Chef Kar Delight

Seasonal Salad Around the World 2025

2.1.5 Middle East: Israel, Syria, Lebanon

2025/03/12

In Search Of World's Hidden Tastes

2.1.5 Around The Middle East, Explore Seasonal Salads

The Middle East incorporates the Fertile Crescent, including Mesopotamia (Sumer, Akkad, Assyria and Babylonia) where wheat was first cultivated, followed by rye, barley, lentils, beans, pistachios, figs, pomegranates, dates and other regional staples.

As a crossroad between Europe, North Africa, and Asia, it has been a hub of food and recipe exchange. During the first Persian Empire (ca. 550–330 BCE), the foundation was laid for modern Middle-Eastern food when rice, poultry and fruits were incorporated into the local diet. Figs, dates and nuts were brought by merchants to conquered lands, and spices were brought from the Orient. The region was also influenced by turmeric and other spices from India; cloves, peppercorns and allspice from the Spice Islands; okra from Africa, and tomatoes from the New World.

Leaf vegetables include many varieties of cabbage, spinach, and chard. Root vegetables, such as onions, garlic, carrots, turnips, and beets, are also popular in the region.
Squash, tomato, eggplant, and okra are distinctive elements of the region's cuisine.

Arab salad or Arabic salad is any of a variety of salad dishes that form part of Arab cuisine, combining many different fruits and spices, and often served as part of a mezze.

Diced tomato, cucumber and onion, often mixed with parsley and combined with the juice of freshly squeezed lemon and olive oil, Arabic salad contains no lettuce. All the vegetables, except the onion, are left unpeeled, and the salad should be served immediately. Other variations include serving with fried pita slices or adding sumac to the lemon and oil dressing.

One should choose food to eat according to the seasons. Food is seasonal whereas salad is also seasonal.

Now we depart for Israel, Syria, and Lebanon, explore their seasonal salads sharing with everyone.

▲ Seasonal Salad 14：

Israeli Fig Fruit Salad

Fig trees are common in Israel, where they are a symbol of the land's fertility. The fig is widely scattered throughout Israel's mountains. The fig is mentioned in the Bible in descriptions of the land's bounty. Figs are one of the seven species of produce that God promised to give Israel. The fig is a basic food in Israel, with high nutritional value due to its honey.

Israeli Fig Fruit Salad uses fig fruits, paired with red plums, pears, Middle Eastern dates and Pomegranate. It is a sweet and sour appetizer.

Ingredients:
Fig fruits, red plums, Bosc pears, Middle eastern dates, pomegranate, lime, mint, honey

▲ Seasonal Salad 15：

Syrian Fattoush Salad

Fattūsh is derived from the Arabic fatt "crush" and the suffix of Turkic origin -ūsh. Coining words this way was common in Levantine Arabic.

Originating from the Levant area, which includes countries like Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Palestine, Fattoush was traditionally a way to use up stale bread khubz and seasonal vegetables and herbs. Its name derives from the Arabic word 'fatteh', meaning 'crumbs', referring to the leftover pita bread pieces mixed into the salad. Sumac is added to enhance sour taste.

Ingredients:
Pita bread pieces khubz, olive oil, salt, tomatoes, cucumbers, green onions, lettuce leaves, radishes, curly parsley, mint, sumac

Salad Dressing:
Sumac, lemon juice, pomegranate molasses, garlic, red wine vinegar, mint, olive oil, salt

▲ Khubz Pita bread

Khubz, alternatively transliterated as khoubz, khobez, khubez, or khubooz, is the usual word for "bread" in Standard Arabic and in many of the vernaculars.

The oldest known kind of bread, found by archaeologists in the Syrian Desert (modern-day southern Syria and northern Jordan), dates back 14,000 years. It was a sort of unleavened flatbread made with several types of wild cereals.

Etymologically, khubz means bread in Arabic, and tannour refers to the clay oven in which it is traditionally baked. It is also called khebez tannour, khobz or khubz mei, this last one meaning “water bread”, which stems from the absence of oil in its composition.

▲ Seasonal Salad 16：

Lebanese Tabbouleh Salad

Tabbouleh (tabbūla), also transcribed tabouleh, tabbouli, tabouli, or taboulah, is a Levantine salad of finely chopped parsley, soaked bulgur, tomatoes, mint, and onion, seasoned with olive oil, lemon juice, salt and sweet pepper. Some variations add lettuce, or use semolina instead of bulgur.

Tabbouleh is traditionally served as part of a mezze in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Arab world.

Originally from the mountains of Lebanon and Syria, tabbouleh has become one of the most popular salads in the Middle East. The wheat variety salamouni cultivated in the Beqaa Valley region in Lebanon, was considered (in the mid-19th century) as particularly well-suited for making bulgur, a basic ingredient of tabbouleh. In Lebanon, the Lebanese National Tabbouleh Day is a yearly festivity day dedicated to Tabbouleh. Since 2001, it is celebrated the first Saturday of the month of July.

Ingredients:
Curly parsley Chopped ,tomatoes, mint, green onions, bulgur coarse, olive oil, lemon juice, salt, black pepper, allspice