Here’s a great idea to adopt: Eat more Israeli/Arab salad.
Just to emphasize some of the benefits of eating Israeli/Arab salad daily: It’s easy to prepare, you just chop and mix all the ingredients. It needs very little oil and in fact, will taste wonderful with no oil at all. The green cucumber, red tomato, white onion, purple cabbage, yellow and orange peppers make the salad not only strikingly colorful, but you can be sure you get a variety of nutrients and vitamins in the different color produce you eat. And best of all, and what helped me initially convince my kids to eat the salad when they were little, is that you can dip a slice of good bread in all the wonderful juices that accumulate at the bottom of the bowl. It’s so good.
The idea is to use a nice variety of vegetables, four or five different ones preferably in different colors, finely chopped and mixed with a little olive oil, freshly squeezed lemon juice, an optional minced garlic clove, salt and pep-per. A good strong-flavored olive oil, such as Coratina, works best, especially if you want to use just a small amount. One tablespoon of oil for a family would be more than enough.
Israeli/Arab chopped vegetable salad
There's nothing new or sophisticated (or complicated, for that matter) in this chopped vegetables salad - yet the benefits from eating this dish of vegetables in all colors are plentiful.
How finely should the veggies be chopped? Although the smallest is considered best, it's really up to you and the time and patience you have.
All veggies should be firm and fresh
Ingredients
- 3-4 tomatoes chopped
- 4 Iranian or greenhouse cucumbers skin on, chopped
- ½ red or yellow onion chopped
Optional additions
- Bunch radishes grated or very thinly sliced
- 1 sweet pepper seeded and chopped
- 1 cup shredded red cabbage
- 1 almost firm avocado chopped
- Chopped herbs like mint, parsley, cilantro
- Hot pepper such as Serrano seeded and chopped
For the dressing
- 3 tablespoons Lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon Olive oil
- 1 minced garlic clove optional
- Kosher salt
- Ground black pepper optional
Optional toppings: raw tahini, sumac, crumbled feta, chopped olives
Instructions
-
Mix a variety of four or more chopped veggies in a large bowl. Add 3 tablespoons lemon juice, 1 tablespoon olive oil, minced garlic (if using), salt and pepper. Mix well and adjust seasoning to taste.
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Serve immediately. A special healthy and delicious treat is to mix in a tablespoon of raw tahini.
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