Greek Green Salad Recipe

Vlita (amaranth) is one of the favorite greens for making salads on Crete. This wild green is just one of many gathered in the countryside that find their way onto tables in homes across Greece as horta - leafy green salads. Photo by Jim StanfieldGreens are hot right now. Especially the wild varieties grown throughout Greece. Here is an easy salad recipe that tastes great and packs all the antioxidant power of Greek greens!

• 1 hearts of romaine, torn or rough cut
• 1 bunch of mustard greens, torn or rough cut
• 1 bunch of arugula
• 1 large bulb of fennel, trimmed of fronds and tops (save the fonds and chop and sprinkle them over pasta) 
• 1/4 red onion, peeled and thinly sliced
• A few sprigs flat-leaf parsley
• Extra-virgin olive oil 
• juice of one lemon
• cayenne pepper
• Coarse salt and black pepper
• Asiago or Parmigiano Reggiano, shaved for garnish

Directions

Place torn romaine and mustard greens in a large bowl and mix well with your hands.  Cut fennel bulb down the center, then again, quartering it and remove the core in each quarter. Slice the bulbs so that the layers separate and add to the salad along with the onions. Chop or hand tear parsley into the salad and mix all the greens together. In a small bowl  add the lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste and a dash of cayenne pepper. Mix it with a fork and slowly drizzle in extra virgin olive oil until a dressing forms, about a half of a cup will be enough, but if you want a heavier dressed salad, add more. Add the dressing to the salad and mix well with your hands. Add shaves of cheese on top and serve.

The greens in this salad can be subsituted with any of the below wild Greek greens, which are wonderful eaten raw, or add them in addition to the above ingredients for an extra green salad. 

• Palmer Amaranth
• Cabbages (white, red, kale, etc.)
• Catnip (Catmint, Nepeta)
• Chard
• Chicory
• Collards
• Dandelion Greens
• Golden Thistle
• Leeks

• Mache (Lamb's Lettuce, Wild Lettuce)
• Mallow
• Nettles
• Palmer Amaranth (Albersia, Vlita)
• Poppy
• Sow-thistle
• Spinach
• Spiny Chicory
• White Beet Leaves
• Wild Parsley
• Wild Parsnip

Here is a list of Greek greens that taste great cooked (i recommend a quick blanch and then sautee with garlic and extra virgin olive oil)

• Brassicae greens (kale, collard greens)
• Burr Chervil
• Chicory
• Dandelion Greens
• Eryngo
• Notchweed
• Palmer Amaranth
• Sow-thistles
• Spinach
• Spiny Chicory
• Wild Lettuce (Mache)
• Wild Chicory
• Wild Mustard Greens