Green almonds salad
April 7, 2014 • Category: Salads
The idea for this salad came from chef and cookbook author Marlene Mattar, one of my favorite Lebanese chefs. I, of course, had to make it my own by adding other ingredients. Her salad includes red leaf lettuce, sliced green almonds, arugula and feta cheese. I added sliced sun-dried tomatoes, purslane instead of arugula, and lupini beans (termos).
Green almonds are in season now and sold by streetcart vendors all over Beirut; in the US, they can be found in Middle-Eastern or ethnic stores, sometimes at farmers markets. The lupini beans are sold in jars in the Middle-Eastern stores (they are very popular for a mezze) and I have also found them in Latino markets in Dallas. Any other legumes would work. The purslane is sold in Latino stores under the name verdolaga, as it is a popular herb in Mexico. This herb is also sold in major health food chains under the French name mâche. In Lebanon, it is available year-round and is tremendously popular and always included in a fattoush salad.
The beauty of salads is how versatile they can be; I made another one later with pita croutons, sort of like a fattoush.
INGREDIENTS:
1 cup of green almonds, sliced (sprinkle with fresh lemon as they oxidize very quickly)
1 cup of purslane or other herb such as arugula
1/3 cup of shredded sundried tomatoes
1/2 cup lupini beans or other beans
Dressing: 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/3 olive oil
salt, to taste
Aleppo pepper, to taste
1. Place all the ingredients ia a bowl; mix the dressing prior to serving and combine with the ingredients. Serve right away.
At least, Spring is always there, year after year.
Comments
14 Comments • Comments Feed
maritachicita says:
Oh I love this recipe! And your picture of the salad is great. I love all these middle eastern metal bowl you have x
On April 7, 2014 at 9:11 am
Lentil Breakdown says:
Love your photos and the bowls! I’ve never had green almonds and thought you had to peel them. Now I am intrigued and will keep my eye out for them. And now I’m craving purslane. Will have to go to my Latin market today!
On April 7, 2014 at 9:28 am
Rosa says:
What an amazing salad! I’d love to taste green almonds.
Cheers,
Rosa
On April 7, 2014 at 9:40 am
Sylva says:
Amazingly fresh, healthy, and very original.
On April 7, 2014 at 9:51 am
Sue says:
This looks wonderful, the colors and textures are so beautiful. I’ve never had green almonds, I’m going to have to track them down!
On April 7, 2014 at 11:08 am
Providence says:
I still need to figure out where to find those green almonds, they look amazing ! I’m in love with the fattoush salad, since it’s a wonderful way to use the very invasive purslane weed.
I’m not sure however that mâche and purslane are the same. But I guess the original recipe calls for purslane, right ?
On April 7, 2014 at 4:42 pm
Joumana says:
@Providence: There are at least 200 varieties of purslane and mâche is one of them. At least, that’s my understanding/ the one used in Lebanon has thick stems, unlike mâche. I use purslane always, because mâche is too expensive! 🙂
On April 7, 2014 at 9:34 pm
Velva says:
This is a beautiful salad. The ingredients are unique and pair nicely. Green almonds? I have to keep that in mind.
Take care.
Velva
On April 7, 2014 at 7:01 pm
alice says:
this was different from any other salad i’ve had, and it was very tasty
On April 7, 2014 at 10:06 pm
Ozlem's Turkish Tabl says:
What a vibrant salad – these green almonds take me to my childhood; we call them cagla in Turkish, I used to love them as a snack – I haven’t seen them in England yet, would love to try your salad if I can get here, thank you
On April 8, 2014 at 7:42 am
Oui, Chef says:
I LOVE green almonds…sadly, they are impossible to find where I live. 🙁
On April 8, 2014 at 1:12 pm
Nuts about food says:
Wait, you can eat sliced, green almonds? What do they taste like?? Always looking for new salad ingredients. I wonder if they sell those in Sicily, will have to ask my acquired relatives.
On April 9, 2014 at 2:52 am
Joumana says:
@Nuts about food: they taste very crunchy and refreshing. People eat them as a mezze with a bowl of salt to dip them into.
On April 9, 2014 at 4:35 am
MyKabulKitchen says:
This looks so delicious and light, I like the unique combination of flavors. A good friend recently instagrammed a picture of these green almonds, she was so excited to have found them at a local ethnic store, I was wondering what the fuss was about!
On April 14, 2014 at 8:42 pm