While there are many different factors that can affect an individual’s health going through life, a nutritious diet is high on the list of ways you can directly impact your physical condition and ability to enjoy a long life, with minimal issues with illness. That has led many to include a Mediterranean salad as part of their healthy menu options.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO) heart disease continues to be one of the leading causes of death throughout the world. It’s no surprise then, that heart-healthy diet programs are always popular, and many people have turned specifically to the Mediterranean diet as a source of inspiration for creating delicious and heart-healthy recipes.
What is the Mediterranean Diet?
The “Mediterranean diet” is a general term for the foods found in the traditional cuisine of countries that border the Mediterranean Sea. This would include countries such as Greece, Spain, Italy, Morocco, Egypt, Lebanon, and Crete – just to name a few.
The Mediterranean-style diet is plant-based and typically consists of the following main ingredients:
- Fruits and vegetables
- Ingredients made with whole grains such as rice, quinoa, bulgur, and durum wheat (semolina)
- Legumes such as kidney and pinto beans, peas, lentils, peanuts, and chickpeas
- Tree nuts
- Seeds such as sesame, sunflower, or pumpkin seeds
- Olive oil
- Fish and poultry (rather than red meat or pork)
- Low-fat or no-fat dairy (especially products made from goat milk, such as feta cheese)
- Herbs and spices for seasoning rather than salt
The Mediterranean diet is low in sugar, sodium, fats, highly processed ingredients, or ingredients with low nutritional value.
Grow Your Own Mediterranean Salad Garden
The best way to ensure that you always have the right ingredients for your Mediterranean recipes is to grow your own. You can grow your Mediterranean salad garden in a raised garden bed or a traditional vegetable garden bed. If you don’t have a place to grow a full-sized garden, perhaps you do have the space to grow a container or bag garden (keep reading to get tips on choosing some of the best varieties to grow in pots).
Vegetables for a Mediterranean Salad Garden
The following list of plants are enough to fill a garden space with the approximate dimensions of 8’ x 8’ (2.4 x 2.4 m). If you are making a raised bed, 8’ is a common plank length, so an 8’ x 8’ configuration will make for quick construction. However, you can vary the size of a raised bed to suit your space simply by cutting the planks and reducing the number of plants you grow.
The following is a list of the basic vegetables popular in Mediterranean cooking. These days there are many varieties of vegetables to choose from and you can vary the varieties to suit your preferences. For example, you may want to grow full-sized tomatoes rather than cherry tomatoes.
- 2 Cherry Tomato – caged – space 2-3’ (.6-.9m)
- 2 Cucumber – caged or trellised – space 2-3’ (.6-.9m)
- 2 Pepperoncini pepper – space 18-24” (46-61cm)
- 2 Eggplant – Space 18-24” (46-61cm)
- 24 Chickpeas – Space 4-6” (10-12cm)
- 8 Red Onion – two rows spaces 6-8” (15-20cm)
- 8 Garlic – two rows spaced 4-9″ (10-22cm)
Any extra space can be used for leaf lettuce plants spaced 6-9” (15-22cm).
Herbs for a Mediterranean Salad Garden
There are also many varieties of herbs, so you’ll want to check the tag for specific guidance on spacing for the herb variety you select. For planning purposes be prepared to space these herbs 12-15” (30-38cm) apart.
Mediterranean Salad Garden Planting Diagram
Click for a downloadable PDF version of the Mediterranean Salad Garden Planting Diagram.
Plant in Rows or Use a Square Foot Layout?
You can plant your vegetables in rows or use the square foot method, just be sure to consider the direction of the sun through the day and position plants in such a way that all plants will receive six or more hours of light each day. Make sure your tall plants won’t shade your smaller plants.
An in-ground garden may vary in size and shape depending on the space you have available. Your final garden size will impact how many plants you can grow in either case, so the recommended plant spacing for the varieties you want to grow will be your guide to how many plants you can fit. It’s not uncommon these days for gardeners with limited space to plant vegetables alongside ornamental plants. Edible landscaping is a great way to optimize the beauty and functionality of your available spaces, particularly those that get the most sunlight through the day.
Mediterranean Container Garden
If garden space is a problem, you still have options for growing fresh vegetables for your Mediterranean salads and other recipes. Choose miniature versions of the key ingredients and grow them in pots on a sunny paved area, deck, or balcony.
Just like plants in the ground, you’ll want to arrange containers in such a way that short plants aren’t shaded by taller plants. For example, if you are growing your potted herbs and vegetables along a wall, you could place tall or caged plants in the background next to the wall and shorter plants, such as your herbs, in the foreground.
Some vegetable varieties that offer full-sized flavor for your Mediterranean salad recipes but are sized right for container growing include:
- ‘Patio Baby’ Eggplant
- ‘Supersweet 100’ Cherry Tomato
- ‘Greek Pepperoncini’ Chili Pepper
- ‘Salad Bush’ Cucumber
You have a couple of options for growing herbs in containers. You can grow your herbs in individual pots or grow them together in a single large planter. These varieties provide the traditional Mediterranean flavors but their growth habit is very compact:
- ‘Dwarf Bush’ Basil
- Greek Oregano
- ‘Italian Dark Single’ Parsley
- ‘Moroccan’ Mint
Fresh Ingredients for Mediterranean Recipes that You May Have to Purchase
While some of you may live in climates where you can grow olive or lemon trees, many gardeners live in regions where citrus trees can’t survive being outdoors in winter. In cooler climates lemon and olive trees can be grown in a home greenhouse or conservatory. You can also grow them outdoors in pots for the summer and bring them indoors for the winter to grow near a sunny window.
Potted citrus or olive trees are not likely to achieve the productivity of a tree growing in the ground, and as they grow big and require larger pots, they will become increasingly difficult to move around. For the sake of convenience, these ingredients may be easiest to just purchase at the grocery store or a market.
If you are a Mediterranean cuisine purist, you’ll probably want to look for Kalamata olives. The Kalamata olive is grown primarily in southern Greece and is the olive traditionally used in a Greek salad.
Leafy greens such as lettuce, kale, and spinach are all super easy to grow but there are seasons when you’ll likely have to purchase them. Greens prefer the cooler temperatures of spring and fall, and that’s when they’re at their best. In spring the other vegetables for your Mediterranean salad will just be getting started. By the time you start harvesting things like tomatoes and peppers, your spring greens will have already bolted from the heat of summer.
The solution is to leave room in your garden planning for a late summer crop of leafy greens (for early fall harvest). This will give you a period of time when you are harvesting salad greens and all of your other Mediterranean vegetables at the same time. Leave enough room in your garden to space leaf lettuce plants 8” (20cm) apart. Learn more about how you can Extend the Harvest Season with leafy greens.
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