A friend made dinner for my husband and I recently. This was the side dish. It was so darn good I couldn’t stop shoveling it in. I practically got down on my knees and begged her for this recipe. I’m telling you . . . this stuff ROCKS!!!

Greek Cole Slaw

Dressing: Olive oil, cider vinegar, lemon juice, garlic, oregano (Italian seasoning is OK as a substitute.), pepper & salt.

Salad: cabbage, red bell pepper, cucumber, onion, grape tomatoes, grated carrot

Topping: Feta cheese and brined Greek olives (the marinated deli ones).

This is one of those recipes where the amount of every ingredient is "to taste". I like that in a summer salad because often you need to go heavier or lighter on an item depending on what you have on hand, and also how many people you are having for dinner.

Mix the dressing ahead of time to give it a chance to age. Also, I recommend going light on the salt until you see how much saltiness the olives are going to add to your salad. The types of olives we all have access to at various deli counters is obviously quite varied, so it's upredictable as to how salty your olives will be.

Prep the veggies to your favorite size and combine. (Hint: I leave the grape tomatoes whole in this because you really don't want any extra fluid in the salad.)

Crumble feta and break up the olives to sprinkle on top.

Add the dressing and toss just before serving. Give it a few minutes to meld the flavors, but not so long all the cabbage water is drawn out.

Everything in this recipe is subject to personal interpretation, although one thing I noticed (and my friend did too) with this recipe is that it gets watery quite quickly. The salt from the feta and the brined Greek olives draws the moisture out of the vegetables rapidly. So you might not want to make a ton extra thinking the left overs will be stable. At the very least, you’ll want to transfer the remainder with a slotted spoon to a new container to reduce extra fluid as much as possible.

Also, the store I went to the first time I made this didn’t have brined Greek olives, so I had to get basic sliced olives in a can. This definitely made a difference in flavor, and we had to add a bit more salt to make up for it.

A variation I tried on this recipe was to take turkey salami sandwich slices and roll them up tight, slicing off small coils of the meat into the cole slaw. Then, I substituted Italian seasoning for the oregano. This resulted in more of an “antipasto salad”. Pretty good, though.

If anyone has a similar recipe or other variation ideas, feel free to post them so we can all enjoy!