Still perusing through some Armenian recipes and so many of them take quite a while to make. So while I wait for days where I have enough time, today I thought I’d make a simple vegetable salad: Lebanese sumac salad.
Like the title says, this side dish is seasoned with sumac. If you haven’t had sumac before, it has a bit of a sweet taste as it is made from the sumac berry. Don’t worry – it’s not overly sweet but it adds a little extra flavour and the colour is divine!
Prepping your vegetables
Before you begin putting this salad together, I do recommend dicing & chopping up the cucumbers and tomatoes and leaving them rid of any excess moisture. A way to do this is to sprinkle some salt on the vegetables. This will draw out any excess moisture. I usually put them in a colander in the sink.
That first step is not super necessary, in fact if you want to omit it entirely – you can! However once you put the salad together, you may find that some excess water remains in the bottom of the salad bowl. That’s totally fine – but it’s something that annoys me to no end! haha
What you will need to make Lebanese Sumac Salad:
- Cucumbers
- Cherry Tomatoes
- Onion (red preferably)
- Red & Orange peppers
- Green onion
- Mint
- Parsley
- Olive oil
- Lemon juice
- Sumac
- Chilli powder
- Salt & pepper
@kaliestephan Lebanese sumac salad. the perfect side dish #sumac #lebanesefood #armeniancuisine #foodtokers ♬ Break My Stride – Chateau Pop
When making this salad, I like to soak the onions in half the dressing before I add it to the rest of the vegetables. I do this so that the lemon juice might calm any strong onion taste. However using a red onion might be helpful in this situation. I used white onion for this recipe.
In one of the pictures above, I paired it with a delicious roast chicken – you can find that recipe here.
Lebanese Sumac Salad
Super simple sumac salad. A hearty vegetable filled side dish perfect for any occasion.
Ingredients
- 4 medium peppers - orange, red and yellow
- 2 packages of cherry tomatoes (1 pack=300g)
- 6 mini cucumbers
- 1 medium red onion
- 1/4 cup chopped mint
- 1/4 cup chopped green onions
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1 tbsp sumac
- 1/2 tbsp chilli powder
- 4 tbsp lemon juice
- salt/pepper
Instructions
- Chop the cucumbers and tomatoes and place them into a colander in the sink.
- Sprinkle them with salt and let it sit for about 10-15 minutes while you chop the rest of the vegetables.
- Cut the onion, place it into a small bowl. Add half the following ingredients: olive oil, lemon juice, sumac and chilli powder. Let it sit.
- Place the cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, mint and parsley into a large salad bowl.
- Add in the onion/sumac mixture.
- Finally mix together the remaining olive oil, lemon juice, sumac, chilli powder, salt and pepper.
- Add it into the salad bowl and toss!
- Enjoy!
