Ingredients
Salad
- 4firm cucumbers
- 4firm tomatoes
- 1small onion
- 1 bunchflat parsley
Dressing
- 3 tbspolive oil
- juice of 1 lemon
- salt
- black pepper
Optional
- 1sweet pepper
- 2 tbsptahini
- sumac
Directions
- The dice is the dish. Cut everything as small and as evenly as you can, ideally under 5 mm.
- A fine even dice is what separates this from a chopped salad. Every spoonful should carry all of it at once, and large chunks make it something else.
- Use a sharp knife and take your time. This is knife work, not a food processor job, which would reduce it to pulp.
- Cut the cucumbers without peeling them, unless the skin is thick or waxed.
- Deseed the tomatoes before dicing, scooping the wet centres out.
- Deseed them. The seeds and jelly are what make the salad sit in a puddle within ten minutes, and losing them costs nothing in flavour.
- Dice the onion very finely and, if it is strong, rinse it briefly in cold water and pat it dry.
- Chop the parsley finely and add plenty of it.
- Combine everything in a bowl, keeping it dry and undressed until the moment it goes to the table.
- Dress it only at the moment of serving, with olive oil, lemon, salt and pepper.
- Dress it at the last second. Salt draws water out of cucumber immediately, and a salad dressed early is a soup by the time it reaches the table.
- Taste and adjust the lemon, which should be assertive.
- It appears at breakfast, beside hummus, inside a pita with falafel, and next to almost every meal.
Technique
- It is called Arab salad, chopped salad or simply salat depending on who is making it, and the naming is contested.
- Firm, slightly underripe tomatoes hold up far better than perfectly ripe ones.
- Any leftovers should be drained rather than kept in their own liquid.
Substitutions
- Mint or coriander in place of parsley.
- Lime for lemon.
Variations
- With tahini stirred through, which is common at breakfast.
- With sumac and a little olive oil only, no lemon.
- With diced sweet pepper and radish added.
History
A finely diced salad combining cucumber, tomato and onion, dressed simply with olive oil and lemon juice, documented across Israel as one of the country’s most essential everyday dishes, closely related to and sharing significant overlap with similar finely chopped vegetable salads found across the wider Levant and eastern Mediterranean, including Arab salads prepared with a nearly identical technique and ingredient list. Its extremely fine, uniform dicing, requiring notably more knife work than a roughly chopped salad, is considered an important technical marker of a well-made version, and the dish’s shared culinary lineage across Israeli and Palestinian cooking reflects the deep interconnection of food traditions across that specific region. Israeli salad remains a near-universal component of Israeli daily meals, commonly served at breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Frequently asked questions
What is Israeli salad?
Israeli salad is a salad & side from Israel: finely diced cucumber-tomato salad with lemon and olive oil. A finely diced salad combining cucumber, tomato and onion, dressed simply with olive oil and lemon juice, documented across Israel as one of the country’s most essential everyday dishes, closely related to and sharing significant overlap with similar finely chopped vegetable salads found across the wider Levant and eastern Mediterranean, including Arab salads prepared with a nearly identical technique and ingredient list. Its extremely fine, uniform dicing, requiring notably more knife work than a roughly chopped salad, is considered an important technical marker of a well-made version, and the dish’s shared culinary lineage across Israeli and Palestinian cooking reflects the deep interconnection of food traditions across that specific region. Israeli salad remains a near-universal component of Israeli daily meals, commonly served at breakfast, lunch and dinner.
How long does Israeli salad take to make?
Israeli salad takes 20 min of preparation and no cooking at all. The recipe makes 4 servings. It is rated easy to make.
What can I substitute in Israeli salad?
Yes, within limits. Mint or coriander in place of parsley. Lime for lemon.
What is the most important thing to get right in Israeli salad?
Dress it at the last second. Salt draws water out of cucumber immediately, and a salad dressed early is a soup by the time it reaches the table.
