Middle Eastern Salad
This is a salad that is close to my heart, after travelling through Iran & Uzbekistan a few years ago and eating it alongside literally every meal. It's simple, yet fresh and vibrant. The beauty of this salad is that you can use any herb you've got. It's traditionally made with parsley, coriander, mint, tarragon, basil or dill (a combination of any of those together), but as long as you have parsley, mint, plus something else you're onto a winner.
(A great tip: if you haven’t got fresh mint on hand, rip open one of your herbal mint teabags! Voila.)
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- 1 cucumber
- 2/3 fresh tomatoes
- 1/4 red onion, finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon of any combination of finely chopped fresh parsley, coriander, basil or dill
- 1/2 teaspoon fresh or dried mint
- Juice from 1/2 lemon (but you may need more!)
- A good glug of olive oil
- Salt & pepper
- Chop your cucumber and tomato into around 1/2cm pieces. The chopped veggies will quickly marinate and take on the citrus & herby flavour of the other ingredients!
- It's best to use ripe tomatoes but avoid super ripe ones as they will be too soft and turn to mush when mixed! There is no need to de-seed your tomatoes, but it’s a good idea to place the chopped pieces into a colander to allow them to drain a bit of their juice before combining with the rest of the veggies.
- Combine all your ingredients into a large bowl and mix. You can leave this salad for a while to macerate and soften, or if you prefer it on the crunchy side, serve immediately!