Palestinian Salad

By Andrew Brandon

Palestinian Salad

Outside of the Middle East, this salad is known by various names, most often “Israeli Salad”, but because I’m Palestinian I call it “Palestinian Salad”.

It’s very simple to make, and a good choice for a hot sunny day! As with most ubiquitous dishes, there’s no single authoritative recipe. I’ve included some suggested ingredient swaps below; make it with what you have on hand!

It can be eaten a myriad of ways. Some serving ideas:

  • Serve as a side to any other dish
  • Use as a filler for pita sandwiches
  • Garnish with sumac or tahini sauce
  • Eat the whole batch on its own straight from the bowl, like I just did
  • Serves 4 as a side dish
  • 15 minutes

Ingredients

  • 6 roma tomatoes, chopped into ¼-inch pieces
  • 2 cucumbers, seeds discarded, chopped into ¼-inch pieces. Don’t peel it unless you want to.
  • 1 shallot (or onion or scallion), minced
  • 1 handful mint leaves (or parsley), minced
  • 1 jalapeño or serrano pepper (optional), minced
  • Extra virgin olive oil
  • Juice of 1 lemon
  • Salt and pepper

Directions

  1. Chop the tomatoes and cucumbers and put into a big bowl.
  2. Mince the shallot, jalapeño/serrano pepper, and mint, and add to the bowl. These are for flavor, not for texture.
  3. Dress to taste with the olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper, and mix to coat. The dressing should be fairly lemony, but not too much, as the lemon taste will get stronger as the salad sits.
  4. Eat immediately, or refrigerate for later; the flavor will improve as the dressing permeates the salad.

This is but one of the many fantastic recipes available on this blog!