The sun is shining (at last!) and it always makes me feel like I should be sitting outside enjoying the sort of salad you only get on holiday with a chilled glass of white wine. In an effort to try to recreate this mood, I decided to make this salad and eat outside in the garden!
Mint, pomegranate, tomato and cucumber salad
- Half a cucumber
- Handful of cherry tomatoes
- Seeds from half a pomegranate or pre-prepared pack
- Sumac (tangy, lemony spice used a lot in Middle Eastern cooking – I bought mine in Dubai but big supermarkets should stock)
- Lemon
- Chopped fresh mint
- Good quality extra virgin olive oil
- Pomegranate syrup
Halve, quarter and then slice the cucumber, slice cherry tomatoes in half – put it medium-sized bowl. Add pomegranate seeds and chopped, fresh mint. Stir to combine. In a separate bowl make the dressing – grate lemon peel, squeeze half a lemon, teaspoon of sumac, tablespoon of pomegranate syrup and similar quantity of olive oil. Whisk together making sure the pomegranate syrup dissolves, pour over salad vegetables.
It’s best to leave this for about 30 minutes for the salad to absorb the flavours. This makes enough for around 2 people as part of a main course, you can scale up or down depending on the quantity you want. Feel free to mix and match your vegetables – radish or fresh red pepper would work well too. It will keep overnight, covered in fridge, if you want to use for lunch the next day but you will need to drain the liquid off before serving.
I served the salad with roasted sweet potato, pepper with harissa paste, lemon and olive oil with halloumi on top. You could serve with chicken breast, fish or in a pitta with houmous – it’s a pretty flexible salad.
palmernoms 