Greek Green Salad With Smoked Pork
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This is a deliciously light Greek style green salad with smoked pork which makes either a great starter ofr a couple of people or as a main course for one.
I have been lucky enough to have snuck off to Crete again for a week of sunshine, friendship, good food, fun and many a Raki. We went back to our favourite tiny village in the south-west of the island, Agia Galini. A place that stole my heart 21 years ago and just didn’t give it back.
This time we met even more great people including Nikos Karatarakis who has Avli Taverna.
Nikos and his team created many great dishes for us over the week. Their Kleftiko was to die for, but this simple but super tasty Avli Salad (a Greek green salad with pomegranate and smoked pork) really rocked my boat and I’m recreating it here to share all that goodness and a little bit of Cretan sunshine.
Smoked Pork
Below you will find my version of this amazing Greek green salad using ingredients that are available here in the UK. Where Nikos uses smoked pork I substituted smoked pancetta cubes and my three balsamic vinegars were a delicate Cretan Thyme and honey balsamic, a zesty orange balsamic and the basic balsamic vinegar of Modena.
Other salad ingredients
I used mixed salad leaves including rocket, lambs lettuce, frisee and radicchio. You want a mix of leaves with lots of flavour.
Make sure to use a really fresh pomegranate as those that are past their best have nasty gritty little seed pods and you really want these to be plump and firm like bright red rubies and packed with juice.
The salad dressing
- Juice of half an orange
- Balsamic vinegar
- Pomegranate juice
- Fresh thyme leaves or dried thyme if you don’t have fresh
- Honey
- Olive oil
- Pepper
How to serve this Greek green salad
You can serve this amazing salad as a starter to share between two people.
Serve it as part of a Greek meze sharing platter alongside such gorgeous Greek specialities as homemade tzatziki, my homemade taramasolata and skordalia dips.
Looking for more super easy and tasty Greek dishes to try? Then check these out before you go;
The classic Greek salad recipe
Avgolemono – Greek egg and lemon soup
Greek fried beetroot with crispy topping
Greek style wild greens with eggs
Black eyed beans with fennel and spinach
Homemade pastitsio (a lighter version)
Finally, if you do try this recipe don’t forget to leave a comment/star rating below as I just love to hear from readers. Want more Larder Love? Then follow me on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest and sign up for my newsletter too of course.
Greek Green Salad With Smoked Pork
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp pine nuts
- 1 tbsp sesame seeds
- 100 g smoked pork/lardons/pancetta
- 1/2 pomegranate seeds (juice for the dressing)
- 2 tbsp toasted croutons make your own by chopping bread into cubes, drizzle with oil and bake at 180C for 10 mins
- 200 g mixed salad leaves frisee, radicchio, lambs lettuce and rocket etc
Salad dressing
- 3 tbsp good quality extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 orange juice and zest
- 1 tsp fresh thyme chopped
- 2 tsp standard balsamic vinegar
- 1 tsp clear honey
- black pepper
Instructions
- Gently toast the pine nuts in a dry pan for approx 2 minutes until just golden and releasing their aroma, set aside.
- Toast the sesame seeds in the same way but for only about 30-60 seconds, you don’t want them to burn, set aside
- Use the same pan to fry the smoked pork/pancetta until golden and well cooked
- Make the dressing by mixing and juice from the pomegranate with the other dressing ingredients in a jam jar and shake well
- Arrange leaves in a large bowl and add the other ingredients then drizzle over the dressing