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I absolutely love salads during the summer months. We have a small garden in our yard and usually just grow tomatoes and herbs. But this year, we added zucchini and cucumbers to the mix. Needless to say, we had an abundance of great vegetables. About 50 tomatoes, some picked already, and some still growing on the vines. Many zucchinis, I was able to make zucchini bread and zucchini meatballs, all meatless of course.

So, with all this goodness picked from the garden, I thought I would share one of my go to salads. Serves 2 as a side, or 1 as an entrée.

1 cucumber, ends trimmed and quartered lengthwise, cut into large chunks
2 tomatoes, cut in half, each half cut into 8 slices
1/4 red onion, thinly sliced
1/2 cup Kalamata olives
4 oz. feta, sliced
1/4 cup fresh mint leaves, thinly sliced, plus whole leaves for garnish
2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar
2-3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
Freshly ground black pepper, about 5 turns of the mill
Generous pinch of Maldon Sea Salt Flakes

Place the cucumber, tomatoes, onion, and olives onto a shallow plate. Drizzle the vinegar over the vegetables along with two tablespoons of the olive oil. Add the mint and feta. Drizzle the remaining olive oil over the feta and season with the salt and pepper. Garnish with the mint leaves. If you have some lettuce you would like to add, I recommend chopped romaine hearts. Or whatever other lettuce you like. Serve right away.

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