Zorba the Greek Salad?

I love a good greek salad – so that is todays feature! The ingredient we will look into is Olives. Another food I love. How about you?

A great thing about this simple recipe is that you ought to be able to get the tomatoes, the cucumbers, the onion and maybe even the feta if you are really lucky, at your LOCAL Farm Market! Remember to support your local growers and Eat Fresh when you can.

Good for You Greek Salad (http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/good-for-you-greek-salad/detail.aspx)

6 servings
Ingredients

  • 3 large ripe tomatoes, chopped
  • 2 cucumbers, peeled and chopped
  • 1 small red onion, chopped
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 4 teaspoons lemon juice
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 1 cup crumbled feta cheese
  • 6 black Greek olives, pitted and sliced
Directions
  1. In shallow salad bowl, or on serving platter, combine tomatoes, cucumber, and onion. Sprinkle with oil, lemon juice, oregano, and salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle feta cheese and olives over salad. Serve.

Nutritional Information:
Amount Per Serving:  Calories: 187 | Total Fat: 15.6g | Cholesterol: 22mg

A few variations:  Instead of 4 tsp. of lemon juice, add 3 and 1 tsp of red wine vinegar. For the salt and pepper, add 1/4 tsp of each. Also, add half a red pepper chopped, kalamata olives instead of black… Add Romaine lettuce (and I say lots of it! -see yesterdays post for all the good reasons to eat romaine, or any lettuce! Now you have a main meal.)

Olives and your health— Eat up!
From Mother Earth News:  “Almighty Olives: These Small Fruits Pack Big Health Benefits. (click title for the link)

Looking for a simple (and delicious) way to keep your mind sharp? Offer your diet the olive branch! In addition to olives’ distinct flavors, these petite fruits offer impressive health perks.

The May/June 2009 issue of Psychology Today reports that the antioxidant hydroxytyrosol, abundant in olives, slows cell death in the brain and can thus reduce the incidence of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease.

More olive insight from Psychology Today:

  • Olives’ skin is rich in maslinic acid, a natural compound that destroys colon cancer cells in humans.
  • Choose extra virgin olive oil rather than virgin or “pure” varieties. Only extra virgin olive oil fully retains the olives’ healthful qualities. A rule of thumb: The greener the oil, the richer it is in polyphenols — antioxidants (including hydroxytyrosol) that research has shown to have a host of beneficial qualities, namely preventing degenerative diseases and cancer. “
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  • FYI  (You will see this message for a days now.) The Botanical Beauties and Beasties recognize a couple of things about human nature. First: In the summer folks like to relax a bit and even go on vacation. The Botanicals thought about it and decided that was a great idea! Second: Womes (that’s us -the Woman and the Men of the human race) seem to get A LOT of electronic information and emails. That is not necessary a bad thing but can get over whelming … Third: The Botanical are special creatures and want to stay that way. SO, after putting 1, 2 and 3 together, they have decided that starting next week they will be blogging on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays, and taking a rest on Tuesdays on Thursdays. Your mailbox’s and minds will get a rest as well! They hope that you will love them even more when you hear from then a little less!!! Happy Summer!