Fresh tomatoes, parsley, mint, and onions tossed together to make a beautiful Middle Eastern-inspired salad plus a zippy lemony mint dressing to bring it together.
Middle Eastern Salad with Lemony Mint Dressing
Raise your hand if you love Middle Eastern cookbooks!
What’s that? You don’t have any Middle Eastern cookbooks? I didn’t either, actually, until I got my hands on a copy of An Edible Mosaic – a cookbook written by Faith Gorsky from An Edible Mosaic blog that features traditional Middle Eastern recipes like hummus, falafel, and chicken shawarma. Are you drooling yet?
This cookbook is beautiful. I felt like I was traveling through the Middle East as I paged through Faith’s stunning photos of life and culture and food in this exotic part of the world. The book has so much cultural information intertwined with the traditional recipes that I actually borrowed it to one of my 14-year-old students to use for a research report on the Middle East.
For people who love international food and culture, this is a winner.
One of my favorite things about the cookbook is the section called Basic Recipes. It includes dressings, sauces, and spice mixes that can either be used in the recipes or with your own set of ingredients at home. There are also several sections dedicated to learning about Middle Eastern ingredients and cooking methods. These recipes are very traditional without being overwhelming to the average cook.
After looking through the cookbook at least 13 times, the recipes I’m dying to try are the Falafel, Coconut Semolina Cake, and Spiced Shawarma Chicken Wraps. Can’t.wait.
True story: I made the Middle Eastern salad and the Lemony Mint Salad Dressing a few days ago, and when I went to look for it in the fridge at lunch time, it was gone. BJORK ATE THE WHOLE THING. The whole salad. The empty little plastic leftover container was sitting in the sink with, like, one little piece of parsley left in it.
Next time I’ll hide it. Or better yet, double it.
Middle Eastern Salad with Lemony Mint Dressing
- Total Time: 15 minutes
- Yield: 4-6 1x
Description
Fresh tomatoes, parsley, mint, and onions tossed together to make a beautiful Middle Eastern-inspired salad plus a zippy lemony mint dressing to bring it together.
Ingredients
Units
Scale
Lemony Mint Dressing
- 1 clove garlic, crushed in a mortar and pestle with 1/4 teaspoon salt
- juice of 1 lemon (about 3 tablespoons)
- 1/2 cup (125 ml) olive oil
- 1 tablespoon minced fresh mint leaves
Salad
- 1 English cucumber (or 3 to 4 Persian or Japanese cucumbers), diced
- 1 onion, minced
- 1 lb (500 g) tomatoes, diced (about 4 medium tomatoes)
- 1 bunch fresh parsley, minced
- 4 sprigs fresh mint, minced
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Whisk together the garlic/salt mixture and lemon juice; gradually whisk in the olive oil in a thin drizzle. Stir in the mint.
- Combine all salad ingredients in a large bowl and toss with half of the dressing; serve.
Notes
Save the other half of the dressing for another batch of this salad! The dressing will keep in the fridge for about 1 week.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Category: Lunch
- Cuisine: Middle Eastern
Keywords: middle eastern salad, cucumber tomato salad, cucumber recipe
Filed Under: All Recipes Fall Gluten-Free Healthy Lemon Lunch Quick and Easy Recipes Salads Spring Sugar-Free Summer Tomato Vegan Vegetarian
November 26, 2012
Nice to meet you!
I’m Lindsay and I ♡ FOOD. I used to be a teacher, and now making food and writing about it online is my full-time job. I love talking with people about food, and I'm so glad you're here.
Did you make a recipe? Tag @pinchofyum on Instagram so we can find you!
I love hummus! (I actually really do.) Looking forward to this giveaway, thanks Lindsay (and Faith)!
I haven’t experimented much with middle eastern food but this would be the perfect excuse to learn more! And I do love hummus!
this looks fabulous! thanks for the great giveaway!
I would love to win this. And hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving, celebrating in another country! Love your blog.
I would trade my left arm for a good moussaka recipe for the crock pot. Or a hummus tree. Fun giveaway and thanks for not making thirty-two hoops to jump through to win!
Pick me! I was driving an hour to the city to eat at a Lebanese restaurant that I found out this weekend closed it’s doors. I am heartbroken! Alas, it’s time for me to learn how to make that crazy good food myself. Thanks for the recipe and giveaway. I will check out her blog too.
I totally need this! I have a great hummus recipe that we enjoy all the time, but we totally need more things like that salad in our lives.
I could live off of middle eastern food – seriously!! I’d love to win this and surprise my husband with some awesome dinners
Can’t wait to make falafels!
Great photos.
Hummus is one of our favorite post workout snacks!
I would love this cookbook, would be a great resource for the high school culinary arts class that I teach!
I’ve started an adventure around the world based on recipes and culinary folklore. I don’t have anything from the middle east. That is EXACTLY why I would love love love to win a free copy of this book!
I don’t think I even own a Middle Eastern cookbook – I would love for this to be my first. Thanks 🙂
I love middle eastern food – it’s amazing!
It’s virtually impossible to find good Middle Eastern cookbooks in my little corner of the world…. And this one looks particularly amazing! I would love love love to win this!
We love middle eastern food at our house but I don’t have any cookbooks. My boyfriend would be thrilled to eat this every night!
Falafel is one of my favorite things! Since there aren’t any good Middle Eastern restaurants near me, I’d love to start making my own.
Hey,
I just recently found your blog, and I love reading the stories and recipes here. And the giveaway-that would be fun to win 🙂
I would love to win this!
I love hummus and falafel! The coconut semolina cake sounds very delicious.
Love middle eastern food but have never tried making it myself! This would be a great to start doing just that!!!
I love hummus!!! Seriously that reminds me I need to leanr how to make that from scratch…mmmm hummus. Oh but I do want to win that cookbook….looks sweet!
Pretty sure that salad would last 2.5 seconds at my house. Yum!
Love love loveee middle eastern food, but I have never made it myself! Definitely need to get my hands on this book
I’ve been drooling (figuratively, not literally, that would be gross..!!) over this cookbook since it came out. Would love to try my hand at a new cuisine.