Israeli (Arabic) Vegetable Salad

Vegetables are plentiful and very tasty in Israel and all of the Middle East.

This is a basic Middle Eastern vegetable salad; cucumbers and tomatoes are the basis for this salad, but you can add chopped onions, scallions or shallots, chopped parsley, chopped mint (na’na), chopped carrots, chopped red or yellow peppers, and what I like best of all, chopped celery leaves (the inner leaves that are fresh, light in colour, crispy).

The vegetables are chopped into small dice, and the salad is dressed with olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper. I often add a TINY bit of white vinegar when adding the lemon juice (I love the combination of lemon juice and vinegar in salads).

Israeli cucumbers are small, tasty, and perfect for this type of salad. If you are in the U.S. I highly recommend getting the small “Persian” cucumbers or “Israeli” cucumbers, because the typically huge and waxy American cucumbers just aren’t right for this salad. If I remember correctly, they can be found at Whole Foods Markets – and surely there are other places that sell them as well.

Ingredients:

• small cucumbers
• tomatoes
• onion, or shallot, or green onions (scallions) – optional but recommended
• 1 clove of garlic finely chopped – optional but recommended
• 1 carrot finely cubed – optional
• 1 red or yellow pepper finely cubed – optional
• chopped celery leaves (the inside leaves, which are fresh, light and crispy) – optional and highly recommended
• chopped flat-leaf parsley (optional)
• salt
• pepper
• lemon juice
• olive oil
• a splash of vinegar (optional)

Preparation:

1. Wash and cut all the vegetables that you decide to use, into small diced cubes.
2. If using celery leaves, roll the leaves into a little “packet”, and finely chop them.
3. Just before serving, add olive oil, lemon juice, vinegar (optional), salt, pepper to taste. I usually put less olive oil in relation to the amount of lemon juice.
4. Taste and adjust seasonings.
5. Enjoy!