Here is a quick Persian-style salad to accompany any spicy beef, chicken, lamb dish or oily fish like salmon. It is simple, refreshing, tasty and packed with flavour.
I need to clarify the term “spicy”. In Norway people tend to think spicy as in chilli hot, but not necessarily though. “Spicy” can also mean the use of many spices such as coriander, fennel and cumin seeds to infuse slow-cooked dishes like my tomato lamb stew.
Bon appetite!
You’ll need
- ¼ cup x pistachios
- 2 x cucumbers, skin and seeds removed, sliced in half and cut into 1cm chunks
- 250g x baby cucumbers, unpeeled and washed and cut into 1 cm pieces
- 300g x green seedless grapes, halved
- 1 cup x mint, loosely packed and shredded
- 1 x bag baby salad leaves
- 300g x persian feta, broken into chunks
- 2 Tbsp x pomegranate seeds
- ½ x juice of lemon
- 2 Tbsp x extra-virgin olive oil
- Salt and pepper to taste (careful with the salt, the feta is already salty)
Method
- Preheat oven to 180°C. Scatter pistachios on an oven tray and roast, shaking occasionally, until just golden (5-10 minutes), then cool, coarsely chop and set aside.
- Combine cucumbers, grapes, salad leaves and mint in a bowl, crumble over feta.
- Drizzle with lemon juice and olive oil, season to taste and toss.
- Top with pistachio and pomegranate seeds and serve.