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Greek salad with roasted carrots

Greek salad needs no improvement. It is one of the world’s most famous and loved salads for a reason - it is perfectly balanced, both fresh and salty. But yet, spurred by salad curiosity, I have still tinkered with greek salads. This time, I've added roasted carrots, an unusual move that feels incredibly natural, almost intuitive.

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A bowl of salad containing cherry tomatoes, sliced cucumbers, red onions, roasted carrots, feta cheese, herbs, and a light dressing on a marble surface.

This is not an improvement of Greek salad because, as I said earlier, it doesn’t need any. But what it does offer is an idea, a different way to enjoy familiar flavours, and a rejuvenation of a classic which inevitably highlights how good the original salad is. I daresay, you could tinker yourself and add other roasted veggies to Greek salad – zucchini, eggplant, and cauliflower spring to mind as excellent options that would add complexity to the Greek salad flavour profile.

Peeling the carrots is a personal choice. If you are working with young or baby carrots with thin skin, don’t bother peeling them; however if your carrots are older or have a thicker skin, peeling will remove any blemishes or bitterness.

Greek salad with roasted carrots

Serves

Ingredients

450 g carrots, peeled or unpeeled, and cut into 2.5cm (1-inch) pieces
extra virgin olive oil
sea salt and black pepper
1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
450 g cherry or small tomatoes, halved
3 Lebanese (Persian) cucumbers, cut into 2.5cm (1-inch) pieces
1 small green or red capsicum (bell pepper), core, membrane and seeds removed and cut crosswise into thinly sliced
20-25 black olives, seeds removed and torn
200 to 230 g vegan or dairy feta, broken into large chunks
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried mint
Handful of oregano or mint leaves

Instructions

Preheat oven to 220˚C / 425˚F.
Place the carrots onto a baking sheet, season generously with salt and black pepper and place in the oven. Roast until the carrots are tender and slightly golden, 25-30 minutes. Set aside to cool slightly.
Meanwhile, in a large non- reactive bowl, add the red onions and red wine vinegar and toss. Leave to marinate while you prepare the rest of the salad. This softens the flavour of raw onion.
To the onions, add the carrots, tomatoes, cucumber, capsicum (bell pepper), olives, feta, the dried oregano and mint and the fresh oregano or mint. Add about 3 tablespoons of olive oil (or more) and season generously with salt and pepper.
Serve as is, or with bread on the side.

Tips and Variations

In the summer, there are so many vibrant, colourful varieties of tomatoes that are available - any type will work in this salad. If you’d like a heartier salad, or are feeding more than four, you could bulk this up by adding some pan-fried gnocchi, like in this salad.