Middle Eastern Chopped Vegetable Salad
Middle Eastern Chopped Vegetable Salad is light, crunchy and over-the-top flavorful! All the vegetables are in season now and it’s like summer in a bowl!
Here’s a lively and lovely summer salad that is worth every knife stroke!
I really wasn’t sure what to call this salad because it’s similar to numerous other Mediterranean, Middle Eastern and Israeli-inspired salads but probably most similar to an Israeli Chopped Salad.
Whenever I create and share a recipe that’s a classic or has deep ethnic origins, I’m always a little apprehensive if I’m not of that heritage because I don’t want to get it wrong.
At any rate, let’s just call this one DELICIOUS! Middle Eastern Chopped Vegetable Salad is like summer in a bowl!
How to make Middle Eastern Chopped Vegetable Salad:
- Gather the ingredients:
- Tomatoes
- Cucumbers
- Red onion
- Yellow bell pepper
- Jalapeno pepper
- Garlic
- Fresh mint
- Fresh parsley
- Lemon juice
- Olive oil
- Then, start chopping! This takes a little while but you really want to do it by hand especially if you’re serving it to guests. With a food processor, it’s difficult to get the vegetables chopped consistently and you can end up with mush and lots of water.
- With a good knife, the chopping process goes fairly quickly. Just put your favorite podcast on and zen out! If fine chopping really isn’t your thing, no need to chop everything super small. Just chop everything larger or “chunkier.” Here’s some good information on knife skills: Basic but Life-Changing Knife Skills.
- Chop, combine and that’s it!
Oh, let me tell you about something that was life-changing. At the bottom of this post, look for an affiliate link for a juicer that has made my life so much easier! I used to use a wooden reamer, squeeze the juice over a sieve into a bowl to remove any seeds. That always gave me two extra items to wash on a cook date at the client’s home.
With the juicer shown below, you can juice right into what you’re making! Here’s the lowdown on how to use it: How to Use A Citrus Juicer.
Stir it up and you’re done! The salad can get watery quickly as you can see below. However, those juices are DIVINE and you won’t want to waste a drop! Serve this Middle Easter Vegetable Salad with some great pita bread to soak up every last one!
Other Middle Eastern and Mediterranean-inspired salads you may enjoy:
- Tabouli with Fresh Jalapeno
- Quinoa Tabbouleh with Grilled Vegetables
- Cucumber, Red Onion and Feta Cheese Salad
- Spicy Black-Eyed Pea Salad
- Mediterranean Barley Salad with Green Beans, Red Bell Pepper, Olives and Feta
Middle Eastern Chopped Vegetable Salad
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Ingredients
- 4 large cucumbers - thin strips removed from around cucumber with peeler, then seeded and chopped
- 4 large tomatoes - chopped
- 1 small red onion - finely chopped
- 1 large red or yellow bell pepper - chopped
- 1 medium jalapeno pepper - seeded if desired, finely chopped
- 3 cloves garlic - minced
- 2 large lemons - juiced
- 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 1/4 cup chopped parsley - preferably flat-leaf
- 1/4 cup chopped mint
- salt and freshly ground black pepper - to taste
Instructions
- Combine cucumbers, tomatoes, onion, bell pepper, jalapeno pepper in a large bowl.
- Whisk together garlic, lemon juice and olive oil in a small bowl.
- Pour over vegetables, add parsley and mint.
- Add salt and black pepper to taste.
- Serve immediately.
Notes
Nutrition
These are estimated values generated from a nutritional database using unbranded products. Please do your own research with the products you're using if you have a serious health issue or are following a specific diet.
I made this to go with lamb kabobs served with Naan bread. I forgot the olive oil in the salad. Not a problem! So good with the lamb, tzatziki and naan. Excellent ingredients! Flavors that dance together!
Hi, Jan, Thanks so very much and glad you enjoyed. Your meal sounds divine!!! Thanks again and hope you’ll try some of my other salads.
Delicious. What a fresh way to make a vegetable salad. I really liked using the fresh herbs.
Hi, Barb, Thanks so very much and glad you enjoyed! I really love all the freshness about this salad, too!
I was looking for a salad recipe for the whole family and I stumbled on this article. I read and followed the instructions carefully and I made it deliciously! Every member of my family is so happy! Thanks for this!
Thank you, Kate! Glad you all enjoyed!