This is a famous salad in the middle east and soo easy to make. Its pure vegetarian and vegan also. The dressing is soo simple and to save time the vegetables can be chopped in advance or even bought already chopped up. In Spain we get many types of lettuce chopped and prepacked and i have used one of these. If you dont like any of the ingredients they can be omitted but the lovely sharp tangy flavour of this salad comes from the onions and radish. The croutons can be home made and i shall give you easy options in case you are short for time!
INGREDIENTS:
2 cups of chopped iceberg lettuce or different kinds of lettuce
1/4 cup each of chopped cucumbers, bell peppers (capsicums..color of your choice), radish, red onions, cabbage
2 tablespoons of chopped parsley
1 cup of croutons, or small salted biscuits or deep fried small pieces of pita bread or cornflakes!!!
DRESSING:
juice of 1 juicy lime
1/4 cup of extra virgin pure spanish olive oil
1/2 teaspoon of sumak (lebanese spice.. TOTALLY OPTIONAL)
salt to taste
METHOD:
mix the chopped vegetables in a bowl . Mix the ingredients for the dressing and let it stand for 15 minutes. Toss the dressing into the salad and mix very well. Just before serving add the croutons /biscuits/fried pieces of pita bread and mix and serve.
NITU DIDI TIP: for best results the option to use is the fried pita bread. You just halve a pita bread and cut it into cubes and deep fry it in oil.You can also use cut up naan, roti etc. I usually make extra samosa dough and then roll it out , cut it into small pieces and fry for this salad. In the pic i have used salted bread sticks as when i made this salad i did not have anything else on hand. It turned out just as well. The original recipe calls for SUMAC…a mixed middle eastern spice but i do not use it if i dont have it.