(DUTCH) EGYPTIAN SALAD
½ cucumber, diced
2 tomatoes, diced
6 radishes, diced
2-3 green onions, diced
¼-½ head of lettuce, chopped
½-1 lime or lemon, juiced
2 small handfuls sunflower seeds
2 small handfuls walnuts, chopped
sea salt & pepper to taste
That is the basic recipe. It is easily scalable and substitutions are possible. As to substitutions: I often replace walnuts with pecans, or mix in both. I have used pistachio nuts and almonds (slivers and slices) as well. Pretty much any nut or seed could be substituted or added in concert with several others. Pine nuts would probably be pretty good; I think I did try that many moons ago, but cannot remember for sure.
You can use pretty much any lettuce if you like or other greens; I have used romaine in the past. Green onion, or scallion, can be replaced or supplemented with other onions; vidalia is a good choice. I have added sweet and hot peppers at times. I have substituted vinegar when I did not have any citrus fruit; but add it slowly and a little bit at a time to not make it too sour or bitey. I would like to try it with orange or grapefruit sometime.
English or Lebanese cucumber is the preferred choice (no peeling required), but I have made it with pickling cucumbers. If you use what we call around here garden cucumbers, you need to peel them, as the waxy skin is tough to chew and not very appealing, at least to me.
Sometimes, I add a bit of granulated garlic, paprika, and/or cayenne. If you have white pepper in a grinder, it is far superior to fresh ground black pepper, but I would use both. Bear in mind, in my experience, commercially available pre-ground white pepper has a different taste that many do not like raw (i.e. sans being involved in a heated cooking process; something akin to fresh and dried oregano). Dried green peppercorns freshly ground add yet another delightful dimension, but are hard to find, at least at a reasonable cost, as they are mainly pickled, which is not suitable for this recipe.
As to scalability, you can scale, up or down, any individual ingredient, or the whole recipe. As an example, a couple of days ago we had it as part of our supper. This is how I made it this last time: I used a whole English cucumber, three tomatoes, a dozen radishes (we love radishes), three green onions, about a third of a head of lettuce (maybe less), a whole juiced lemon, two big handfuls of sunflower seed, two pretty small handfuls of walnut pieces, sea salt and pepper, I also added some granulated garlic (just a bit), and also about a third of a vidalia onion.
We had it with chicken noodle soup, to which I added extra soup noodles and chicken for a heartier meal. It is eminently suitable to be served with sandwiches, part of a buffet, a multi-dish table dinner, or even as a meal in and of itself. It can be quite filling.
To serve, you can layer it to be mixed up on serving. If done well in a glass bowl it can look quite entertaining for your dinner service. I usually just mix it so the flavours blend and meld. I do sometimes place extra sunflower seeds and/or nuts on top in a pattern to be fancy. The easiest is to lay out extra walnut or pecan halves on top in a spoked wheel design. You could even lay out some radishes carved in to "roses"; me, I am too lazy for that.
Someday I may add chickpeas as well to see how that works. That would probably be a meal all by itself. Anyway, that is pretty much it. Thanks Jeremy and Madelon. blbbl
Sometimes, I add a bit of granulated garlic, paprika, and/or cayenne. If you have white pepper in a grinder, it is far superior to fresh ground black pepper, but I would use both. Bear in mind, in my experience, commercially available pre-ground white pepper has a different taste that many do not like raw (i.e. sans being involved in a heated cooking process; something akin to fresh and dried oregano). Dried green peppercorns freshly ground add yet another delightful dimension, but are hard to find, at least at a reasonable cost, as they are mainly pickled, which is not suitable for this recipe.
As to scalability, you can scale, up or down, any individual ingredient, or the whole recipe. As an example, a couple of days ago we had it as part of our supper. This is how I made it this last time: I used a whole English cucumber, three tomatoes, a dozen radishes (we love radishes), three green onions, about a third of a head of lettuce (maybe less), a whole juiced lemon, two big handfuls of sunflower seed, two pretty small handfuls of walnut pieces, sea salt and pepper, I also added some granulated garlic (just a bit), and also about a third of a vidalia onion.
We had it with chicken noodle soup, to which I added extra soup noodles and chicken for a heartier meal. It is eminently suitable to be served with sandwiches, part of a buffet, a multi-dish table dinner, or even as a meal in and of itself. It can be quite filling.
To serve, you can layer it to be mixed up on serving. If done well in a glass bowl it can look quite entertaining for your dinner service. I usually just mix it so the flavours blend and meld. I do sometimes place extra sunflower seeds and/or nuts on top in a pattern to be fancy. The easiest is to lay out extra walnut or pecan halves on top in a spoked wheel design. You could even lay out some radishes carved in to "roses"; me, I am too lazy for that.
Someday I may add chickpeas as well to see how that works. That would probably be a meal all by itself. Anyway, that is pretty much it. Thanks Jeremy and Madelon. blbbl
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