Wednesday 22 June 2016

Spicy Turkish Ezme Salad





With ingredients like this you can anticipate the taste and goodness.







From raw ingredients to raw taste!














On our recent trip to Turkey we enjoyed many mezze platters and I absolutely loved the spicy salad that accompanied the hummus. I had to ask what the ingredients were and I was desperate to recreate it at home. Our wonderful waiter could not name all the ingredients but he did give us a link to an online recipe. In my usual fashion I searched several sites which all varied and then decided to take the best and modify it to my taste. Although I like the taste of raw onion I don't like still tasting it at 3am when I wake up; so replacing white or red onion with spring / salad onions made the perfect amendment.

Ingredients:
2 large tomatoes, peeled (I also de-seed them)
3-4 spring onions
1 clove garlic
2 chilli peppers  (I also like to add a pepper to make the whole dish go further)
1/4 bunch parsley
1 Tbs lemon juice
2 Tbs pomegranate molasses
1 tsp pepper paste (I use harissa paste)
2 Tbs olive oil
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp sumac
pinch dried mint

Method:
Chop the tomatoes, onion, garlic, chillies and parsley as fine as you can.  I have read that a food processor does not give the same texture and alters the flavours; I also find it quite satisfying to handle the food and chop with a mezzaluna. I had wanted a mezzaluna for years and once I was given one I didn't really use it ... now I am using it all the time!







chop as finely as you can

Mix the chopped vegetables in a bowl. 
Mix the lemon juice, pomegranate molasses, olive oil and pepper paste until smooth. 
Add mixture to the salad, add salt and spices, mix well. Chill and serve.

This salad is well worth the effort of finding pomegranate molasses and sumac, and I found each at Waitrose supermarket but there are other outlets on line.

Serve with a selection of salad leaves, hummus, tzatziki and anything else that you love ... with plenty of warm pitta bread or flat bread to dip in these luscious flavours.  Watch this space for home made hummus and tzatziki when I have mastered them.

A perfect sharing platter