Salata Arabieh
Palestine's everyday salad: tomato, cucumber and onion diced fine, dressed with lemon, olive oil, sumac, parsley and mint.
Overview
Tomato, cucumber and onion all diced very small (the cut is small, 5 mm pieces, not chunky). Fresh parsley, mint and an optional chilli chop. Everything mixes in a wide bowl with lemon juice, olive oil, sumac, salt and pepper. Rest for 5 minutes for the flavours to integrate. Eat immediately, the tomato weeps quickly and the salad goes watery after an hour.
Ingredients
- 4 ripe medium tomatoes (deseeded, diced 5 mm, about 400 g)
- 1 cucumber (large, deseeded, diced 5 mm, about 250 g)
- ½ small red onion (very finely diced, about 60 g)
- 1 green chilli (small, or red chilli, deseeded, finely chopped, optional)
- 1 large bunch fresh flat-leaf parsley (chopped fine - about 30 g)
- 3 tablespoons fresh mint (chopped fine, about 10 g)
- 2 spring onions (sliced very thin, optional)
Dressing
- 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (about 1 ½ lemons)
- 1 ½ teaspoons sumac (sold at Middle Eastern shops)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon pomegranate molasses (optional, for a touch of Palestinian sweetness)
- A pinch of cumin (optional)
Method
Stage 1 - Prep
- Tomatoes: halve, scoop seeds with a spoon (this prevents the salad from going watery), dice 5 mm.
- Cucumber: peel half the skin (for stripes), halve lengthwise, scoop seeds with a teaspoon, dice 5 mm.
- Red onion: dice as finely as you can manage (the smaller, the less aggressive its bite).
- Chop the parsley and mint very fine - the herbs are 30% of this salad and they should be cut, not stems.
Stage 2 - Combine
- In a wide bowl, combine all the vegetables and herbs.
Stage 3 - Dress
- Whisk olive oil, lemon juice, sumac, salt, pepper and (if using) pomegranate molasses and cumin in a small bowl.
- Pour over the salad; toss thoroughly.
Stage 4 - Rest
- Let stand 5 minutes for flavours to integrate. Don't rest longer than 15 minutes - beyond that the tomato weeps and the salad gets soupy.
Stage 5 - Final taste
- Taste; adjust lemon, salt, sumac.
Stage 6 - Serve
- Tip onto a wide shallow plate.
- Eat alongside any Palestinian main: musakhan, mansaf, lahem bi ajeen, kibbeh, fatteh.
Notes
- Deseed the tomatoes and cucumbers: This is the single trick that separates a great salata arabieh from a watery one. The seeds weep and dilute the dressing. Scoop them out with a spoon before dicing.
- Sumac is essential: Without sumac the salad is just a Mediterranean chopped salad. With sumac, it's Palestinian. The tart purple-red spice from dried sumac berries.
- Herbs in abundance: Don't be timid with the parsley and mint. They're not garnish - they're a structural part of the salad. A whole bunch of parsley per 4 people is not too much.
Storage
- Best within 30 minutes of dressing.
- The undressed vegetables and herbs can be prepped a few hours ahead and refrigerated; toss with dressing only when ready to eat.
Recipes mentioned here
Mansaf
Dried jameed balls soak overnight then break down in water to form the cooking liquid. Lamb shanks or shoulder simmer in spiced water until tender. The lamb stock combines with the jameed liquid; both reduce together with cardamom, cinnamon and bay. Rice cooks separately; flatbread layers under everything; lamb perches on top; the jameed sauce ladles over generously. Almonds and pine nuts toast as topping.
Kibbeh
Fine bulgur soaks until soft. The shell mixture combines bulgur, raw minced lamb, finely-grated onion, salt and spices, then blitzes (or pounds) into a dense, smooth, almost claylike paste. The filling is a separate cooked mince of lamb, onion, pine nuts, allspice and cinnamon. Each kibbeh shell is shaped over a finger; filling stuffs in; the lot pinches closed into a pointed oval. Deep-fries for 5 minutes.
Kibbeh
Two preparations: the bulgur-and-mince shell paste and the spiced cooked filling. The shell is shaped around a portion of filling into a football shape, then deep-fried until the outside is golden and the inside is hot and savoury. Served warm with yogurt or tahini.
Lahem Bi Ajeen
A soft yeasted bread dough rises for 1 hour. While it rises, the lamb mince is mixed by hand with grated onion, chopped parsley, finely diced tomato, garlic, baharat, allspice, cinnamon, pomegranate molasses, lemon juice and salt, no cooking, the mince stays raw and cooks on the pies. The dough divides into 12 balls; each rolls into a thin 12 cm disc; a heaped tablespoon of the meat mix spreads to the edges. Bakes for 8-10 minutes at 230°C on a baking stone (or hot tray) until the dough is crisp and the meat is glossy and just cooked through.
More like this
Kachumber
Vegetables dice into 5 mm cubes, uniform size matters for both look and dressing. Lime juice, salt, chaat masala and a finely-chopped chilli toss through. Coriander on top. Eat within an hour or the salad goes watery.
Pebre
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
Salata afghani is the salad that goes alongside every Afghan main, no exceptions: tomato, cucumber and red onion diced fine and even, dressed with lemon, olive oil and dried mint, scattered with fresh coriander. The technique is in the cut. Everything dices the same size (about 5 mm) so a spoonful gives you a clean mouthful of all three vegetables. Whisk the dressing of lemon juice, olive oil, dried mint, salt and a small green chilli; toss it through the diced vegetables at the last minute (the salt draws a little water out and the flavours mingle without dissolving the cucumber). Fresh coriander goes on top right before serving.
Salata Baladi
Tomato, cucumber, onion and green pepper dice fine. Tossed with lemon, olive oil, salt, ground cumin and parsley. A pinch of dried mint or fresh coriander finishes. Made fresh; eaten within an hour.