Tunisian Salad Platter (or Assiette Tunisienne) makes an impressive presentation for a buffet! Full of fresh, crunchy vegetables, olives, capers and drizzled with a simple red wine vinaigrette, this is THE salad to make all summer long!
The inspiration behind this recipe:
The 1990's were my vegetarian days so I have a vast number of vegetarian cookbooks. I don't use my cookbooks often enough, but occasionally will grab one, open it and make the recipe no matter what it is unless it's for something I simply will not eat--like offal.
This time, I opened one on North African cuisine by Kitty Morse and a beautiful Tunisian salad called Assiette Tunisienne was calling my name! I LOVE all forms of Mediterranean-inspired salads!
Kitty calls it Tunisian Salad Plate but this one fills a platter so I'm calling it Tunisian Salad Platter!
What is a Tunisian Salad?
According to Kitty, the presentation of this salad varies as much as the ingredients. Sometimes the vegetables are sliced or in larger pieces as is shown here and sometimes they are diced and garnished with capers, olives and eggs.
If you have leftover hard-cooked eggs from Easter, this salad is a great way to use them. Occasionally, the salad is topped with canned tuna making this salad similar to a Salade Nicoise.
There's another classic Tunisian salad called salade méchouia where the vegetables are grilled. This is a raw salad except for the eggs.
Tomatoes, cucumbers, green bell pepper, onion... oh my! You'll want to make this Tunisian Salad Platter all summer long! I used plum tomatoes as they are one of the few varieties that are actually edible during non-tomato months. This is perfect with grilled meat, fish or poultry!
I tweaked Kitty's recipe for this Tunisian Salad Platter just a bit. I added sprigs of fresh parsley and some crushed red pepper flakes for a little heat to the simple olive oil and red wine vinaigrette.
Put this Tunisian Salad Platter on your "to make" list this summer! And check out this wonderful vegetarian cookbook! I'm going to keep this book off the shelf for a while and continue cooking through it! There are some amazing recipes in this book!
Be sure to check out these other great salads perfect for your get-together buffet!
- Chicken Pasta Salad with Spinach - Buttermilk Dressing
- Salade Nicoise
- Roasted Beet Salad with Walnuts, Goat Cheese and Honey - Balsamic Dressing
- Cauliflower Antipasto Salad
Tunisian Salad Platter
Ingredients
Salad
- 4 plum tomatoes - quartered and seeds removed
- 1 large green bell pepper - membrane removed, thinly sliced
- 1 English cucumber - peeled if desired, thinly sliced
- ½ small red onion - cut into rings, rings separated
- 3 hard-cooked eggs - peeled and quartered
- 16 Kalamata olives - pitted
- 3 tablespoons capers - large or small
- Italian parsley sprigs
- Freshly ground black pepper - to taste
Dressing
- ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon water
- 1 scant tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper - to taste
Instructions
Salad
- Arrange ingredients on a platter as follows: Tomatoes, eggs placed in between tomatoes here and there, green bell pepper rings, cucumber slices, onion rings, olives and capers. Garnish with parsley sprigs and give the salad a good dose of freshly ground black pepper.
Dressing
- In a small bowl, whisk together the vinegar, water and mustard together until smooth. Gradually whisk in the olive oil. Add crushed red pepper flakes and 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.
Anonymous says
Christine says
What a beautiful salad - Love all those colors and flavors! Perfect for a summer get-together.
Kristen R. says
This salad looks so good! I love the inclusion of the hard boiled eggs. Perfect light dish for summer. Thanks for sharing!
Chava Mazal says
Two things:
1. And I thought I had a huge cookbook collection! I would have made that a top priority to move, too!
2. This salad looks amazing. I had a similar, albeit also very different, salad in Morocco last fall and loved it. The flavors just sound so perfect for a side to some BBQ meat (I couldn't be vegetarian if I tried!) or for a summer potluck.
Love it. I bet the added parsley adds additional life to it.
Carol says
Thanks, Chava!