This tomato and feta salad is made with artfully arranged sliced tomatoes, basil, olives, arugula, and pine nuts punctuated with creamy roasted feta. Guaranteed to become a summer standby.
This tomato and feta salad takes summer tomatoes to luxurious and stunning heights with everyday ingredients that are engineered a little ingeniously.–Angie Zoobkoff
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Tomato and Feta Salad FAQs
What should I serve with this salad?
This showstopping summer salad would be terrific served alongside seared steak, grilled or roasted chicken, or fish.
What else can you use the roasted feta on?
After trying the baked feta in this salad, you’ll want to find as many excuses as possible to roast a block of this creamy herb-infused feta. In addition to this salad, we love it on its own, served as an appetizer with crackers, crumbled into soup, or sprinkled atop shakshuka.
For an easy appetizer, try making baked feta with fruit.
In this recipe
Tomato and Feta Salad
Ingredients
- Small handful of fresh oregano leaves (about 3 tablespoons)
- 5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- Zest of 1 lemon (about 1 tablespoon)
- 1 tablespoon chile flakes
- Two (7-ounce) blocks of feta cheese
- 4 cups (3 oz) loosely packed arugula
- 14 ounces mixed tomatoes cut into rounds
- 1 medium shallot cut into very thin slices
- 1 1/4 cups mixed olives pitted
- Small handful of basil leaves (about 3 tablespoons)
- 1/4 cup pine nuts toasted
- 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
- Freshly ground black pepper
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180ºC).
- On a rimmed baking sheet, place a sheet of parchment paper large enough to make a parcel around both blocks of feta.
- In a small bowl, combine half the oregano along with 1 tablespoon olive oil, half the lemon zest, and half the chile flakes. Pour the mixture onto the center of the parchment and place the blocks of feta on this mixture alongside each other.
- Sprinkle the feta with the rest of the oregano, 1 tablespoon oil, and the rest of the lemon zest and chile flakes and then carefully lift the top and bottom edges of the paper. Bring the edges together above the feta and start to fold them down in small folds, over and over, until you nearly reach the feta. Then, fold the two open ends on the sides underneath the feta so you have a closed parcel.
- Slide the baking sheet into the oven and bake for 30 minutes.
- While the feta is baking, arrange the arugula on a platter and layer the slices of tomatoes and shallots on top. Sprinkle with the olives, basil, and pine nuts.
- Remove the feta from the oven, carefully open the parchment parcel, and place one block of feta in the center of the platter. Break the other block of feta into small chunks and scatter them around the salad.
- Drizzle the whole shebang with the remaining 3 tablespoons olive oil and the vinegar and sprinkle with black pepper.
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Recipe Testers’ Reviews
This tomato and feta salad is a showstopper. It’s not only delicious, it’s beautiful. The colors of the salad, the herbs, lemon zest, nuts, olives, tomatoes, and roasted feta make a beautiful presentation.
The unique flavors of each of these items, and especially the delicious summer tomatoes, make this a dish to serve again and again.
After taking my first bite, I immediately began to plan my next dinner party with this beautiful dish as a first course. I think it could be successfully individually plated, as well.
I used Campari tomatoes and Kumato simply unique brown tomatoes.
A delicious tomato feta salad. The roasted feta puts it over the top. And it’s relatively quick to make at about 20 minutes plus baking time.
I’m growing oregano in my herb garden. A small handful was just shy of 1/4 cup. No salt is necessary as the feta is salty enough. It’s not quite the end of summer and tomatoes around here are not at their peak yet. This recipe will only be better in about a month with fresh Farmers Market tomatoes!
I really love a warm element in a salad as it’s unexpected and the warmth makes the flavors pop. The mixture of ingredients here work really well together and highlight the flavors of the season, especially when dressed in a simple and bright dressing.
Wrapping the feta and dressing in parchment was easy enough. I resisted the urge to warm the olives as well but didn’t. I might do that next time, though.
I used a mixture of grape and cherry tomatoes, sliced lengthwise, and a mixture of kalamata and large green olives. The salad easily served 4 with warm flatbread on the side.
Wow! What a revelation this tomato and feta salad was! I’ve never baked feta before but will be doing this again in the future. It added so much flavor to the entire dish and I love to see how versatile this technique must be using different herbs and spices. I used 2 medium “beefsteak tomatoes.”
I made the feta part of the recipe again and added it crumbled to ratatouille, shakshuka, and over other salads too!
Originally published August 2, 2019
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If you make this recipe, snap a photo and hashtag it #LeitesCulinaria. We'd love to see your creations on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
Joanne Richard
Summer may just be starting, but I now have a great salad recipe to highlight my garden tomatoes. This salad hits all the high marks—lots of textures, fresh ingredients, and a feta cheese flavor “bomb.”
I used red, yellow, and orange heirloom tomatoes and fresh cut purple and green basil from my garden. Make sure to use the toasted pine nuts for added texture. The feta, baked with lemon zest, fresh oregano, chile flakes, and olive oil, contributed all of those flavors to the salad.
This tomato feta salad is perfect as a main meal or as a showstopping starter. Serves 2 as a main or 4 as a side.