Dakos
A Cretan salad of hard barley rusks topped with grated tomato, crumbled feta, olives and oregano, ready in 10 minutes without cooking.
Photograph credit: Koukouvagia (image of Dakos on Wikidata Q762285) by Frente · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons · this resized copy is shared under the same licence
Summer in Crete, on a plate: ripe tomato, feta, olives and a good green oil, over a rusk. A dakos is a hard barley rusk, softened just enough to bite, and it is eaten as a meze or a light lunch. Tomatoes carry the dish.
The tomatoes are the part that matters, so choose the ripest ones available. Grate them on the large holes of a box grater, leaving the skin behind in your hand, to get a juicy pulp that soaks into the rusk. Moisten the rusk briefly under the tap or with a splash of water, then let it stand for a minute. It should be crunchy at the core and tender at the edges, not soggy. Serve immediately.
Spoon the tomato pulp over the rusks, then crumble the feta on top, scatter with olives and oregano and pour on plenty of olive oil. Serve at once. If the rusks are left to sit, they go soft all the way through and lose the contrast that makes the dish.
How to Make Dakos
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Grate the tomatoes on the coarse holes of a grater into a bowl, discarding the skins. Season with the salt.
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Run each rusk quickly under cold water, then set on a plate and leave for 1 minute.
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Spoon the tomato over the rusks, then top with the feta, olives and capers.
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Sprinkle with the oregano, pour over the olive oil and serve at once.
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Tips That Matter
- Choose very ripe tomatoes; the dish depends on them.
- Wet the rusks briefly; they should keep a crunch at the centre.
- Use a good olive oil; there is no cooking to hide behind.
If You're Missing Something
- Fresh herbs work in place of the dried oregano at roughly three times the quantity — a teaspoon of dried is about a tablespoon of fresh, chopped.
What to Serve With It
Greek salad · Grilled halloumi · Chilled white wine · Fresh cucumbers
Leftovers and Storage
Best eaten at once. The rusks go soft within 30 minutes.
Dakos Nutrition Facts
Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.
Your notes on this recipe
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published .
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