There is NOTHING I like more during the summer than a cold Greek salad. It’s no wonder I’ll buy all the ingredients on the Monday and make myself one every day at work. However I find it mind boggling that I can’t seem to be able to buy a decent Greek salad in any restaurant that I’ve been to, Greek or otherwise. To spread the love I’m going to give everyone explicit details on how to make the simplest and healthiest dish this side of the Mediterranean.

The ingredients are very simple, for a decent sizes salad (1-2 people) you’ll need the following:

<li><p>2 or 3 large tomatoes. They have to be the LARGE variety. No cherry tomatoes, no small piddly little tomatoes either. They have to be the big and ripe variety. Pay the extra, get the good stuff. This represents the bulk of the salad so don't skimp on this ingredient.</p> </li>


<li>1<p>/2 a cucumber. Generally speaking it's 1 small cucumber, but for some reason I can't seem to be able to get these over here in UK supermarkets so I tend to use half of the ones available.</p></li>

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1/4 or a red onion. Don't get the white ones, go for the red ones. It's all about the correct flavours and this is pretty important. You can have as many or as little as you like, however I find that if you put more it ends up left at the end.

<li><p>1/2 a green pepper. You can try and use a sweet yellow or red pepper, but honestly it won't be the same. The green pepper provides it with that savory taste that you need.</p></li>

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Oregano. You'll need lots of this, the dried variety.

1. Black Kalamata Olives. Yes you could try for another kind of olive. Maybe something in green, or even something stuffed. Rubbish. Get those ideas out of your head. It has to be a black olive. It has to be big and it has to be full of flavour.

<li><p>Feta cheese. Lots of this stuff. </p></li>


<li><p>Olive oil. The more the better. You could make the whole salad swim in the stuff or you could be measured with the amounts. If you're Greek, you go mental with the olive oil. If you're a bit more concerned about your waistline, then be slightly more conservative. At least 5 tablespoons I would imagine, although I'll be honest I never measure, I just pour until I think it's about right.</p></li>
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Fresh bread. Yes you heard me. Go to the bakery, go to the supermarket, go to the Deli down the road and get yourself a fresh loaf. It's got to be a big loaf so you can enjoy soaking in all the olive oil left at the end of the salad. Trust me on this, it's one of the single best parts of eating this.

Ok so now that we’ve got our ingredients, it’s time to understand the other aspect of what makes it a good Greek salad. It’s all about how you cut the ingredients. I know it sounds slightly strange but it’s true.

<li><p>Tomatoes - The way to cut these is very simple. Each tomato has to be cut into 12 pieces. The way to do this is to cut the tomato in half. From their each half will be cut into six pieces. You might want to get rid of the central piece that is where it was attached to the vine. I find this piece to be a bit chewy and stringy in texture. Some people don't seem to mind it, I'm not so keen on this part.</p></li>


<li><p>Cucumber - It's really up to you how you want to eat this, you can either peel the cucumber or you can leave the skin on. I tend to alternate depending on my mood at the time. However the proper way to cut the cucumber is first down the length of the cucumber, so that you've got two long halves. From there you start chopping each half so that you're left with semi-circular wedges about 0.5cm thick.</p></li>


<li><p>Pepper - Really there is two ways to cut this, both are acceptable. The first is to cut them as full rings. These should be again about 0.5cm thick. The other option is to cut the pepper down it's length and then have thin strips of pepper from that half; again cut down their length.</p> </li>


<li><p>Onion - After you've cut the onion in half, cut it in half again. From there you'll cut thin strips (as in the picture above). Make sure that they're split from each other (unlike the picture above). </p></li>


<li><p>Feta - Again there are two schools of thought about how to present this. Either you have it in a big chunk (or a series of big chunks) or alternatively you crumble the feta cheese (with your fingers) so that it's all over the salad. I'm again impartial to either fashion, although if it's a quick job I go for the easier option which is to have big chunks.</p></li>


<li><p>Add the olives, sprinkle the oregano, pour the oil, tear off some bread and dig right in. </p></li></ol>

Summer on a plate.