Diners once flocked to Pappas’ Riverside Restaurant in Tarpon Springs, Florida for its famous Greek salad. The secret of its success lay in the potato salad buried in the middle. Many consider it the world’s best Greek salad. This easy recipe is a perfect addition to pot luck dinners, buffets, and gourmet club get togethers as well as family meals. Its vibrant colors also lend themselves to holiday celebrations. The recipe is easily tweaked to produce a delicious alternative to the original.
Ingredients for Pappas’ Famous Greek Salad:
These are the ingredients for the original Pappas' Greek salad but there is room for the home cook to experiment. Perhaps she might choose to add frozen peas or walnut halves. Pickles might provide a crunchy sweetness. Apple slices would give the salad an autumn tang. Perhaps Romaine or Boston lettuce could substitute for the more bland iceberg variety. Maybe her family prefers goat cheese or extra sharp. The cook is limited only by her imagination.
- 6 boiling potatoes
- 2 medium sized onions or 4 green onions
- ¼ cup finely chopped parsley
- ½ cup thinly sliced green onion
- ½ cup salad dressing or Mayonaise, preferably Hellmans or Miracle Whip but any brand will do.
- Salt
- 1 large head of iceberg lettuce or lettuce of choice. Bagged salad mixes could also be used.
- 3 cups of potato salad,
- 12 roka leaves or 12 sprigs of watercress
- 2 tomatoes cut into wedges
- 1 peeled cucumber cut lengthwise
- 1 avocado pear peeled and cut into wedges
- Sliced feta cheese. Crumbled can also be used.
- 1 green bell pepper cut into 8 rings
- 4 slices of canned, cooked beets
- 4 peeled and cooked shrimp, If you are preparing the salad for more than four people, include one shrimp for each person.
- 4 anchovy filets - or enough for each person.
- 12 black olives, Greek style are preferred
- 12 medium hot Solonika peppers – these are bottled and any bottled medium hot pepper will do.
- 4 radishes
- 4 whole green onions
- ½ cup distilled white vinegar
- ¼ cup each of olive and salad oil blended, (Greek salad dressing with lemon can be substituted – recipe to follow)
- Oregano
The cook should feel free to use her favorite potato salad recipe.The potato salad can be prepared ahead of time or store bought potato salad can be substituted.
Greek Salad Dressing Recipe
Whisk together 6 tablespoons of olive oil, 1 teaspoon dried oregano, the juice of 1 lemon, ground black pepper to taste.
Preparing Pappas’ Greek Salad:
In the 13th edition of Louis Pappas' Famous Greek Recipes, the directions for assembling this Greek salad are quite specific, directing the cook as to the position of each ingredient. However, the home cook might have more fun coming up with her own plan. One might feel that the only constant should be the hiding of the potato salad under the other ingredients for an unexpected surprise. While the original salad is dressed with only vinegar, olive oil and oregano, the dressing choices are as varied as the ingredients from the traditional Greek salad dressing recipe above to blue cheese or Italian.
Assembling the salad is a child friendly task and might be an opportunity for a hands on kitchen activity for the entire family.
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