Meze, Part 5: Salat Aravi

Bale-Christ thinks it's Delicious

And we finally reach the conclusion of our Epic Meze Weekend with the one salad I could eat for the rest of my life: Salat Aravi. According to Gil Hovav, this salad is the single most iconic dish of Israeli cuisine (you should read whatever this guy types, He is fucking AWESOME), even though it was apropriated by Israeli Jews from Arabs since time inmemorial. It's got as many variations as there are cooks arround the mediterranian, but the one thing they have in common is that all the vegetables are chopped as finely and uniformly as possible. This is the measure of the cook's ability and knife skills.

For this recipe, I'm going with the more traditional morroccan version, which is my all-time favorite. It brings fond memories of all my amazing travels to Morrocco (through the Food Network and Travel Channel, of course), and is always a hallmark of summer in my house.

So start with 2 large cucumbers, peeled, and cube them uniformly. Size is up to you, I like my salad to feel like a salad and not a salsa.

Next, seed and chop 4 medium tomatoes to roughly the same size as your cucumbers.

 Finely chop the greens from a whole bunch of scallions and a bunch of cilantro.

Fucking Kitchen Ninja skillz right here

 Now put your vegetables in a bowl...

Shit.... We're gonna need a bigger bowl.....

 ...or two...

... and add about 3 heaping tablespoons of dried dill. This is dill. Some jars will say "Dill Weed". You can't smoke it, dumb ass, so don't try it. Dried dill is a lot less flavorful than fresh. You'll want to use a lot more than 3 Tbsps if you jar's been sitting on the shelf for too long.

Dress the salad using 1/2 a cup of olive oil, 1 cup of freshly squeezed lemon juice, salt and pepper.

Turns out it did fit in one bowl....

Let it sit in the fridge for a few hours and prepare to have you mind blown

Printer-Friendly Version:

2 very large cucumbers, peeled and chopped
4 medium tomatoes, seeded and chopped
1 bunch scallions, finely chopped
1 bunch cilantro, finely chopped
3 Tbsp chopped dill
1 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Throw everything in a bowl
2. Fucking rule the table, yet again
3. Leave a comment, awesome people do.