Greek salads are pizzeria standards. Garnished with black Greek olives and pepperoncini peppers, tossed in tangy vinaigrette and sprinkled with feta cheese, they offer a delicious combination of flavors and textures – crisp, cool, salty and tart.

This Great Greek Salad also includes those flavors and textures but the usual sprinkling of feta is omitted since I like to serve the salad accompanied by Baked Marinated Feta on Croutons (see recipe on this site). However, if you’re not serving the baked feta, a sprinkling of feta cheese added to the salad would be delicious.

The salad is tossed with a tangy lemon-herb vinaigrette and is garnished with Greek olives along with diced tomatoes, cucumber and avocado.

• Juice of 1 large lemon
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1⁄2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 3 teaspoons minced garlic, about 3 cloves
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh herbs (dill, parsley, basil, mint)
• 1 head red or green leaf lettuce, washed, dried and torn into bite-sized pieces
• 12 pitted Greek olives
• 1 avocado, pitted, peeled and diced
• 1 large, ripe tomato (or 3 or 4 Roma tomatoes), diced
• 1 medium cucumber, peeled and diced

Combine lemon juice, herbs, mustard, Worcestershire, salt pepper and garlic in a small bowl. Whisk in the olive oil. Set aside. Combine the lemon juice, mustard, Worcestershire, salt, pepper and garlic in a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Pulse until well combined. Turn on and drizzle in the olive oil. Pour dressing into a bowl and stir in the herbs.

Place the lettuce in a salad bowl. Add olives, avocados, diced tomatoes and cucumber. Pour some of the dressing over salad and toss to coat.

Makes 8 servings.