Hello Kenarry readers! I’m Ashlyn from Belle of the Kitchen and I’m back for our newest edition of Ideas for the Kitchen, a blog series where Carrie and I swap recipes once a month. Since barbecue season is now in full swing, we decided to share some easy side dish recipes to accompany all of your outdoor meals this summer. Today I’ve brought a fresh and easy Cucumber Greek Salad. It’s healthy and delicious on all of those hot summer days!
If you’re looking for Carrie, you can find her over on my blog today where she’s sharing her recipe for Classic Taco Salad. She’ll be sharing it here on Kenarry in a couple of weeks, but if you want to go ahead and take a peek, you can visit Belle of the Kitchen to check it out!
With the 4th of July just a couple of days of away, I’ve been spending some time thinking about what to make for the big day. To me that usually means potato salad, burgers, hot dogs, lemonade, and some kind of red, white, and blue dessert.
Dessert is usually a lot of fun to make when celebrating the 4th, and I’ll probably make these Mini Fruit Pizzas again like I did last year. They were a big hit and I know I’ll probably devour more than my fair share this time around, too!
When there’s lots of yummy desserts and other heavy dishes to chow down on at a barbecue, sometimes I like to prepare a healthier alternative. It’s nice to have a fresh side dish to balance everything out, and this Cucumber Greek Salad definitely fits the bill!
This salad is so easy to throw together. The hardest part is chopping the veggies, and that really only takes about five minutes. Add in some spices, lemon juice, olive oil, and feta, and you are ready to go.
You can definitely make this in a quick pinch for any barbecue or get-together this summer, but if you let it marinate for a couple of hours, the flavors will develop even more. I made ours with black olives because my hubby and son love them, but if it were just for me, I’d leave them out! I’m kinda anti-olives. If you prefer a different kind of olive, you can definitely use those instead, too.
So what kind of side dishes do you have planned for your 4th of July celebration? Share your ideas with us below! We’d love to hear them.
- 2 cucumbers, peeled and chopped into ¼ moons
- 4-6 Roma tomatoes, chopped
- ½ of a red onion, sliced
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 1½ Tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 teaspoons dried oregano
- ½ cup crumbled feta cheese
- Salt and Pepper (to taste)
- Black olives, pitted and sliced (to taste)
- In a large bowl, combine cucumbers, tomatoes, and onions.
- In a smaller bowl, mix the olive oil, lemon juice, and dried oregano. Pour over the vegetables and mix well. Season salad with salt and pepper.
- Sprinkle feta cheese and olives over the top of salad and mix. Taste and adjust spices if need be. Refrigerate until ready to eat. Enjoy!
Looking for more barbecue side dish ideas? You might like these:
———-
Ashlyn is the recipe developer, writer, and photographer at Belle of the Kitchen. She’s the mama of two precious babies, an army wife, and southern girl at heart. She and her family are currently stationed in Hawaii, so when she’s not making a mess of the kitchen, she and her little ones are outside soaking up the sunshine. She loves to share a balance of healthy recipes, family friendly meals, and plenty of treats to satisfy your sweet tooth.
Follow Ashlyn on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google Plus and Instagram.
I just want to say THANK YOU for sharing this recipe. We can’t get enough! It has been our go-to side dish for the summer and has been added to our Family Favorites recipe book. My 2 kids (12 & 14) are pretty picky veggie eaters but they devour it every time. Thanks again for giving me another veggie side to put into our meal rotation 🙂
Oh wow, Andrea! We’re thrilled you and your family love this recipe. We’ll be sure to let Ashlyn at Belle of the Kitchen know. She’ll be so excited to hear it!