Rocket Dakos Salad with Apricots, Feta and Apricot vinaigrette

Some purists who don’t like their traditional recipes changed may cringe at this but I’m sorry, I have already posted the authentic Dakos recipe and I like to experiment in the kitchen : )

This salad has all the ingredients of the original recipe but I have gone one step further by giving it my take.  I wanted to use the 3 year ripened Vinegar from Naoussa, which was given to us from AB Vassilopoulos, so to balance its acidity as well as the peppery taste of rocket, I made a vinaigrette in which instead of using the usual stuff we put in vinaigrettes such as honey, molasses etc., I decided to use the apricot syrup I made recently.  Since I also had fresh apricots I decided that they would also add an additional sweetness to the salad.  I also had some leftover roasted walnuts which I used which also added additional taste and crunchiness.

From the products given to us I used four of these in the salad. In the collage from left to bottome the rusks, vinegar, oregano and fresh rocket.

Note:  Cretan barley rusks are very hard and need to become softer.  Just put them under running tap water for just a second.  Don’t wet them too much as they will absorb the juices from the tomato and vinaigrette.  Add the rusks just before serving the salad as they should not become soggy but they should have some crunchiness.   You can enjoy it as a salad but also as a light meal on its own.   Hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

Rocket Dakos Salad with Apricots, Feta and Apricot vinaigrette, recipe by Ivy

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Serves: 4

Ingredients:

2 small kritharokouloura (barley rusks)

100 grams rocket

2 fresh apricots, thinly sliced

1 medium tomato, cubed

1 small onion, sliced

50 grams (or more) feta cheese, cubed

1/4 cup roasted walnuts

Apricot Vinaigrette:

2 tbsp agourelaio or extra virgin olive oil

1 tbsp vinegar

1 tbsp apricot syrup (or apricot jam diluted)

½ tsp oregano

1 – 2 dried peppermint leaves

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

To prepare the vinaigrete, mix all the ingredients and taste to make sure that the flavours suite your taste. Keep on the side.

Quickly drizzle a little water to wet the rusks and place them in a large serving plate and break them up into smaller pieces.  Add the tomato on top and continue with the remaining ingredients.

Before serving, top the salad with the vinaigrette and serve immediately.

Update:  16 July 2012

No cooking today.  The temperature is 41 degrees C and we had some leftovers from yesterday so I made a Dakos salad with Pineapple.   I love fruit in salads and I had a leftover slice of pineapple from the recipe I made the previous day.  For God’s sake don’t open a can of pineapple just to use one slice.  You can use any other fresh or canned fruit to balance the peppery taste of rocket as well as the acidity of the vinegar, olive and caper.

Dakos Salad with Pineapple

Serves:  2

Ingredients:

2 kritharokouloura (same as above)

1 ripe medium tomato, cubed

1 cucumber, cut into small pieces

1 small red onion, sliced

A handful of rocket, finely chopped

1 tbsp capers

4 Kalamata Olives

1 slice canned pineapple, cut into smaller pieces

50 grams feta

50 grams anthotyro

Vinaigrette:

4 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp red wine vinegar

Salt, pepper, oregano

2 tbsp pineapple juice

 Directions:   Same as above.

Other relevant recipes:

Dakos:  Cretan rusk salad

Dakos:  Savoury Greek Cheesecake

Kopiaste and Kali Orexi,

Tags: Apricot vinaigrette, Apricots, creative concoctions, Cretan Recipes, Dakos, healthy recipes, Mediterranean diet, Modern Greek Cuisine, salad