Israelis love their veggies and eat a lot of them, raw and cooked.
This Israeli salad is a must item in every Israeli home, and can be eaten with every meal. For breakfast, it is served together with some cheese, olives, eggs, and bread. For lunch, which is the main meal of the day, it may serve as a side dish. And for dinner, it accompanies some light foods like eggs, dairy products, canned sardines or tuna, hummus and tahini and other spreads, and of course, bread.
You will find this salad in different cuisines around the Middle East, and each ethnic group calls it its own. I’ve seen recipes of this salad in different cookbooks under Arabic salad, Turkish salad, Lebanese salad, etc. In Israel, of course it is called Israeli salad. The salad can have different combinations of vegetables, depending on the cook. Here is the basic version, which is the common ground for all versions.
Ingredients:
2 large tomatoes
3 Persian/Arabic/Kirby cucumbers
1 small onion, peeled
6 sprigs flat parsley
2 tbs olive oil
Fresh lemon juice from ½ a lemon
salt
Preparation:
Rinse all vegetables well. Separate the parsley leaves from the stems, and discard of the stems.
Chop the tomatoes, cucumbers and onion into small cubes. Place in a bowl. Chop the parsley leaves very thinly, and add to the bowl.
Season with the olive oil, salt and the lemon juice. Mix well and serve.
I like my salad salty and sour, so I use the juice from a whole lemon and a nice amount of salt.
