Lemon-Dressed Mackerel, Burrata & Summer Salad
A generous Mediterranean salad of lemon-soaked mackerel, hand-torn olives, crisp summer vegetables, peppery leaves, and soft burrata.
There are lunches that begin with a recipe, and others that begin with whatever is already waiting in the kitchen.
This one began with two tins of mackerel, a handful of kalamata olives, and the thought that something fresh—but properly satisfying—was needed. Not the sort of salad that leaves you searching through the cupboards an hour later. Something cool and bright for a warm day, with enough richness to make it feel like a real meal.
I made the dressing directly in the serving bowl: olive oil, lemon, oregano, salt, and black pepper. Then, before anything colorful entered the picture, I added the roughly drained mackerel and turned it through the dressing with the olives, torn open by hand as I removed their stones. The fish sat there while I prepared everything else, drinking in the lemon and olive oil rather than simply being scattered dry over the finished salad.
By the time the cucumber had been sliced and the tomatoes opened, the bottom of the bowl had become its own little Mediterranean foundation—salty, glossy, and deeply flavored.
Then came the leaves, thin red onion, fresh herbs, and finally the burrata, pulled apart in soft, creamy pieces. The dressing found its way into every fold: over the tomatoes, around the olives, beneath the peppery leaves.
It is wonderfully easy, but it does not taste assembled in a hurry. It tastes like lunch beneath an open window—or outside, where the table is warm from the sun and there is bread close enough to tear with your hands.
And because almost everything comes from the refrigerator or pantry, it is the kind of meal you can decide to make when you are already hungry. Ten or fifteen minutes later, the bowl is on the table: cool cucumber, sweet tomatoes, rich mackerel, milky burrata, and enough lemon to keep every mouthful bright.
This is your new recipe card, designed to sit beneath the introduction and first photograph. It preserves the basic structure readers already encounter on your current recipe pages—servings, timing, grouped ingredients, instructions, serving suggestions, and notes—but gives those elements a more deliberate visual hierarchy.
The recipe
Lemon-Dressed Mackerel, Burrata & Summer Salad
A generous Mediterranean salad of lemon-soaked mackerel, hand-torn olives, crisp summer vegetables, peppery leaves, and soft burrata.
Ingredients
The lemon dressing
- 3 tbspextra virgin olive oil
- ½–1lemon, juiced, according to taste
- ½ tspdried oregano
- To tastesea salt and freshly cracked black pepper
The foundation
- 2 tinsmackerel fillets in olive oil, roughly drained
- A generous handfulKalamata olives, stones removed and flesh torn by hand
- 1 tbspcapers, optional
What joins the bowl
- 2 generous handfulsrocket, baby spinach, or mixed leaves
- 200–250 gred and golden cherry tomatoes, halved
- ½cucumber, sliced into thick rounds
- ¼–½small red onion, very thinly sliced
- 1 small handfulfresh parsley, basil, or dill, roughly torn
- 1 ballburrata, drained
Method
-
Make the dressing in the serving bowl
Pour the olive oil and lemon juice directly into a large salad or serving bowl. Add the oregano, a small pinch of sea salt, and plenty of cracked black pepper. Whisk with a fork or spoon until the dressing begins to come together.
-
Let the mackerel take in the dressing
Roughly drain the mackerel, leaving a little of its olive oil clinging to the fillets. Add it to the bowl in generous flakes rather than breaking it too finely. Turn it gently through the lemon dressing.
-
Add the olives
Remove the olive stones with your fingers and tear the flesh naturally into uneven pieces. Add the olives, and the capers when using, to the mackerel. Leave this mixture to rest while you prepare the vegetables.
-
Bring in the vegetables and leaves
Add the leaves, halved tomatoes, cucumber, red onion, and fresh herbs. Using two large spoons—or clean hands—lift everything gently from the bottom so the lemony mackerel dressing travels through the whole salad without crushing the fish.
-
Finish with the burrata
Taste and add more lemon, pepper, or salt where needed. Tear the burrata into soft pieces and settle them over the salad. Spoon a little dressing from the bottom of the bowl across the cheese before carrying it straight to the table.
© 2026 Joanna Colomas Magazine
From my kitchen to yours,
Joanna
More Recipes You Might Want To Try
Some recipes are made because they are convenient. Others become part of your summer because they are simply too good not to make again. With bright lemon, peppery leaves, creamy burrata, and tender mackerel that has soaked in its dressing before the vegetables are even prepared, this is one of those recipes you'll think about long before lunchtime arrives.