Traditional Arabic Salad Recipe (2024)

As a half Middle Eastern, I love Arabic food since their foods are flavorful and rich in spices. Furthermore, their foods are very healthy and delicious. For example, in Jordan and Levant, the locals love adding olive oil, vegetables, sumac, and other spices in their dish.

When I went to Jordan, the locals always serve salad during dinner and lunchtime. For example, when I visited my relatives in the local city, they were serving a traditional Jordanian chicken dish called Maqluba, and along with it, they serve the salad. When I lived in Kuwait, the locals always serve salad together with their rice and meat dishes.

They are many kinds of Middle Eastern Salad since some of them use a specific type of cheese or crispy pita bread. But in this post, I will be showing you a very simple yet a traditional Middle Eastern Arabic Salad Recipe.

Recipe Ingredient

There are several ingredients you need when making a delicious Arabic salad recipe. They are not really that much and it is even simple.

Firstly, these are the list of chopped vegetables I used for my salad:

• Lettuce
• Parsley
• Cucumber
• Tomatoes

In some middle eastern salads, they also add other vegetables such as carrots and onions. But I am not a fan of these vegetables, so I don't add them to my salad.

Secondly, I am using sumac spices and extra virgin olive oil in my salad. These are two important ingredients that will give you a rich sour flavor, and without them, you can make an Arab salad. The sumac spices are found in any middle eastern or Arabic grocery stores.

Lastly, I need salt and black pepper for seasoning the salad. These two ingredients must be done right before serving, or else the salad will be watery.

Note: The sumac spice gives a sour flavor of the salad. If you don't have sumac, you can just use lemon.

What do I serve with this salad recipe?

This Arabic Salad Recipe is a vegetarian side dish that is eaten and serves with other main course meals. This includes meat, seafood, and rice recipes.

Here are the list of Middle Eastern food recipes you can serve and eat with this Arab Salad:

• Majboos
• Chicken Maqluba
• Arabic Biryani
• Beef Kebab and other Middle Eastern Meat Dishes.

Lastly, I love addingYogurt Garlic Sauceas a dressing for my salad. The yogurt sauce blends perfectly with the salad which I highly recommend eating this using pita bread. Not only it tastes good, but it is very healthy.

Note:You don't have to serve this salad with only Middle Eastern Food. Any foreign dish with meat, seafood, and rice is perfect. Also, this dish is a vegan friendly if you don't eat meat.

Step by Step Instruction

The step to make an Arabic Salad is very easy and straight forward.

Firstly, chop the cucumber, tomatoes, lettuce and parsley. Once you are done chopping the vegetables, transfer them into a large bowl.

Add olive oil and sumac, and give it a quick mix. Lastly, you add the salt and black pepper for taste. Serve them with any main course meal that has rice and meat and you are done.

Tips and Hints

• Use fresh vegetables since they have better taste and texture.
• Use cucumber with fewer seeds to control the amount of water in the salad. You don’t want to have a watery salad.
• If you don’t have sumac, you can use lemon or citrus juice since they both give a sour and acidic flavor to the salad
• Deseeds the tomatoes to prevent the salad from becoming watery.
• You can customize your salad by adding bell pepper, olives, or red onion.
• This salad is best consumed within a day since the next day, it becomes watery.

Variation

Shepherd Salad- A Turkish salad mixed with cucumber, tomatoes, feta cheese, olive oil, and olives.

Tabouleh Salad- A Levantine salad mixed with tomato, cucumber, onion, soaked bulgur wheat and large amount of parsley

Fatoush Salad- Similar to Arabic Salad but it contain fried khubz/ pita bread

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