Fabulous Greek Salad Dressing

This dressing is the "secret recipe" from a pizzeria, and it is the best Greek dressing I have ever tasted. The recipe made a huge amount of dressing . . . a gallon to be exact . . . way too much for home use. So I scaled down the recipe to make right around 2 cups. Took some math skills to do this, but fortunately my husband is a math whiz. Turned out great!

¾ cup olive oil

2 tsp (scant) garlic powder

2 tsp (scant) dried oregano

2 tsp (scant) dried basil

1½ tsp ground black pepper

1½ tsp salt

1½  tsp onion powder

1½  tsp Dijon mustard

1 cup red wine vinegar

Mix olive oil with the other ingredients before slowly adding the vinegar, mixing vigorously until well blended. Store tightly covered at room temperature. Best made at least 8 hours ahead, or the day before.

SALAD 

Use the selections of your choice, but this is what I like.

I English cucumber, cut lengthwise, seeded and sliced ¼" thick

1 green pepper, chopped into 1" pieces

2 cups halved cherry tomatoes

5 oz good Feta cheese* (not crumbled) cut into ¼" cubes

⅓ cup thinly sliced red onion**

⅓ to ½ cup Kalamata olives, pitted

⅓ cup fresh mint leaves, optional ***

On a large platter, arrange the cucumber, green pepper, cherry tomatoes, feta cheese. red onions, and olives. Drizzle with the dressing and very gently toss. Sprinkle with a few generous pinches of oregano, and top with cut up mint leaves. Season to taste and serve.

*It is recommended to use feta in brine, but I found a really nice dry traditional Greek FETA called MT VIKOS that I prefer over brined feta. It's expensive, but really worth finding.

**To take the bite out of red onions, I soak them in cold water for an hour, changing the water every 15 minutes. Can be done way in advance and stored in the refrigerator.

***If using, to use spearmint leaves, cut up. They are less pungent. But regular mint is what most people use.