25 Favorite Amazing Salads with Feta Cheese

For all the other people who love Feta like I do, here are my 25 favorite amazing salads with Feta cheese.

For more than nine years I've been posting new recipes several times a week on Kalyn's Kitchen, as well as regularly updating older ones that aren't up to current standards.  And no doubt about it, doing that regularly plus the social-media related tasks that go along with blogging is very much a full-time job.  Not that I am complaining; I love doing it, but sometimes even bloggers  need a vacation, and in the next couple of weeks I'm going to be taking two of them!  

For the rest of this week I'm going to BlogHer14 in San Jose and spending a couple of extra days hanging out with my friend Stephanie.  Then I'll be home for a few days, just long enough to get ready to go on a cruise to Alaska!   I don't want to spend all my vacation updating the blog, so I"m leaving you with a nice round-up of tasty dishes to explore while I'm off having fun.  This post has 25 Amazing Salads with Feta Cheese, all my favorites from those nine years of blogging!   (I'll be back with a new recipe early next week.  I'll make an effort to keep up with comments, questions, and social media, but if you don't get a reply as quickly as usual, you'll know why.)

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Cucumber, Avocado, and Garbanzo Salad with Feta, Lemon, and Mint (Gluten-Free)

Loved the fresh garden mint in this Cucumber, Avocado, and Garbanzo Salad with Feta, Lemon, and Mint.

A few weeks ago I had a couple of avocados on my counter that were crying out to be used, so I started thinking about how to use them.  I improvised with inspiration from this salad and the lemon-Feta vinaigrette from this salad, and the resulting combination of flavors in this Cucumber, Avocado, and Garbanzo Salad with Feta, Lemon, and Mint was really a wow for me. The first time I made the salad I didn't take photos, so the next time my nephew Jake came to cook we made the salad again, and this time we marinated the garbanzo beans in the dressing for a couple of hours before we tossed the salad together, which probably doubled the wow factor!  Jake loved the salad as much as I did; in fact it was his favorite dish in a long day of trying out new recipes.  If you're lucky enough to have some cucumbers from the garden, this salad will be even better; hope you enjoy!

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Grilled Zucchini Greek Salad (Low-Carb, Gluten-Free)

Grilled zucchini replaces the cucumbers in this delicious Grilled Zucchini Greek Salad!

 
(For Phase One Fridays I feature Phase One Recipes from the past that have been my personal favorites.  For four weeks in a row now I've gotten zucchini at the farmers market, so I think zucchini season is officially here and it's time to make this Grilled Zucchini Greek Salad!  This is a simple idea, but it's something I've made over and over since I came up with it years ago.)

When I visited Athens in 1998, I ate salads with cucumbers, tomatoes, green bell pepper, cucumbers, onions, and Feta cheese, always served with a dressing that combined red wine vinegar, olive oil, and dried Greek Oregano. In Greece this combination was usually called Village Salad, but in the U.S., any salad with those ingredients would be called Greek Salad. This grilled zucchini version of an American-Style Greek salad is something I came up with years ago when my garden had lots of zucchini and tomatoes, and not many cucumbers. Grilling the zucchini with olive oil and Greek Seasoning, and then brushing on some vinaigrette dressing as it cooks adds wonderful flavor to the salad, even if it's not authentically Greek. If you have surplus zucchini in your own garden, give this idea a try.

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Grilled Fusion Chicken (Low-Carb, Gluten-Free)

This Grilled Fusion Chicken has a great combination of flavors.

(Updated with better photos and step-by-step instructions, July 2014.)  Back in the early days of my blog I wrote about how to make juicy grilled chicken breasts that are perfect every time and I followed it up with some grilled chicken recipes.  Here's a recipe from back then that I adapted from Sunset Magazine, and really enjoyed the result.  I made this again recently with my niece Kara so we could take some new photos, and we changed the ingredients just slightly to give it even more flavor.  In the new photos I'm pairing it with a simple salad of cucumber noodles I made with my Spiralizer.

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Zucchini Noodle Mock Pasta Salad (Low-Carb, Gluten-Free)

Make "noodles" from zucchini and use them for this Zucchini Noodle Mock Pasta Salad; so delish!

When I posted Three Ways to Make Noodles from Zucchini and Other Vegetables, I promised to share some new recipes using the noodles, and I've made this Zucchini Noodle Mock Pasta Salad several times now, and gobbled it up every time.  This recipe is a low-carb and gluten-free offspring of my Pasta Salad with Italian Sausage, Zucchini, Red Pepper, and Olives, a recipe I've been making for years and years for family parties.  This mock pasta salad could be served as a side dish, but since it has turkey Italian Sausage included, I'd be happy with a big bowl of this for a delicious low-carb dinner.

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Three Ways to Make Noodles from Zucchini and Other Vegetables (and Recipes with Vegetable Noodles)

Low-Carb Zucchini "Noodles" are delicious and easy to make.

Have you noticed how many cooks are suddenly making "noodles" from zucchini and other types of vegetables?  I think the abundance of vegetable noodles popping up everywhere is mostly due to an amazing machine called the Spiralizer.  I'm a little obsessed with my Spiralizer lately, so watch for a few dishes with vegetable noodles coming up soon on the blog. But for those who don't want to spend nearly $35.00 for a machine to make noodles, there are actually several less expensive noodle-making gadgets that work pretty well.  I have three different cooking tools that make noodles from vegetables, so I thought it would be a fun Meatless Monday post to compare them for anyone who's curious about vegetable noodles.

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Pan-Grilled Chicken with Green Olive, Caper, and Lemon Relish (Low-Carb, Gluten-Free, Can Be Paleo)

Easy pan-grilled chicken with a flavorful green olive relish and Mediterranean Salad with Hummus Dressing on the side.

(For Phase One Fridays I feature Phase One Recipes from the past that have been my personal favorites, and this easy Pan-Grilled Chicken with Green Olive, Caper, and Lemon Relish is delicious and quick to make on a stove-top grill pan, or grill it on an outdoor grill if you prefer.  It's really the green olive, caper, and lemon relish that makes this special for me and I think the relish would be great on pork chops or fish as well.)

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