Greek Salad — The No-Cook Lunch That Traveled With Me All Summer

August in Nebraska is the month that tests you. The heat has been here for weeks and it is not leaving and you have stopped being surprised by it and started being resigned to it, the way you resign yourself to any discomfort that is not going to kill you but is not going to stop either. The kids are sick of summer, which seemed impossible in June but is very real in August. They are bored and hot and fighting with each other with a frequency that suggests they should not share a house, except they do, and they will, and the fighting is just the sound of siblings being siblings.

I took the kids to the Stuhr Museum on Saturday. It is a living history museum in Grand Island where you can walk through old buildings and watch people pretend to be pioneers, and the kids love it for different reasons: Amber likes the history, Tyler likes the blacksmith shop, Justin likes the cannon, and Josie likes the general store where you can buy old-fashioned candy. I bought them each a bag of candy and we sat on a bench in the shade and ate rock candy and horehound drops and thought about what it must have been like to live in Nebraska a hundred and fifty years ago, without air conditioning or trucks or slow cookers. I decided I would not have survived. I can barely survive Nebraska with all of those things.

I made watermelon agua fresca at home this week, which is just blended watermelon, water, lime juice, and sugar, strained through a sieve. It lives in a pitcher in the fridge and the kids drink it like water, which means I am making a new batch every two days, which means I am buying a lot of watermelon, which means I am single-handedly keeping some watermelon farmer in business and I hope he appreciates it.

On the road, I made a cold pasta lunch: rotini tossed with Italian dressing, cherry tomatoes, mozzarella cubes, and salami, all from the mini fridge. No cooking required. I ate it at a rest stop outside Columbus in the shade of my trailer, and a hawk circled overhead, and the corn was taller than the truck, and Nebraska in August is brutal and beautiful in equal measure, and I am both of those things too.

School starts in three weeks. The kids do not know this yet because I am keeping that information classified until absolutely necessary. The back-to-school supplies list arrived in the mail and I hid it in a drawer. Let them have August. Let them have the last of the watermelon and the candy and the long days that feel like they will never end. They will end. Everything ends. But not yet. Not today.

The cold pasta I threw together for the road that day reminded me why I keep coming back to this kind of cooking in August — no heat, no effort, and somehow it still feels like a real meal. A Greek salad works the same magic: everything goes into a bowl, the fridge does the work, and you end up with something bright and cold and satisfying that the kids will actually eat without a negotiation. After a week of blending watermelon and dodging the oven, this is exactly the recipe that earned a permanent spot in my summer rotation.

Greek Salad

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 0 minutes | Total Time: 15 minutes | Servings: 4

Ingredients

• 1 English cucumber, halved lengthwise and sliced into half-moons
• 2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
• 1 cup kalamata olives, pitted
• 1 cup crumbled feta cheese
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped
• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• Salt and black pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Chop the vegetables. Slice the cucumber into half-moons, halve the cherry tomatoes, thinly slice the red onion, and chop the green bell pepper into bite-sized pieces. Add everything to a large bowl.
2. Add the olives and feta. Scatter the kalamata olives over the vegetables, then crumble the feta cheese on top.
3. Make the dressing. In a small bowl or jar, whisk together the olive oil, red wine vinegar, dried oregano, garlic powder, salt, and pepper until combined.
4. Dress and toss. Pour the dressing over the salad and toss gently to coat, being careful not to break up the feta too much.
5. Chill or serve. Serve immediately, or cover and refrigerate for up to 2 hours before serving for a colder, more melded flavor. Stir again before serving.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 220 | Protein: 6g | Fat: 17g | Carbs: 11g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 620mg