Americanized Greek Salad

Lettuce, cucumbers, red onions, bell peppers, feta.  Most of us Americans would look at this salad and say it's a Greek salad.  And it is.  Sort of.  You see, a true Greek salad has no lettuce.  We would probably look and wonder what happened to the lettuce.  So to make it more of what we think of when we think of a salad, most of the Greek salads that we tend to eat in America include lettuce.

Greek Salad
Romaine lettuce, cut into bite-sized pieces
Tomatoes, diced
Green bell peppers, diced
Red bell peppers, diced
Red onions, sliced
Cucumbers, chopped large
Olives, sliced (either kalamata or black will work)
Feta cheese, crumbled
Greek salad dressing (recipe below)

Combine all ingredients in a bowl.  You can either toss it all with the dressing or have people put their dressing on individually.  If you choose to toss the salad with the dressing, make sure you add it immediately prior to serving so that the lettuce doesn't get soggy.

My salad didn't have olives, simply because I didn't have any.  If I did, you can bet they would have been added!

Greek Salad Dressing
1/2 cup olive oil
1 1/4 tsp garlic powder
1 1/4 tsp dried oregano
1 1/4 tsp dried basil
1 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1/2 cup red wine vinegar

Combine all ingredients in a salad carafe and shake well.  If the dressing is too tangy for your taste, you can add a little sugar to tone it down a bit.  To help prevent separation, you can put all ingredients except the oil into a blender or food processor.  While the blender or food processor is running, slowly add the oil.