Sunday, June 12, 2011

Serbian Salad


We are very fortunate to have a wonderful variety of ethnic restaurants in the Milwaukee area. There are high-end French, Italian and Continental cuisine restaurants along with many small and delightful ethnic restaurants that include Indian, Mexican, Cuban, Brazilian, German, Mediterranean, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Thai and Cajun. One of our favorites is a Serbian restaurant called Three Brothers. The grape leaf sarma and spinach burek are wonderful along with many other authentic Serbian dishes. One of our favorite things to order while we wait for our entrees is the Serbian salad.


I was able to recreate this wonderful salad by doing to online research. When fresh, garden or farmers' market tomatoes, cucumbers and in peppers are in season tastes wonderful! But don't let the season stop you - vine on tomatoes from the grocery store are okay.  I've made this salad three or four times in the past couple of weeks and my husband and I both love it. 


Serbian Salad
Adapted from Here and Here
Printable Recipe

Note - Dressing should be made the day before, if possible. If you can't make it the day before, substitute minced garlic rather than quartered garlic cloves.

Dressing

2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup good red wine vinegar (I used a good Chianti red wine vinegar)
4 garlic cloves quartered
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 teaspoon fresh basil, chopped (or substitute 1/2 teaspoon dried)
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme,
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon dried marjoram
(You can use all fresh herbs in the summer if you have them growing in your garden - just increase the amounts by half for fresh herbs).

Salad

6 tomatoes, cut into large dice
1 red pepper, cut into large dice
3 green onions, chopped
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded and cut into large dice
2-3 radishes, thinly sliced (optional)
1-2 heads or hearts of Romaine Lettuce, washed, chopped and chilled

Crumbled good quality feta cheese

Make dressing and refrigerate overnight. Before tossing salad, discard garlic. Combine tomatoes, peppers, onions and cucumber with enough dressing to taste.

In a large platter or bowl, place the chilled romaine lettuce and top with the tomato mixture.

Top with feta cheese and addition chopped green onion for garnish.

43 comments:

  1. I love eating in authentic ethnic restaurants and trying new dishes. This looksn like a wonderful salad for a hot summer day. Your flowers mosaics are beautiful, Susan!

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  2. Beautiful mosaic of very lovely and colorful flowers.

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  3. lovely salad used to visit Serbian friends in Cleveland great food :-)

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  4. Susan, this salad looks great. And with a popover like the one in your header, my oh my. I have a friend from that part of the world and she makes really different and delicious dishes. xo,

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  5. Great looking salad! Is the Burek a spinach turnover? We have a place, they call them borekas, and they would be awesome along with the salad.

    The mosaics are beautiful, such pretty flowers!

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  6. This will be a great summer salad! I LOVE the dressing! Look for this On The Menu at StoneGable next week! I love this!
    Yvonne

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  7. I just love the flavours in the dressing! Any salad with this dressing is gonna be amazing!

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  8. The Serbian cuisine is well known here in Trieste, there is a large Serb community and many restaurants, I like it very much! I will try this wonderful recipe Susan, I wish you a good week, hugs...

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  9. I have a dear friend of Serbia that slowly is making me discover the beauty of the cuisine of the Balkans. I really like it as I like this salad, very fresh and colorful.

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  10. Serbian food is nice. The salad sounds refreshing, light and nutritious.

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  11. I'm pretty sure I've never had Serbian food before so I'll have to check out the menu for that restaurant! This salad looks so fresh flavored...the perfect summer meal!

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  12. Yum, the salad is simple and delicious... something the screams summer.

    Love your iris photos... black iris made the fashion pages of the NYT this week.. they are fetching!

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  13. Sounds like a great salad Susan! Love your pretty mosaics, the soft white single peony is just beautiful-enjoy:@)

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  14. I'm certain this will become a favorite salad around here. I am looking forward to the tomatoes and cucumbers in our farmer's market. Until then, we use the tomatoes on the vine and, recently, Costco has had tasty little cucumbers. The dressing sounds delicious.

    Best,
    Bonnie

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  15. Looks delicious! With 2 hungry teens, I'm always looking for new ideas. Luckily, they enjoy all types of food. Glad I found your blog.
    -Lynn

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  16. It must taste as fresh as it looks.. I adore the blooms..so pretty..I am so glad you keep sharing them.

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  17. Sounds like a wonderful salad to have when I am dining alone. Yummy!

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  18. Your flowers are beautiful. That salad looks delicious too. Thanks for stopping by.
    Sherry

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  19. The flowers are very beautiful Susan and the salad looks wonderful. I've never had it before but it looks really delicious. Thanks for sharing with us :)

    Have a great week ahead.

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  20. What a wonderful, healthy salad! I especially like your dressing and all the fresh summer herbs you've used. I'm hoping to see arugula and frizee in the market soon.

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  21. The salad looks delicious, is beautiful, and seems easy to make. Hmmm...

    We must be in the same zone as your garden and mine are very similar in progress.

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  22. Great looking salad Susan! Like you I love to come home and try to re-create something we enjoyed at the restaurant. Looks like you succeeded.
    Rita

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  23. Very like a salad I eat nearly every day, Susan, although I add endive to mine. What I DO like is the dressing. All those herbs...bet it tastes wonderful.

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  24. Beautiful salad and I love your beautiful peonies and iris...you just cant beat these flowers!!! Have a beautiful day!!!

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  25. Wonderful mosaics..the irises are stunning! And I would love to try this recipe! We like to try something different now and then to get out of the rut! ♥ I'm glad to find your blog! ♥

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  26. Now that looks scrumptious!!

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  27. I don't think I've ever eaten Serbian food before but this sounds great, especially the dressing!

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  28. As soon as my garden starts producing tomatoes, peppers and cukes, I know what I will be making. We enjoy Serbian food also.

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  29. Beautiful salad and mosaic, Susan! I hope the feta I use is good quality, :). We eat a lot of it!

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  30. I can just about imagine the flavour of that salad - complex, fresh and all that crispness.

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  31. Your salad looks & sounds so refreshing! Love your beautiful garden mosaics! I'm wishing my peonies were still blooming :-)

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  32. Definitely my type of salad! SO beautifully arranged! And I love your mixed herbs vinaigrette!

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  33. Variations of this type of salad is many in Balkans cuisines. I love it.
    Funny is a story with feta cheese. We all think of comes from Greece but the dispute about the origin of this cheese goes on between Greece, Bulgaria and Balkan countries.
    Once, I was admonished by the Croat when I told - the Greek feta cheese. He told me that feta comes form Balkan. Where is thru? I don't know but mediterranean cuisine is wonderful.

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  34. This looks so fresh and delicious! And I love that the garlic has to marinate in the dressing overnight :)

    Sues

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  35. DELICIOUS ENSALADA DEAR,LOOKS GORGEOUS SUPERB PRESENTATION,REFRESHING

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  36. This looks like such a great salad that my whole family would love -- thanks for the recipe -- love it! Joni

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  37. That's a lovely plate of salad. The ingredients sounds really good! Bookmarking this! Thanks for sharing!

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  38. Thank you, all, for your very kind words! We had this salad for dinner again last night ;)

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  39. Good, healthy and refreshing! Pretty much what I look for in a salad, and this one fits the bill!

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  40. looks so yummy! :) definitely gonna try that recipe! i eat similar meal every week..

    Serbia is country near my country :) So we from the Balkan really like that meal :D

    have a nice day,
    Lucy,

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  41. That salad looks great! Your flowers pictures are lovely, especially the peonies.

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  42. This salad looks so fresh and yummy. The dressing sounds just great with all those herbs in it. I can't wait to try this. Thanks for the idea.

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  43. I loved the Three Brothers salad (especially with a glass of house wine)! I am going to try this tonight. TA

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