Greek Salad with Really Good Dressing

This dressing is crazy good. It was a secret recipe from a pizzeria, but it's no secret anymore! The original recipe made almost a gallon of dressing, so I had to do a lot of math to scale it down for home use. It keeps well at room temperature if tightly covered, so you may want to make the larger amount. I use it in place of Italian dressing on some salads. Larger recipe makes almost a quart of dressing. Smaller size is in parenthesis ( ).

1 ½ cups olive oil  (¾ cup)

1 ¼ Tbs garlic powder  (2 scant tsp)

1 ¼ Tbs dried oregano  (2 scant tsp)

1 ¼ Tbs dried basil  (2 scant tsp)

1 Tbs ground black pepper  (1 ½ tsp)

1 Tbs salt  (1 ½ tsp)

1 Tbs onion powder  (1 ½ tsp)

1 Tbs Dijon mustard  (1 ½ tsp)

2 cups red wine vinegar  (1 cup)

Mix olive oil, garlic powder. oregano, basil, pepper, salt, onion powder, and Dijon mustard together in a bowl. Pour in the vinegar slowly, mixing vigorously until well blended.

Make this earlier in the day so it has time to meld the flavors.

Greek Salad 

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

1 green bell pepper, chopped into 1" pieces

2 cups halved cherry tomatoes

5 oz feta cheese, cut into ½" cubes

⅓ cup thinly sliced red onion*

⅓ cup pitted kalmata olives

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 toss very gently. Sprinkle with a few generous pinches of oregano, and top with mint leaves, if using.

*To reduce the bite in red onions, soak the slices in a generous amount of cold water for 15 minutes. Drain and repeat this process two or three more times. So obviously you need to do this well before you make the salad.