My first experience with traditional chop chop salad was on the Greek island of Crete. My wife and I were visiting an art cooperative checking out each artist’s work in their mini studios. Half way through our self guided tour we came upon a group of artists eating a late lunch. As often happens in Crete, they invited us to sit with them and shared their food. Their spread of food included a bean dish with herbs, bread (of course), kidneys fried in olive oil, cheese, wine and a chop chop salad. I loved the instant camaraderie and thoroughly enjoyed all the food (although I wasn’t a huge fan of the kidneys). I was particularly taken with the chop chop salad. It is fascinating to me how merely changing the size of something can actually change the perceived taste. I find this to be true with pasta, for example. Pasta can take on quite a different taste when it is a small shell or bow tie compared to linguine. It doesn’t necessarily make sense because the pastas are made with the same ingredients, but the difference in shape changes how it seems to taste.

Ingredients:

• 1 regular cucumber or ½ English cucumber sliced 1” thick and quartered
• 1 cup cherry tomatoes sliced in halves
• 1 small red onion roughly chopped
• 2 cups romaine lettuce roughly chopped
• ¼ cup or approx. 12 kalamata olives halved
• ½ cup feta cut into ½” cubes
• 1/8 cup fresh mint leaves
• 1 pinch dried oregano
• ½ cup creamy Greek dressing see recipe

Instructions:

• Add all ingredients to a big salad bowl and gently toss.

Nutrition:

• Calories: 415kcal
• Carbohydrates: 19g
• Protein: 10g
• Fat: 35g
• Saturated Fat: 9g
• Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g
• Monounsaturated Fat: 4g
• Cholesterol: 33mg
• Sodium: 709mg
• Potassium: 610mg
• Fiber: 4g
• Sugar: 7g
• Vitamin A: 4912IU
• Vitamin C: 29mg
• Calcium: 259mg
• Iron: 2mg