I have a salad obsession, and it goes something like this: I open my fridge and see so many prepared ingredients, cooked and raw, that I treat my kitchen like a fast-casual restaurant. I pick my base veggies, my toppings, my crunchies, my dressing, ask myself if I need bread, and sit down to the fresh meal I crave in that moment.
I blame this idea on two businesses that originated in the Washington, DC area: Cava and Sweetgreen. I've been a long-time customer of both places, but I've tended to gravitate toward Cava lately, probably because of a genetic predilection for Middle Eastern flavors and because it's one of the few places my husband and teenage son love just as much. And I'm not alone: ​​Yelp recently named Cava, which now has more than 300 locations in 25 states (and Washington, DC), the fastest-growing brand in the country.
Get the recipe: Spicy Feta Cava Salad Bowl
The reason my dream never came true is because I'm not the most organized person in the world; it's impossible to keep so many ingredients fresh and ready to cook without being a pro. “You're just trying to make sure that a box of spinach doesn't go bad in the fridge, so that it doesn't go bad before you use it,” Ted Zenolistos, one of Cava's founders, told me in a phone interview. “If it's real food and it's fresh, it's going to go bad quickly.”
What always impresses me most about Cava is that, unlike other fast-casual concepts, it seems virtually impossible to create a bowl of flavors that don't complement each other. As Xenohristos says, this is partly by design, and partly due to the very nature of meze, which inspired the first version when the brand opened in Maryland about 15 years ago. “That's how we ate in Greece,” he says. “That is, you take a bunch of separate things and put them together, and they're all delicious. It's very simple in itself.”
I asked Zenoristos if anyone in the company had done the math to see how many combinations there are, exponentially, when you add up all the cava bases, proteins, toppings, crunchy ingredients, and dressings. I expected him to say no, or give a number in the thousands, but I nearly dropped the phone when he said yes: 17.6 billion. “We've actually spent a lot of time trying to find combinations that don't work,” he said. “Obviously, I'm biased, but I haven't found one yet.”
When I set out to develop a recipe to pay homage to Cava, I wanted to incorporate my own interpretation of three of my favorite elements: a jalapeño and feta dip branded Crazy Feta (available in stores), a balsamic-date vinaigrette (my husband's favorite), and fried pita chips, with their delicious combination of crunchy edges and soft fillings.
Feta cheese has been part of Cava's identity from the beginning. Zenoristos says the team was inspired by tyroca feria, a traditional Greek spread that uses a type of red pepper that's not available in the U.S. So when co-founder and chef Dimitri Moshovitis started working on the first restaurant's version, he tried using jalapeños, slow-sauteing them with onions and olive oil before mixing them with crumbled feta. As Moshovitis says in a Facebook video, “We tried it and one of the cooks said, 'Wow, that's amazing,' and I said, 'Yeah, that's the name.'”
This incredible pita was custom-made for Cava by Damascus Bakery, an 80-year-old Brooklyn bakery. (Coincidentally, Zenoristos was on his way back to Maryland from Damascus when I interviewed him.) The big difference is that Cava's pita is a bit thicker and chewier than the mass-produced versions, which tend to favor air pockets over the texture of the bread itself. You probably won't be able to get the exact pita they use, but if you use a “pocketless pita” and don't cut it up before cooking, you'll get pretty close to the ideal.
But isn't the best accent of a salad always the dressing? The Balsamic-Date Vinaigrette has been my husband's favorite since it debuted in 2022, so I knew if I was going to serve him a Cava homage, it had to be included. At first, I was a little stumped: the dressing was golden in color with dark red flecks and sweet-and-sour, and it didn't taste (or look) like balsamic vinegar at all. Then I saw the company's TikTok showcasing how to make it with white balsamic. No measurements were given, but I trusted my instincts and improvised.
My husband loves the vinaigrette in large part because it's seasonal, not year-round. (The absence of it makes it more appealing.) When I told him I'd interviewed one of the company's founders, he asked, “Did you tell him he needed to make the dressing a permanent item?” I didn't, but I didn't need to. As Zenoristos told me, they get complaints every time the dressing is taken off the menu, so they're getting ready to announce that they're not going to phase it out starting this summer.
I simplified all these elements so that a home cook can make a cava salad for four in about 45 minutes. The jalapeños and shallots for the feta are roasted in one pan, while the pita bread and spicy chickpeas are roasted in another (there's no time for frying). The dressing comes together quickly with a hand blender, and the feta mixture is mashed with a fork. All that's left is knife work to slice the cabbage and olives, halve the cherry tomatoes, and dice the cucumber. You can also buy pickled onions straight from the jar if you don't want to make your own.
Now it's time to plate. You could, of course, just mix everything together like a normal salad, but in the spirit of kava, I start with the greens, then add all the other vegetables in distinct chunks, tuck a wedge of pita bread around the side of the bowl, and then drizzle on the dressing.
Will being able to make this at home stop me or my husband from going to Cava? Of course not. He certainly has told me not to make any other dressings at home. But this salad is just one combination, and by my calculations, there are 17,599,999,999 more combinations left.
Get the recipe: Spicy Feta Cava Salad Bowl
