This Easy Arabic salad is going to revolutionize your traditional take on a salad and transform it with flavor, spice, and the freshest ingredients. So easy to put together and the perfect side dish for summer. This salad can also be transformed into a light evening meal with the addition of grilled chicken or fish. You are going to love the simple and zesty flavors.
I try to accompany my dinners with a simple, fresh salad. Today’s Easy Arabic Style is one of the vegetable salads I love starting my meals with.
It is the perfect way to enjoy fresh chopped vegetables and use up any vegetables that you need to use up.
If you have tried my Easy Lebanese Salad you will love this Arabic Chopped Salad that adds in romaine lettuce and uses pomegranate molasses to create a tangy, sweet dressing.
An Arabic salad is traditionally Middle Eastern that is made up of chopped lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, and red onion along with fresh mint and then topped with a tangy dressing. The ingredients are usually chopped into small pieces. The fresh mint gives that extra burst of freshness.
The crunchy cucumbers and romaine salad mixed with the juicy tomatoes and red onion make for a simple salad combination.
It is so simple to prepare, the secret is the dressing, and it just brings everything together. You are going to love pairing this salad with lots of meals or even adding things to it.
I love pairing this fresh salad with these Greek Marinated Chicken Kabobs, Lebanese Lentil Soup, Air Fryer Cod, Mediterranean Turkey Meatballs or this Pork Souvlaki.
Why You Will Love this Recipe
- Easy to make – This is so simple to put together. It just involves chopping ingredients and making the simple dressing. You can have this salad together in under 15 minutes.
- Fresh flavor – The dressing isn’t overpowering. It has fresh and zest and is perfect with the salad ingredients and is one of the most refreshing salads. The dressing is full of flavor and the fresh ingredients give this salad life. The tangy, sweet pomegranate is the perfect addition to the salad dressing.
- A versatile side dish – This Arab salad can easily be paired with so many meals. Pasta, rice, grilled meat, or fish. The options are endless. This is one of my go-to salads that I serve as a side dish.
Recipe Ingredients You’ll Need
- Lettuce: This salad uses romaine lettuce. It is such a nice crisp lettuce and works great with the fresh vegetables. To prevent the salad from being soggy make sure to wash the romaine and let is fully drain.
- Vegetables: Fresh vegetables are the heart of this salad. This Arabic Salad uses fresh tomatoes, english cucumber and red onion.
- Fresh Herbs: The fresh herbs add an earthy, fresh flavor. This salad uses fresh parsley and mint.
- Dressing: The dressing is my favorite part of the salad. The dressing mixes extra virgin olive, garlic, lemon juice, dried mint, sumac and pomegranate molasses.
How to Make this Easy Arabic Salad
Now that you have all your ingredients to hand it is time to make this simple and tasty Arabic Salad:
Step 1: Mix the Salad Ingredients: Get a large bowl and add the romaine lettuce, chopped cucumber, tomatoes, red onions, parsley, and fresh mint. Make sure you give all the ingredients a good mix and set aside.
Step 2: Prepare the dressing: Using a mason jar or a salad dressing container combine the olive oil with lemon juice, garlic, salt, pepper, mint, sumac (if using), and pomegranate molasses.
Whisk, or using the lid of the mason jar shake, all of the ingredients together until you have a smooth dressing.
Step 3: Serve up your salad: Drizzle the delicious dressing over the salad and gently toss everything until the dressing has coated everything. Serve and enjoy!
Ways to Modify this Arabic Salad Recipe
Many recipes have substitutions and variations that help you customize your salad:
Things you can add or little changes to make it more suitable. So here are some of the best variations you might want to consider:
- Vegetables: This salad is great as it is, but you could add a chopped green bell pepper or a red bell pepper, red cabbage, green onions, spring onions, shredded carrot, or ribbons of zucchini if you wish.
- Protein: Grill some chicken or fish and add to the salad to make a complete meal.
- Crunch: You could add crispy chickpeas or pita chips to this salad. Both are nice additions.
- Grains: Quinoa or Couscous would be a nice addition to this salad. Once cooled mix with the dressing and salad.
- Cheese: Add some feta cheese to give a salty and tangy flavor. It may not be traditional, but it works well with the dressing and fresh flavors.
- Other Ingredients: You can add olives, artichokes, roasted red peppers or sun-dried tomatoes to this salad. A few other nice additions are banana peppers or peperoncinos.
What is Pomegranate Molasses?
Pomegranate molasses is a simple ingredient that you can either make yourself or you can buy it at the store.
It is basically pomegranate juice that has been reduced down, with or without sugar, to a thick flavored syrup.
One of the things I appreciate most about it is its lack of sweetness.
Pomegranate molasses is syrupy and rich, but even versions with added sugar are not very sweet. It tends to be a bit tang which makes it great in salad dressings that mix lemon juice and sumac.
Storage Tips
This is a salad that you can serve up straight away or store for later. When prepared add to an airtight container and store in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
You can prepare this salad in advance by creating the dressing and preparing the fresh vegetables and fresh herbs ready to assemble when you are ready.
Recipe FAQ
Any tomatoes will work with this recipe as long as they are fresh and juicy. On-the-vine or cherry tomatoes, grape tomatoes or roma tomatoes always work nicely.
If you want to make this ahead of time then you could make the dressing and store it in the refrigerator for when you need it. The salad ingredients can also be prepped in advance. Just add the dressing when you are ready to serve the salad.
No you don’t have to but it does make the salad more authentic. You can find pomegranate molasses in a Middle Eastern store or the ethnic section of many grocery stores. If you don’t have pomegranate molasses or sumac you can skip it and just use the lemon juice. You also could use za’atar in place of the sumac.
More Salad Recipes
Salads
Summer Orzo Pasta Salad
Mediterranean
Mediterranean Eggplant Salad
Mediterranean
Lemon Arugula Salad Recipe with Parmesan Cheese
Arabic Salad
Ingredients
- 1 heard of romaine lettuce, chopped – about 5-6 cups of chopped romaine
- 4 medium tomatoes, seeds removed, diced
- 1 english cucumber, diced
- 1/2 cup red onion, chopped
- 1/2 cup fresh curly parsley, chopped
- 1/4 cup fresh mint, chopped (or you can use 2 tbsps. dried mint)
FOR THE DRESSING
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil
- 1 lemon, juiced
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1/8 tsp. black pepper
- 2 tsps. dried mint
- 2 tbsps. sumac {optional}
- 2 tbsps. pomegranate molasses
Instructions
- In a large bowl add the romaine, cucumber, tomatoes, red onion, parsley and mint. Mix well.
- In a mason jar or a salad dressing container combine the garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper, mint, sumac and pomegranate molasses. Whisk until the dressing is well mixed and smooth.
- Drizzle the dressing over the salad and gently toss until coated. Serve or refrigerate up to 3 days.
Notes
- If you are going to store leftovers you might want to add more dressing to the salad before serving. I find that the dressing gets soaked into the salad after being in the fridge.
- You can add other ingredients to this like chickpeas, protein like grilled chicken, pita chips, crispy chickpeas, other vegetables like bell peppers or artichokes, olives or feta cheese
The salad was great! I found the dressing to be bland so I doubled up on the spices and pomegranate molasses…
So glad you liked it! And yes- doubling the spices/molasses is a great idea for a stronger dressing.