Crumbled Feta Salad with Spices and Olive Oil – Cokelek Salata

Posted by Ozlem on Nov 3, 2010 in Salads, Uncategorized | 0 comments

This is such a satisfying, delicious and healthy salad. The cumin and red pepper flakes amazingly transform the humble feta cheese. In my hometown, Antakya (Antioch), this special crumbled white cheese mixed with cumin, red pepper flakes and oregano is called Cokelek and readily available. Well, I can’t get Cokelek at the moment, though pleased to say that the crumbled feta with these spices work just as good, highly recommended.

This easy salad is a wonderful treat for lunch or weekend brunch with some pita bread. My heartfelt thanks goes to my mother, who made this salad to us almost daily and injected us the love of food.

Serves 2

Preparation time: 10 – 15 minutes

½ small yellow or red onion, finely diced
2 medium tomatoes, finely diced
¼ of long cucumber or ½ small cucumber, finely diced
Handful of flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped
110gr/40z feta cheese, crumbled
5 ml/1 teaspoon ground cumin
5 ml/1 teaspoon red pepper (or paprika) flakes
5 ml/1 teaspoon dried oregano
30 ml/2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
5 ml/1 teaspoon lemon juice
Salt and ground pepper to taste

Pita bread wedges to serve

In a bowl, mix the feta, onion, cumin, oregano and red pepper flakes with your hands. This will soften the onion and infuse the spices to the feta and onion. Add the tomatoes, cucumber, parsley, olive oil and lemon juice, and mix well. Check the seasoning and salt and black pepper to your taste.

Serve with pita bread wedges.

Afiyet Olsun!