Middle Eastern Salad

This Middle Eastern Salad is part of our daily fare. It is delicious and healthy and goes with any dish on earth, a “passe-partout“  salad that makes a great addition to barbecues, pilafs, mujadara, stews, hummus, dips or even with any heavy main dish your heart desire.  The veggies are classics used in all cuisines of the world – juicy tomatoes, crisp cucumbers, sliced onions, roughly chopped romaine lettuce, and red cabbage!  The extra ordianry flavors come from the outstanding dressing ingredients; this Middle Eastern salad is  dressed with olive oil, sumac, pomegranate molasses and a splash of freshly squeezed lemon juice! It is incredibly healthy and full of flavor!

- Just a small trick that takes the salad to another level of flavor – grind together the mint leaves and garlic with a mortar and pestle. If you are lucky enough to have fresh mint leaves from your garden then this salad is a must on your table!!

- If cooking Lebanese keep a bottle of pomegranate molasses in your pantry, it is handy for adding flavors to lots of dishes.

Pomegranate Molasses, sumac, lemon juice and olive oil bind together to create a delicious dressing!!

Recipe By Hadias Cuisine

Ingredients:

5 tomatoes, sliced into discs
3 medium-sized cucumbers, sliced into discs
6 romaine lettuce leaves, shredded
2 red cabbage leaves, shredded, optional
¼ cup parsley, finely chopped
2 radishes, cut into discs
6 fresh mint leaves
1 onion, sliced into discs

Dressing:

1 tablespoon pomegranate molasses
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
3 garlic cloves, crushed
A juice of a freshly-squeezed lemon juice
Salt to taste

A dash of sumac

Directions:

1. Add the mint leaves to the garlic and grind, with a mortar and pestle, until you have a creamy texture.
2. Add the tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, parsley, onions, and radishes to the garlic and mint paste.
3. Add the olive oil, lemon juice, sumac, salt, and pomegranate molasses to the mix.