Greek Salad with Pickled Eggplant, Sundried Tomatoes and Feta

The Greek Salad has made its way onto menus across the nation, but unfortunately it's blandness has come to match its ubiquity.  A pile of wilting greens swim in overly sour red wine vinaigrette, topped with awkwardly large chunks of cucumber, a tiny sprinkling of feta and a few sad wedges of grainy tomato to garnish the plate.  I found myself reminded of these atrocities at a recent dinner in Denver.  What exactly is Greek about this salad I wondered?  Greek food is bursting with the fruity aromas of good olive oil, the assertiveness of garlic, the freshness of lemon and the sweet brightness of mint.  My soggy diner salad could boast none of these qualities, and thus I set out to correct the injustice- to make a Greek Salad truer to it's origins.

Fresh mixed greens are dressed with garlic, mint and lemon vinaigrette, then topped with diced red onion, sun-dried tomatoes, pickled eggplant and a generous handful of fresh sheep feta. 

The result was a grand success, and we ate this exact salad for three nights in a row, topping it with slow-baked medium-rare salmon the last night.  Spectacular!
  
If you can find pickled eggplant commercially, I highly recommend that you try it.  Ours was given to us by friends who make it with a secret family recipe.  Naturally, secrecy makes it taste even better.  Thank you Steve and Christina!  Either way, bite into succulent strands of perfectly salted eggplant as lemony aromatic olive oil bursts onto your tongue. 

Don't mind the juicy bits of garlic and fruity dribbles of olive oil that will inevitably run down your chin while you eat this salad.  It's good for your skin!

Zippy Greek Dressing (makes 1 1/2  cup):

Replacing some of the traditional red wine vinegar with lemon juice reduces the harshness and ups the freshness of this delicious dressing.

2 medium garlic cloves
2 T red wine vinegar
Juice + zest of 1 lemon
1 c first-cold-press Mediterranean olive oil (I used Turkish...don't tell the Greeks!)
1/2 t. salt
1 1/2 t. fresh Greek oregano (or 1/2 t. dried)
1 T. fresh mint (or 1 t. dried)

1.  Mince the garlic, place in small bowl or cup, add remaining ingredients and blend with an immersion blender.  If you don't have an immersion blender, finely mince the garlic, herbs and lemon zest.  Place in a small bowl with remaining ingredients except the oil.  Whisk to combine, then slowly drizzle in the oil while whisking constantly. 
 
Salad Assembly:
Toss mixed greens generously in dressing, top with any manner of fresh Mediterranean ingredients.  Chopped red onions and fresh or sun-dried tomatoes are a must.  The rest is up to you.