If you are going to serve just one vegetable dish alongside a Palestinian meal, then make it this classic Middle Eastern combination of crunchy vegetables dressed with lemon juice and olive oil. Be sure to cut all the vegetables into equal-sized pieces, so each mouthful delivers all the ingredients together.
Serves 4 as a side dish
Ingredients
4 Persian cucumbers, or
10 oz./350g (about 1) regular English cucumber
3 medium tomatoes
1 red pepper
3 tablespoons/10g parsley leaves, finely chopped
3 tablespoons/10g mint leaves, finely chopped
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
juice of 1 lemon, or to taste
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Slice the cucumbers in half and use a teaspoon to scoop out and discard their watery seeds. Finely chop, so each piece is about 1/4 in./1cm. Scoop the seeds out of the tomatoes and slice into pieces the same size as the cucumber. Do the same with the red pepper and place all the vegetables in a large bowl. Dress the salad with the herbs, extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice and a good sprinkling of salt and pepper. Taste and adjust the seasoning to your taste; it is supposed to be sharp, so add extra lemon juice if necessary.
Recipes and photographs from Zaitoun: Recipes from the Palestinian Kitchen by Yasmin Khan. Copyright © 2018 by Yasmin Khan. Reprinted with permission of W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. All rights reserved.