Name: Mediterranean Cucumber Tomato Feta Salad with Homemade Greek Dressing
Prep time: 10 min
Total time: 10 min
Yield: 4
Ingredients: 4 medium tomatoes, cut into wedges; 1 large cucumber, sliced; 1 medium onion, peeled and sliced; ½ pound feta, cut into ½ inch pieces; 1 cup kalamata olives; 2 tbsp red wine vinegar; 1 tsp dried oregano; ¼ cup olive oil; salt and black pepper to taste

This recipe makes one mean Mediterranean cucumber tomato feta salad complete with a homemade Greek dressing that’s simply to die for. The best part? You can have it ready to go from scratch in only 10 minutes. Here’s how to make it.

How to Make a Cucumber Tomato Feta Salad

Prepare the ingredients. This is the most time consuming part. Wash all of the vegetables you’ll be using. Cut the tomatoes into wedges. Cut the cucumber into thin slices. Peel and slice the onion. Break the feta into ½” pieces. Once you’re done with this, everything else is smooth sailing!
Combine! Add the tomato, cucumber, red onion, kalamata olives, and feta pieces to a large bowl.
Toss. Add the homemade Greek dressing (see below) and toss to combine.
Serve. Serve the salad immediately.

Mediterranean Cucumber Feta Salad

How to Make Homemade Greek Dressing

The homemade Greek dressing is just as easy to prepare as the salad. Here’s the recipe for the Greek dressing:

Combine the ingredients. Add the red wine vinegar, dried oregano, olive oil, salt, and black pepper into a small bowl and mix to combine.
Add to salad. Add to your salad mixture and toss to combine.
Serve. Serve the salad immediately.

Mediterranean Cucumber Feta Salad

3 Health Benefits of a Mediterranean Diet

The Mediterranean diet is renowned around the world thanks to its long standing reputation as one of the world’s healthiest diets. With that in mind, here are 3 proven benefits that the diet can provide you with:

Reduced risk of heart disease. The Mediterranean diet places an emphasis on eating real, whole foods while also reducing or limiting your intake of refined carbs, sugars, and processed foods. When combined with the habit of drinking mostly red wine instead of beers or hard liquor, these factors all work in tandem to reduce your risk of heart disease and stroke. (1)
Helps prevent cognitive decline. Those same cardioprotective benefits mentioned above (improved LDL and HDL cholesterol levels, reduced blood pressure, and improved overall blood vessel health can also help to reduce your risk of developing cognitive diseases like Alzheimer’s. (2)
May protect against type 2 diabetes. Quite a lot of the staple foods included on the Mediterranean diet are rich in fiber, which when combined with the focus on eliminating refined sugars and carbs, can help to regulate blood sugar levels by preventing sudden and drastic spikes. (3)

Mediterranean Cucumber Feta Salad

Can I Make This Cucumber Tomato Feta Salad Ahead?

This salad recipe is a great candidate for making ahead of time; you can make one single batch in advance and cover your lunch meals for most of your week!

Here are a few handy tips if you are indeed planning on making this recipe ahead:

Make the dressing ahead of time first. Thanks to the red wine vinegar, the dressing will stay good in the fridge for up to 7 days.
Pre-cut the vegetables. You can easily prep the tomatoes, cucumber, and onion ahead of time and then just keep each item in a ziploc bag or airtight container until you’re ready to prepare the salad.
Perfect for leftovers. While it’s definitely an option to make the dressing ahead of time and pre-cut your vegetables, you can also just prepare this entire recipe and keep the salad in the fridge for up to one week as well. Since the recipe makes 4 servings, you can simply make a batch on a Sunday afternoon and have several meals prepped and ready to go for the week ahead.

Mediterranean Cucumber Feta Salad