Hello foodie friends! Happy Saturday! Now that the holidays are over I am back in the kitchen creating some new and delicious recipes. My first recipe of 2024 is a Dakos Salata (Cretan salad). Dakos Salata is often served as a light meal, or as part of an array of appetizers. Think of this salad as a greek panzanella salad. Its basis is a Cretan dry barley rusk (called paximadia in Greek); Think of them as large croutons. The rusk is made of whole grain barley. These rusks must be softened before eating them. They are very hard! One way to soften them is in water or tossing them in the salad with the dressing and tomatoes. This healthy Mediterranean salad is prepared with olives, capers, feta cheese, tomatoes, extra virgin olive oil, and oregano. I added cucumbers and peppers to mine and fresh dill. There are some different variations to this salad. Enjoy the weekend!

Dakos Salata

Serves: 2

Ingredients

3 Barley rusks (or you can use two thick slices of sourdough bread toasted & cut into chunks)

1 large tomato, chopped

1/3 cup Kalamata olives pitted

1 tablespoon capers

1/2 cup feta cheese

2 small Persian cucumbers, sliced

1 green pepper, chopped

1/2 teaspoon fresh dill, chopped (dried is fine too)

1/2 teaspoon fresh oregano, chopped (dried is fine too)

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

1-2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

Salt

Pepper

Directions

In a small mixing bowl, whisk together extra virgin olive oil, red wine vinegar, dried oregano, salt and pepper. Whisk until all ingredients are well combined. Set aside. To a salad bowl, add barley husks or sourdough bread, tomatoes, cucumbers, olives, capers and feta cheese ( you can crumble the feta cheese or leave it as a block on top of salad and break it up). Pour dressing over salad and toss well. Garnish with fresh dill. Make sure if you are using barley rusks they get softened. Enjoy!