Salata Hara
The Saudi "hot salad": a chunky relish-salad of tomato, cucumber, onion, parsley and fresh green chilli, sharpened with lemon and a pinch of cumin. Served alongside almost everything - kabsa, mandi, grilled meats. Saudi tables aren't complete without it. Fast, vivid, crunchy, mildly hot.
Overview
The chunky chopped salad that sits next to almost everything on a Saudi table: the relish that gives kabsa its bright counter, the cool against grilled meat, the freshness against rich rice. You chop tomato, cucumber and onion fine (the size matters: bigger than a salsa, smaller than a Greek salad), throw in parsley and a green chilli or two, and dress with lemon, olive oil, a pinch of cumin and salt. Five minutes' rest before serving lets the salt draw out a little tomato juice, which becomes the dressing the salad makes for itself. Vivid, crunchy, mildly hot, fast enough to put together while the kabsa rests under its lid. Eaten as a side dish, scooped with bread, or spooned over rice as you go.
Ingredients
- 3 ripe tomatoes (small dice)
- 1 cucumber (medium, seeded, small dice)
- 1 red onion (small, very finely chopped)
- 1-2 fresh green chillies (deseeded, finely chopped)
- 4 tablespoons fresh parsley (finely chopped)
- 2 tablespoons fresh mint (finely chopped, optional)
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 lemon (juice)
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
Method
Stage 1 - Chop
- Dice the tomato, cucumber and onion to a similar small size.
- Finely chop the chilli and herbs.
Stage 2 - Combine
- In a serving bowl, combine all the chopped vegetables.
Stage 3 - Dress
- In a small bowl, whisk olive oil, lemon juice, cumin, salt and pepper.
- Pour over the salad; toss gently.
- Let sit 5 minutes for flavours to mingle.
Stage 4 - Serve
- Taste; adjust salt and lemon. Serve at the table with any rice or meat dish.
Notes
- Chop sizes: Aim for 5-6 mm cubes. Bigger and it's a chopped salad; smaller and it's a salsa. The middle gives the right scoopable texture.
- Cucumber seeds: Scrape them out; they bleed water and dilute the dressing.
- Heat control: One small chilli for a gentle Saudi version; two or three (with seeds) for a Yemeni-influenced hotter one.
Storage
- Best within a few hours. Keeps 1 day refrigerated, but the tomatoes weep and the cucumber softens.
Recipes mentioned here
Kabsa
Saudi Arabia's national dish, the one platter you'll meet at almost every gathering from family lunch through wedding banquet. You brown chicken pieces or lamb shoulder hard in a heavy pot, then build a base of onion, garlic and ginger softened in the same fat, with tomato and a spoonful of baharat (or a dedicated kabsa spice mix) blooming until the kitchen fills with cardamom and cinnamon. The protein simmers in tomato and stock until it's tender and pulling away from the bone, then long-grain rice goes in to cook absorption-style in the same liquid, drinking up every layer of flavour the broth carries. You finish with almonds toasted in butter, raisins plumped briefly, and a fresh salsa of tomato, onion, chilli and parsley spooned on the side to cut the richness. Eaten communally from the centre platter, with hands or a long spoon.
Mandi
Lamb shoulder is rubbed with a Yemeni spice mix (hawaij), browned, then steam-roasted at low heat for two hours until it shreds. The cooking juices are strained off; long-grain rice cooks in them with saffron, raisins and a bay-and-cardamom aromatic mix. The cooked lamb is laid on top of the rice; a piece of glowing charcoal is placed in a small heatproof bowl on top of the rice, drizzled with oil, and the whole thing is covered tight for 5 minutes to absorb the smoke. Lift, serve.
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The Saudi take on foul medames, somewhere between the Egyptian original and the Yemeni daal-like versions. You soak dried fava beans overnight, then simmer them with a chickpea or two and a garlic clove for six hours low and slow (or pressure-cook for forty-five minutes if you don't have the day) until they're so soft they fall apart at a glance. Once drained, the beans go back into a hot pan with olive oil and garlic, cumin and a hit of chilli; you crush them roughly with a fork (chunky, not smooth) and finish with lemon and a handful of chopped parsley. Eaten warm for breakfast across the Gulf, scooped with flatbread, with a side of pickles or salata hara, and a glass of mint tea.
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Chile's table salsa, the fresh chunky relish that turns up in a small bowl next to bread before any meal and stays on the table until everything is gone. You chop tomato, onion and coriander fine (smaller than a chopped salad, almost a relish), then combine with crushed garlic, ají chilli (or red chilli if ají isn't around), olive oil, vinegar or lemon, salt and pepper. Fold gently and let sit for ten minutes so the flavours mingle. Eaten with fresh bread before a meal, spooned over grilled meat, alongside empanadas, with chorrillana, with cazuela. Basically with anything savoury that comes out of a Chilean kitchen.
Salata Afghani
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