid, red mullet, mussels, lobsters, cuttlefish… It is impossible to list everything.
10. A large number of cheese on the menu, even more than in. The most "main" cheese is made from sheep's and/or goat's milk, salty, white and soft Feta cheese, followed by semi-hard white-yellow Kefalotiri. Other varieties are less known in the world.

Video plot

Classic Greek Feta Salad Recipe

Traditional cold Greek salads, unlike the hot salads and appetizers we will discuss next, are very easy to make. All components are cut, most often large enough, put into a salad bowl and seasoned. Usually the salad is not stirred or stirred before the cheese is added, the vegetables lie in layers or are effectively laid out on a platter, it can be beautifully decorated.

The most common village salad for the Greeks, which they call "horiatiki", and have a classic Greek salad for the rest of humanity. It is based on a mixture of vegetables: very ripe tomatoes, peeled cucumbers, red onions and the main ingredients are real Greek olives and real Feta cheese. Oregano, basil, cold-pressed olive oil flavored with salt and pepper complete the composition. In Europe, when preparing a Greek salad, leaf lettuce, bell peppers, sometimes capers or anchovies are often added to this recipe, and marjoram, garlic, wine or balsamic vinegar, and even mustard and honey are added to the dressing. Some cooks replace feta cheese with cheese.

Sirtaki cheese is often called a combination of 2 symbols of Greece - the Sirtaki dance and Feta cheese, it is made according to Greek technology from cow's milk, the snow-white cheese has an elastic structure, a delicate salty taste, and a delicate aroma. Sirtaki cheese is an excellent addition to Greek salad!

Ingredients:

• 300 g Sirtaki cheese
• 3 ripe fleshy tomatoes
• 1 cucumber
• 1 red onion
• 1 sweet pepper, preferably orange or yellow
• 3 art. l. with a hill of olives
• 1 st. l. pitted olives

INGREDIENTS for dressing:

• 2 tbsp. l. balsamic vinegar and olive oil
• salt, pepper
• 1 tsp dry oregano (oregano)

Cooking:

Wash vegetables for Greek salad with Sirtaki cheese and dry on a cloth towel. Peel the cucumber, cut into slices, slice the tomatoes, remove the seeds from the sweet pepper along with the partitions and cut the pepper into large strips. Onion (red onion can be replaced with onion) cut into thin half rings. Cut large olives into rings, cut small ones into quarters lengthwise, like boats.

At the Sirtaki cheese box, cut off the corners and cut the upper plane in the middle. Open the box, quickly turn over a flat plate, on which the cheese should stand in a whole piece. In 3-5 minutes, the brine drains from the cheese, it must be drained, after which the cheese for the Greek salad is cut into cubes, slightly larger than olives.

Put the vegetables in a deep salad bowl. Beat all the dressing ingredients (vinegar can be replaced with lemon juice) and pour over vegetables with almost all the liquid. Pour the sliced ​​cheese on top, garnish with pitted olives and pour over the rest of the dressing. On the table in the presence of guests, gently mix the ingredients of the Greek salad with Sirtaki cheese.

Video recipe

Cypriot salad with tomatoes, grapefruit and feta cheese

The cuisine of Cyprus is Greek in general, but it also has original dishes, one of which is the Cypriot salad.

Ingredients:

• 200 g ripe tomatoes
• 2 grapefruits
• 200 g Feta cheese
• 50 g black olives or olives

INGREDIENTS for dressing:

• 3 art. l. olive oil
• salt pepper
• incomplete h. l. dry oregano

Cooking:

Peel the grapefruit for the Cypriot salad from the skin and white films, cut into thin slices. Wash the tomatoes, dry and cut into slices. Cut the cheese into cubes, dry the olives in a colander or on a sieve. Put grapefruit, tomatoes, cheese in layers on a small dish or flat plate, pour olives on top. Beat all the ingredients of the dressing, pour over the Cypriot salad, refrigerate for half an hour.

Video recipe

Greek salad with shrimp or chicken and feta cheese

Ingredients:

• 400 g shrimp or chicken meat
• 400 g fresh cucumbers
• 400 g tomatoes
• 200 g sweet pepper
• 150 g Feta cheese
• 5 slices of "Borodino bread"
• 1 large onion, preferably red
• 3-4 tablespoons olive oil
• lemon juice
• olives or olives
• salt, pepper, sugar

COOKING:

Cut the crust off the bread, cut into cubes and dry in a hot oven for 10-15 minutes. If there is no Borodinsky, for a Greek salad, you can take your favorite type of bread and dry it, before that rub it with garlic or lightly sprinkle with spices. The resulting crackers must be cooled.

• If we put chicken. At this time, meat, breast or thighs without bones and skin, cut into cubes, sprinkle lightly with lemon juice and fry in oil until tender. Season with salt and pepper.
• If we put shrimp. For a Greek salad with shrimp, it is better to take salad or cocktail peeled boiled shrimp and defrost them. Boil raw shrimp in plenty of salted water with spices and peel.

Wash all the vegetables for the Greek salad, dry on a towel and cut into large cubes or cubes, chop the onion into rings. Transfer to a deep salad bowl, mix, sprinkle with salt and pepper, if the tomatoes are not sweet, add a little. You can sprinkle with spices, such as basil, cilantro, marjoram or oregano. Add 3-4 tablespoons of olives or olives without brine, pour out the cooled croutons, season with oil and lemon juice. Cut the cheese into cubes, put it on top and serve immediately. On the table, all the ingredients of the Greek salad can be mixed again.

First person

Once, in the era of total mobile communications and Skype, friends managed to come to visit us absolutely unexpectedly, they just rang the doorbell. I had to build a festive meal in the time pressure mode (we had something to celebrate together). Possessing great knowledge in cooking and always having some set in the refrigerator, I made a simple salad: fresh cucumber, cheese, olives, I wanted to put a green apple, but changed my mind at the last moment. The dressing was a winter preparation from home canning: tomatoes, onions, carrots, sweet peppers in vegetable oil. The guests were very happy and said: "Greek salad, Greek salad, how delicious and simple!". They probably didn't know how to make a real Greek salad, because only fresh vegetables are put in it, not canned or boiled. But really, it turned out very tasty, and the compliments that they showered me with smoothed out all the worries.

What is your favorite Greek salad recipe?

Feta - fetaksa - sirtaki: my hierarchy of cheeses for Greek salad. In fact, fetaxa and sirtaki are analogues of feta, i.e. trade names for cheeses made to similar recipes.
Some of these cheeses are better for making salads, some for stuffing pancakes, some for topping croutons or stuffing rolls with ham.

What can be cooked:

Photo 1.

Everyone knows about the Greek salad with fetax or feta, this item will definitely be on the menu of any restaurant or cafe of the middle level. And not necessarily in the salad section. This dish can also settle in the group of main dishes if it is served with hot chicken (small photo). Among the ingredients there will definitely be olives, onions, fresh cucumbers, tomatoes, bell peppers and a filling of spices, lemon juice, olive oil. And when grilled pre-marinated chicken breast pieces are added, a large serving of this dish can be the only one for a hearty summer lunch.

Photo 2.

Festive use case for fetaxes:
cured meat rolls, such as Parma ham or jamon, lots of dill and a fresh lettuce leaf. For this recipe, it is better to use sirtaki - this cheese is faster and easier to grind into a homogeneous paste.

Photo 3.

And for croutons with dill and cheese, I usually use sirtaki. It takes 5 minutes to prepare. While several servings of croutons are being fried, you can have time to chop the dill, mix it with cheese. Grate hot croutons with garlic, cool and spread with dill cheese.

Photo 4.

Another option for stuffed pancakes. The filling is a mixture of pounded or feta, or fetax, or sirtaki, finely chopped green onion with dill and small cubes of low-fat ham.

Photo 5.

Recently, for all these dishes, I buy fetax hochland. Oddly enough, this is the most budget option, and you can buy it at any chain store.

FETAXA, FETA OR SIRTAKI - what is the difference

Sirtaki cheese is an amazing product that includes a huge amount of useful substances and has an unusual taste. Adding it to the "Greek" salad allows you to create an amazing dish with excellent taste in an ordinary kitchen. How to cook an appetizer with sirtaki and Greek salad dressing at home, you will learn from our article.

Perhaps you will like it.

This variation of the famous dish is perhaps one of the most successful and truly festive. The combination of one of the most expensive and delicious types of vinegar with extraordinary cheese - the result is a treat that has not only an exquisite taste, but also an unusual, refined aroma.

Greek salad - composition:

• 5 tomatoes;
• 4 cucumbers;
• 1/4 tsp oregano;
• 1/4 tsp salt;
• 1 onion;
• 1/4 tsp ground pepper;
• sirtaki cheese for Greek salad - 250 gr;
• 100 gr. olives
• 4 tbsp. l. olive oils;
• 1 st. l. balsamic vinegar;
• 200 gr. lettuce leaves.

Greek salad - how to cook:

1. The first step is to prepare the dressing. To this end, mix the oil with vinegar, oregano, pepper and salt.
2. Rinse the lettuce leaves thoroughly, dry them on a paper towel, and then simply tear them into fairly large pieces.
3. Wash cucumbers, chop into halves of circles.
4. Peel the onion from the husk, chop.
5. Wash the tomatoes, cut into slices.
6. Sirtaki must be crushed to cubes.
7. Drain the liquid from the jar of olives.
8. Put all prepared products in a suitable salad bowl and mix.
9. At the end, add dressing to the salad and, if desired, sprinkle with fresh herbs.

Important! It is necessary to fill the finished dish with sauce and mix not a few hours before serving, but immediately before it.

Classic Greek salad dressing with sirtaki

This recipe uses sirtaki cheese and an unusual lemon dressing, thanks to which the dish has gained such popularity. The salad turns out incredibly fresh and at the same time quite nutritious.

You will need:

• 4 tomatoes;
• 200 gr. sirtaki for Greek salad;
• 1 onion (preferably red);
• 1/2 lemon;
• 2 tbsp. l. olive oils;
• 70 gr. olives
• 2 cucumbers;
• 1 sweet pepper;
• 1/4 tsp salt;
• 1/4 tsp oregano;
• 1/4 tsp ground pepper.

Greek Salad Sauce Recipe:

1. Tomatoes should be washed, cut into fairly thin slices.
2. Wash cucumbers, cut into pieces.
3. Peel the onion from the husk, chop into half rings.
4. Drain the olives in a colander to drain excess juice.
5. Cheese simply needs to be crushed into even cubes.
6. All the seeds are carefully removed from the sweet pepper, the fruit is washed and cut.
7. Squeeze all the juice from the lemon and mix with salt, olive oil, pepper and oregano. Thus, the famous gas station is prepared.
8. Put all products in one dish, mix and pour dressing.

Greek salad with bell pepper

The dish, as expected, is crispy and exquisitely fresh. But due to the addition of pickled gherkins to the composition, it also acquires a piquant, spicy shade. This recipe allows you to prepare a special masterpiece with amazing taste.

You will need:

• 3 tomatoes;
• 2 cucumbers;
• 1 sweet pepper;
• 100 gr. lettuce leaves;
• 150 gr. sirtaki;
• 150 gr. pickled gherkins;
• 2 tbsp. l. olive oils;
• 1 clove of garlic;
• 1 st. l. cucumber pickle.

Greek salad recipe:

1. Tomatoes need to be washed and cut into thin slices.
2. Wash fresh cucumbers, cut into pieces.
3. Rinse lettuce leaves, tear into pieces.
4. Cut sirtaki cheese into cubes.
5. The brine from the gherkins must be drained into a separate container, as it will be required for further preparation of the dressing.
6. The gherkins themselves should be cut into several parts.
7. Put all the prepared ingredients in a salad bowl and mix.
8. Add the brine, peeled and crushed garlic to the olive oil. Mix all ingredients.
9. Pour the dressing into the salad bowl and the dish can be considered ready to serve.

Tip: the classic recipe does not include meat. But nonetheless. In order to make the finished salad more satisfying, you can add boiled chicken fillet to it.

How to make Greek salad - recipe

One of the advantages of Beijing cabbage over lettuce leaves is juiciness. And accordingly, the dish as a result is even more rich and fresh.

You will need:

• 200 gr. sirtaki cheese;
• 200 gr. Chinese cabbage;
• 3 cucumbers;
• 2 tomatoes;;
• 100 gr. olives;
• 1 sweet pepper;
• 1/4 tsp ground pepper;
• 2 tbsp. l. olive oils;
• 1/4 tsp salt.

Greek salad with olives:

1. Rinse cabbage leaves well, tear into pieces.
2. Cucumbers must be washed, wiped with a paper towel, and then cut into cubes.
3. Wash the tomatoes, cut into slices.
4. Pepper needs to be cleaned of seeds, washed and cut into cubes.
5. Cheese should be cut.
6. Transfer all prepared ingredients to a salad bowl and add olives.
7. In a separate bowl, mix the olive oil with salt and pepper, then season the already prepared salad with this sauce.

How to make Greek salad

The specialty of this dish is a delicate yoghurt filling. It is thanks to this unusual solution that the treat acquires a completely different flavor.

You will need:

• 4 tomatoes;
• 3 sweet peppercorns;
• 1 red onion;
• 30 gr. greens;
• 200 gr. sirtaki;
• 1 pack of Greek yogurt;
• 1 clove of garlic;
• 2 tbsp. l. olive oils;
• 1/2 tsp mustard seeds;
• 10 olives;
• 1 st. l. marinade that will remain from the olives.

Cooking steps:

1. Peel the onion from the husk, chop.
2. Wash greens, chop.
3. Cheese needs to be cut into fairly large cubes or simply broken.
4. Tomatoes should be washed, cut into slices.
5. Pepper must be initially separated from the seeds, rinsed, cut into strips or cubes.
6. Gently mix all the ingredients in a salad bowl, add olives.
7. Beat the yogurt well, then add garlic crushed by the press, mustard and the marinade remaining from the olives to it.
8. Pour the dressing over the salad and mix.

The use of sirtaki cheese in the preparation of the "Greek" salad is an original solution. Due to the component, the dish acquires a certain peculiarity, becomes nutritious and refined.

And this time I decided to cook a classic Greek salad according to all the rules, and I took Sirtaki as cheese. I bought it in the Magnit store for about 85 rubles. The package contains 330 grams, but for me this amount was too much.

Package: terribly inconvenient, you just can’t do without scissors. And besides, it's hard to cut the edges so as not to hurt the cheese itself. The cardboard is thick.

Here's what happened after opening:

but the bulk is even, so it is quite possible to cut the cheese into even cubes for salad

Compound:

Cheese "Sirtaki"

After opening, the product should be stored for 3 days, and since I don’t make such a salad every day, most of the cheese disappears, because you won’t eat much of it because of the specific taste. But here everyone has their own preferences.

Sirtaki cheese expiration date

Taste: a little salty, so I add a little salt to the ingredients for the Greek salad, but a little. It also has sourness, so I can’t eat a lot of it and add a little bit to the dish.

The texture is soft and pleasant.

For a salad, I take sweet peppers, red onions, cucumbers, tomatoes, olives and make a dressing. I dry the leaves on a towel after washing.

It's best to toss in the cheese cubes right before serving, otherwise it will soften as you stir.

The full recipe using Greek salad dressing is in my video:

I wish they sold packages with less cheese, because not everyone can eat it in large quantities, and the shelf life is short. Also, it would not hurt the manufacturer to improve the packaging so as not to spoil the shape of the product. And so good.

Thank you all for your feedback!

See my other food reviews with recipes in this category

Sirtaki cheese for Greek salad is an ideal option. The combination of crispy vegetables and the unusual bright taste of sirtaki cheese will not leave you indifferent.

Making Greek salad at home is easy. It only takes a little time and the very few products available. A hearty dinner will appeal to even the most demanding gourmets and champions of a healthy diet.

The calorie content of the original salad is only 98 kcal in one plate of a hearty dinner.

• Recipe posted: Alexander Lozier
• After cooking you will get: 2-3 servings
• Preparation: 12 minutes
• Calories: 98 kcal per serving

Ingredients for Greek Sirtaki Salad

• 180 g sheep cheese sirtaki
• 120 g Chinese cabbage
• 80 g fresh cucumbers
• 80 g red tomatoes
• onion head
• 105 g pitted olives
• a couple of bell peppers
• chilled olive oil
• liquid flower honey

1. Cut sirtaki cheese into large cubes.

2. We wash the Chinese cabbage under running water, chop it into chaotic pieces.

3. Remove the peel from the cucumbers and cut into 6-8 pieces.

4. We clean the onion and chop it with large, neat rings.

5. Olives are separated from the spicy brine, cut in halves.

6. After washing the bell peppers, chop them in thick circles. Remember the importance of removing coarse veins, seeds and other green fines. We clean the scalded tomatoes and cut into neat slices.

7. Blend olive oil with flower honey. Pour the mixture of vegetables and tender sirtaki with the resulting mixture. Immediately put on the table, adding a little chopped greenfinch or herbs to taste.

Tell your friends how Greek salad is made. Let them please their loved ones with a simple and affordable lunch. In the meantime, take on another recipe for culinary weapons -. The exclusive cheese component will change your idea of ​​popular cuisine, making the dish truly exclusive.

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