Cretan Dakos Salad is a specialty salad from the Greek island of Crete often described as Greek bruschetta. Made with fresh, ripe tomatoes and crunchy rye rusks, it’s a delightful meal enjoyed as lunch, dinner or a side.
Cretan Dakos Salad
Cretan Dakos Salad is a class Cretan dish consisting of sweet vine ripened tomatoes and barley rusks. While it’s a staple in a Mediterranean diet, locals know it as kritikos dakos.
Dry, crunchy barley rusks are soaked in water, and olive oil plus grated tomato creating a memorable salad.
What are Greek Barley Rusks?
Rusks are a common ingredient found throughout Greece that resemble stale chunks of hard bread. They come in different sizes and are slow cooked twice ensuring all the moisture is gone and slices have hardened. The trick to enjoying these rusks is to ensure they are moistened before consuming otherwise they are exceptionally hard. You can achieve this by dipping in water or stock and drizzling with olive oil. A good quality rusk will retain texture as long as they are not left in the water for too long.
Rusks can be dipped and broken up into crouton size crumbles or used whole as in this recipe. Other ways to enjoy rusks are with hard or soft cheese, cured salmon or sliced meat like prosciutto. After moistening you can dunk chunks into stew or soup. They can soak up a lot of liquid when given the chance.
They come in bags, have a long shelf life and can be found in European or Italian grocery stores.
If you love Greek flavours and food, check out these recipes:
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Ingredients
- 4 barley rusks
- water
- olive oil
- 1 tomato cut in half
- 2 large tomatoes, chopped
- 1/4 cup kalamata olives, pitted and halved
- 1-2 tbsp capers, rough chopped
- 1/2 small red onion, sliced thin
- Feta cheese, sliced or crumbled
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- fresh parsley or basil
Instructions
- Give each barley rusk a dip in water. Do not submerge for too long as you don't want them soggy, just a little moist. Set on individual plates or one big serving plate.
- Drizzle each rusk with olive oil and rub the surface with half a tomato. Repeat for each rusk.
- Sprinkle on chopped tomatoes, olives, capers and onions.
- Top with feta, oregano, fresh herbs and another drizzle of olive oil. Serve.
Never heard of this salad before. Took awhile to find the rusks but we did and tried the salad using our garden tomatoes. It was really good. So surprised! Will be making it again.
I made these for an appetizer with friends. We loved the flavor! There weren’t any leftover!
Klamata olives were great with this, a huge hit when we had a birthday get together.
This salad made the perfect easy, healthy, and satisfying lunch for me today! It was delicious!
This recipe is new to me and I’m so happy I found it. Looks delicious and waiting to try it out. I love to try out different cuisine recipes.
This was right up my alley the first time I made it. Since then, I have made it several times! Always a hit in my home!