Our farmers salad recipe for salata falahiyeh makes a salad of tomatoes, cucumbers, capsicums, shallots, and fresh herbs with a simple dressing of extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice. Eaten throughout the Middle East, with provenance in Palestine, it’s also called a Palestinian salad, Arabic salad, village salad, or chopped salad, salata na’ameh. It’s fantastic with kofta, kebabs, grilled meats, fish, and roast chicken.
One of my favourite Middle Eastern recipes, this farmers salad recipe couldn’t be easier. It makes one of those delicious home-style salads almost every cuisine has. It’s the Middle East equivalent of my Russian family’s garden salad. It might not win awards, nor wow, but it’s a wonderful salad when it’s made with super-fresh quality produce.
This farmers salad recipe for salata falahiyeh – also called a village salad, Palestinian salad, Arabic salad, and chopped salad or salata na’ameh – makes a fantastic Middle Eastern mezze alongside hummus, baba ganoush and muhammara, salads such as fatoush, tabbouleh, this smoky char-grilled eggplant salad, and my pearl couscous salad with pomegranate and pistachios, and is a great side for meatier mains such as kebabs, meatballs and shish tawook, and this Middle Eastern spiced rice dish.
But before I tell you all about this farmers salad recipe, I have a favour to ask. Grantourismo is reader-funded. If you’ve enjoyed our recipes, please consider supporting Grantourismo. For instance, you could buy a handcrafted KROK, the best mortar and pestle ever; buy something on Amazon, such as these cookbooks for culinary travellers, classic cookbooks for serious cooks, gifts for Asian food lovers or picnic lovers. Now let me tell you about this farmers salad recipe.
Farmers Salad Recipe for Salata Falahiyeh or a Middle Eastern Village Salad
We ate Arabic food a few times a week during the eight years we lived in the UAE. When we left Dubai to bounce around the Middle East and Europe, working on guidebooks and stories for another four years, we ate Arabic food every day when we were in one of the Gulf countries or in Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, or Jordan.
Yet while we’d see tabbouleh and fatoush salads on every single menu at Arabic restaurants, Lebanese restaurants and Syrian restaurants throughout the Middle East, we’d rarely see a farmers salad on restaurant menus. Why? Because it’s a simple salad served in the home, which isn’t considered interesting enough for restaurants.
Of course, fattoush is very similar to a farmers salad. It has the addition of pomegranate seeds or pomegranate molasses and crispy pita chips, which make it more special. Although I regularly make pita crisps now, I wouldn’t have dreamed of doing so when I worked long hours in Dubai and we could easily get Arabic takeaway.
Yet this farmers salad recipe is just that little bit easier that makes it a cinch to cook at home. This Middle Eastern village salad or Arabic salad can be made in as little as 15 minutes if you take the time to evenly dice the vegetables evenly – which for many is what makes it so delicious.
Chop the vegetables more roughly and you can make this farmers salad in as little as five minutes, although it won’t taste the same. Let me share a few tips to making this Middle Eastern farmers salad recipe.
Tips to Making this Farmers Salad Recipe for Salata Falahiyeh
Salad recipes don’t come much easier than this Middle Eastern farmers salad recipe, which will make you a super easy garden salad or village salad, which you’ll be able to make by heart after you’ve prepared this salad once or twice.
The first thing I recommend you do is to make the dressing in a small bowl or jar by stirring the extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper together. Taste the dressing and adjust the ingredients if needed to suit your palate.
Next, wash, dry and dice the cucumbers, tomatoes, onion, and bell peppers (capsicums) into 1-1.5cm sized pieces, then toss them all into a salad bowl. Add the chopped fresh herbs and combine everything well with a spoon, but don’t add the dressing yet. If you’re not serving the salad immediately, refrigerate it.
Just before you’re ready to eat and serve your salad, add the dressing to the salad bowl, stir everything to well incorporate the ingredients, then taste and adjust the dressing and seasoning to suit your palate. Enjoy!
Farmers Salad Recipe for Salata Falahiyeh
Equipment
Ingredients
- 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 3 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp ground cracked black pepper
- 4 large tomatoes - vine-ripened
- 2 long Persian cucumbers
- ½ large purple onion
- 1 large red capsicum - bell peppers – or 3-4 small capsicums
- 2 tbsp mint - fresh, finely chopped
- 2 tbsp Continental parsley - fresh, finely chopped
- 1 tbsp dill - fresh, roughly chopped
Instructions
- Make the dressing in a small jar or bowl by stirring the extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper together, taste, and adjust to suit your palate.
- Wash, dry and dice the tomatoes, cucumbers, red onion, and capsicums into 1-1.5cm pieces, toss them into a salad bowl.
- Add the chopped fresh herbs and combine everything well with a spoon.
- Just before serving, add the dressing to the salad, stir to combine well, try it and adjust to suit your taste.
Notes
Nutrition
Please do let us know if make this Middle Eastern farmers salad recipe for salata falahiyeh as we’d love to know how it turns out for you.
