Craving a Panera Greek Salad? Make it at home using romaine, cucumbers, tomatoes, olives, feta, red onion, and pepperocini’s! This salad takes less then 10 minutes together and can feed 1-4 people.
I love a good Greek Salad. When I’m on the go and need a healthy lunch (or dinner) I often find myself running through the Panera Bread drive through to grab a soup and salad. I loved the Modern Greek Salad and would order it religiously. Then they took it off the menu. So back to the original Panera Greek Salad I went. The only difference with Panera Greek salad then a traditional American Greek Salad is that I like to add cucumbers. This recipe is also similiar to Ina Garden’s Greek Salad recipe, too!
Ingredients
- Lettuce – I like to use crispy crunchy pre-chopped romaine lettuce. However, if you are feeding a crowd and want to save money I suggest buying a whole head of romaine lettuce and chopping your own.
- Tomatoes – I like to use grape tomatoes; however, any style tomato will work for this recipe.
- Cucumber – The Greek salad at Panera does not contain cucumbers; however, I love cucumbers so I added it to my version. Whenever I order the salad at the restaurant I pay for cucumbers to be added to mine.
- Red Onion – A little red onion goes a long way. I find that a quart of red onion is more then enough for this recipe. I like onion, but don’t want to over power my salad.
- Feta – I like to buy a block of feta and crumble it. I prefer the taste of the softer freshly crumbled feta verse buying it pre-crumbled in the store.
- Olives – Kalamata Olives are what partially make a Greek salad. I spend the extra money to get them pre-sliced and pitted to save me time.
- Pepperoncini – Pepperoncini is also known as banana peppers. You typically only get 1 in Panera’s version of the salad. In my recipe, you get 3 per serving!
How to make a Greek Salad
In a large bowl add the chopped romaine. Then add in the sliced tomatoes, cucumber, and red onion.
Crumble the feta over the top of the salad. Sprinkle on the kalamata olives and place the Pepperoncini’s in 2-3 bundled groups to the sides of the bowl. Serve immediately or wrap and refrigerate for up to 1 hour before serving. Serve with either Greek dressing or Creamy Greek Salad Dressing.
Recipe FAQs
American Greek Salad does contain lettuce, and typically it’s romaine lettuce.
In traditional Greek salad you will find cucumbers, tomatoes, red onions, kalamata olives, pepperoncini’s, and feta. American Greek Salads will also add in romaine lettuce, beets, and even sometimes potato salad.
A Greek salad with romaine lettuce does not really hold up well over a few days in the refrigerator. You can refrigerate for 12-24 hours, but just know that the vegetables in the salad may make your lettuce soggy.
Expert Tips & Tricks
Here are a few of my favorite tips and tricks when making a Greek Salad with lettuce.
- Tomatoes – This recipe calls for 5 ounces of grape tomatoes. That’s about half a pint (clam shell) of tomatoes. If you don’t have grape or cherry tomatoes on hand you can use 2 vine-ripe tomatoes cut into wedges.
- Olives – Kalamata olives are typically what you find in Greek salads. I like to buy them already pitted and sliced. However, you can use whatever variety you prefer and/or have on hand.
- Vegetable Additions – I like to add sliced green bell pepper, canned drained chickpeas, beets, potato salad, and some even like to add capers.
- Vegan Greek Salad – If you are Vegan, you can make this salad Vegan friendly by removing the feta cheese altogether or replacing with a Vegan feta.
- Chicken Greek Salad – Feel free to add grilled chicken to the Greek salad for added protein and a complete meal.
- Salad for one – If you are looking to make a Greek Salad for one here is the following quantities; 4-5 ounces of romaine, 6 grape tomatoes cut in half, 4 slices of cucumber, 1 slice of whole red onion broken apart. 1 tablespoon feta, 1 tablespoon kalamata olives, 2-3 peperocini’s.
Easy Greek Recipes
Looking for more delicious Greek recipes? Check out a few of my favorites that pair well with Greek Salad!
If you make this Panera Greek Salad recipe, I would be honored and love for you to take the time to leave a ⭐ star rating and comment! I spend hours developing and testing these recipes, and always love to hear feedback and user experience!
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Panera Greek Salad
Equipment
- 1 Cutting Board
- 1 Knife
- 1 Large Bowl
- 1 Tongs
Ingredients
- 9 ounces Romaine Lettuce
- 5 ounces Grape tomatoes sliced in half
- 12 slices Cucumber
- ¼ Red Onion thinly sliced
- ¼ cup Feta crumbled
- 3 tablespoons Kalamata Olives
- 12 Pepperoncini Peppers
Instructions
- In a large bowl add the chopped romaine. Then add in the sliced tomatoes, cucumber, and red onion.
- Crumble the feta over the top of the salad. Sprinkle on the kalamata olives and place the Pepperoncini's in 2-3 bundled groups to the sides of the bowl. Serve immediately or wrap and refrigerate for up to 1 hour before serving. Serve with your favorite Greek dressing.
Notes
- Tomatoes – This recipe calls for 5 ounces of grape tomatoes. That’s about half a pint (clam shell) of tomatoes. If you don’t have grape or cherry tomatoes on hand you can use 2 vine-ripe tomatoes cut into wedges.
- Olives – Kalamata olives are typically what you find in Greek salads. I like to buy them already pitted and sliced. However, you can use whatever variety you prefer and/or have on hand.
- Vegetable Additions – I like to add sliced green bell pepper, canned drained chickpeas, beets, potato salad, and some even like to add capers.
- Vegan Greek Salad – If you are Vegan, you can make this salad Vegan friendly by removing the feta cheese altogether or replacing with a Vegan feta.
- Chicken Greek Salad – Feel free to add grilled chicken to the Greek salad for added protein and a complete meal.
- Salad for one – If you are looking to make a Greek Salad for one here is the following quantities; 4-5 ounces of romaine, 6 grape tomatoes cut in half, 4 slices of cucumber, 1 slice of whole red onion broken apart. 1 tablespoon feta, 1 tablespoon kalamata olives, 2-3 peperocini’s.
Ioanna
This American Greek Salad is really good!! I also read that in the traditional recipe of the Greek Salad you wrote that there are pepperoncini, and as a Greek I would like to let you know that that’s not true, we actually use bell peppers (mostly the green ones).
Katie
Hi Ioanna, thank you so much for taking the time to leave a comment. I’ve never been to Greece but have ate at a lot of American Greek restaurants. They all serve the salad with pepperoncini’s and green bell pepper! Some even add potato salad and cooked beets!
Katie
Thank you! This salad was awesome! I never once missed not having lettuce!
Enfys
This looks so yummy, I love browsing around your blog, makes me want to cook (and eat!)
big hugs
Enfys x