Ingredients: Salad: 2 whole pieces of pita bread (white or wheat, your preference) 3 heads romaine hearts lettuce 1 large cucumber or 3 small cucumbers 1/2 cup flat leaf parsley leaves 2 large tomatoes 1 medium red onion 2 tablespoons fresh mint or 1 tablespoon dried mint Dressing: 1/4 cup olive oil 1/4 cup lemon juice 1 tablespoon sumac 1/2 teaspoon fresh minced garlic (optional) salt and pepper to taste Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Cut pitas into small squares. Brush them with olive oil and lay them out sparsely on a baking dish. Bake for 6-10 minutes, until light golden brown. Watch them closely because they can burn quickly. Set aside. Chop the romaine, cucumbers, tomatoes, parsley, onion, and fresh mint (if using dry mint, mix it in the dressing). Toss in a large salad bowl. Prepare dressing: The easiest way to mix dressing properly is to place the ingredients in a sealed jar and rapidly shake the jar for 20 seconds. You can also thoroughly whisk together the ingredients. Using one of the methods, combine olive oil, lemon juice, sumac, garlic, and salt pepper to taste. Pour the dressing over the salad and toss. Immediately before serving the salad, toss in the pitas. Be sure to do this just before serving so the pitas stay crispy.
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This delicous cool and creamy dish can be eaten alone as a salad, a side dish, used as a dipping sauce, or added to pita sandwiches. It is very healthy and tasty. The recipe can be altered to your taste with different herbs either fresh or dry. I grew up eating this without any herbs. The dish can also be altered by using thicker or thinner yorgurt, or made with lebneh (yogurt strained in a cheese cloth) instead of yogurt. Ingredients:
2 cups plain yogurt 2 Lebanese/Armenian cucumbers or 1/2 of an English cucumber finely chopped 1 garlic clove, mashed then minced 1/8 teaspoon salt Optional: 1 teaspoon dried mint Put yogurt in a bowl and cover with at least 6 layers of paper towels to absorb excess water. Set aside for a 5 minutes. Discard the paper towel, and stir the yogurt. Add the cucumbers, garlic, and salt. Mix well. Add more garlic and salt if desired, but beware, the garlic will become much stronger tasting after the dish sits. This is a very time consuming salad because the parsley has to be trimmed of the stems, washed mulitiple times and finely chopped. All the work is worth it because it tastes amazing. Ingredients
4 Bunches of parsley 2 1/2 Large or 3 medium tomatoes 8 Green onions 1 Tablespoon dried mint leaves 1/2 Cup fine burghal Dressing 1/4 cup olive oil 1 tablespoon salt 3/4 cup lemon juice 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional) Directions Rinse the burghal and soak in one cup of luke warm water for about 15 minutes or until tender. Drain water and set aside. Trim all of the stems off of the parsley. Put the leaves in a bowl of luke warm water for about 5 minutes to to allow the dirt to settle to the bottom. Drain the water and repeat the process about 3 or 4 times until there is no more dirt/sand visible in the bowl. It may be easier to separate the dirt if you transfer the leaves to another bowl and then dump the water out. Chop the parsley very fine. I bunch up the parsley with one hand and chop with the other to make it easier. Chop the tomatoes and green onions. Mix the parsley, tomatoes, green onions, and burghal in a bowl. If you will be eating the salad within a couple of hours go ahead and mix the olive oil, lemon juice and salt in. I like to add the dressing about an hour before to allow the parsley to absorb the dressing. If you will not be eating it immediately, you can add the dressing ingredients later so the salad will not wilt too much. This is a delicious salad that is simple, great tasting, and a Chaldean staple.
Recipe
Dice tomatoes, onions, and cucumber in a large bowl. Add juice of the lemon, olive oil, salt and pepper. Toss until vegetables are well mixed and coated with dressing. Add more salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately. |