Carob Dakos Salad, the Cretan Way
There are some dishes that don’t shout for attention. They wait. They soften. They become themselves with time.
Dakos is one of those dishes.
This version begins not just with ingredients, but with a place: Ntourountous, a traditional bakery in Crete that still makes dakos the way it should be made, slowly, deliberately, and with deep respect for grain. Their carob dakos (paximadia) is something special. Darker in colour, earthier in flavour, and gently sweet from the natural carob flour, it carries generations of Cretan wisdom in every bite.
Carob has long been part of the Cretan pantry. Once considered humble and everyday, it’s now recognised for what it really is: nourishing, grounding, and quietly complex. When added to paximadia, carob gives dakos a subtle bitterness and depth that pairs beautifully with ripe tomatoes, olive oil, and cheese. It doesn’t overpower, it anchors.
This salad is simple, but it asks for patience. Dakos is not meant to be rushed.
Why This Dakos Matters
Ntourountous bakery doesn’t make dakos for trends or tourists. They make it because it’s what they’ve always done. Their paximadia are baked twice, as tradition demands, creating a bread that’s meant to last, and meant to be revived.
That’s the magic of dakos: dry bread transformed back into something alive.
When carob is introduced into the dough, it changes the experience entirely. The sweetness of the tomatoes becomes brighter. The olive oil tastes greener. The cheese feels creamier. Everything finds balance.
Alittle about Petimezi
Petimezi is one of Greece’s oldest sweeteners, grape must slowly simmered down into a thick, dark syrup long before refined sugar existed. Deeply aromatic and gently sweet, it carries notes of raisin, caramel, and earth. In Cretan cooking, petimezi isn’t used to sweeten dishes outright, but to add balance and depth. In this dakos, it softens the acidity of the tomatoes and mirrors the natural sweetness of the carob, tying the whole salad together with a quiet richness that feels both ancient and intentional.
But which one am I using? I use the Kontogiannis Family Organic Petimezi from The Greek Providore.
CAROB DAKOS SALAD
Mary PolitisIngredients
- 100 g Carob paximadia or regular paximadia
- 300 g Ripe tomatoes roughly chopped
- 1/2 Red onion very thinly sliced
- 100 g Manouri or mizithra if available
- 100 ml Extra virgin olive oil
- 40 - 50 ml Petimezi grape molasses just enough to deepen and round the flavours
- pinch of oregano
- Salt
Instructions
- Break up the paximadia into a bowl. Add the chopped tomatoes over the paximadia and sprinkle with salt.
- Add the sliced onion and crumbled cheese.
- Pour olive oil and petimezi all over evenly distributing over the salad so the dako can absorb evenly. Mix well, add a sprinkle of pregani and an extra little sprinkle of salt and allow the salad to sit for up to 20 minutes before enjoying.
- Mix well, add a sprinkle of pregani and an extra little sprinkle of salt and allow the salad to sit for up to 20 minutes before enjoying.