Israeli Salad with Homemade Tahini

Still on the healthy kick, I decided to make this tasty salad, because it is easy to prepare and filled with flavor.

Israeli salad is a chopped salad of finely diced tomato, onion, cucumber, and bell or chili peppers. It has been described as the “most well-known national dish of Israel”, and is a standard accompaniment to most Israeli meals. My version disses two standard ingredients you often find in this salad. Sweet peppers and parsley. I just wasn’t in the mood for peppers and the herbaceousness of the parsley was not on my palate pleasing list today.

NOTE: You don’t need to remove the skins on these cucumbers. They are tasty with skin and all.

This is very easy to make.

Here is what you need.

Tahini

Makes 1 1/2 cups

1 cup of sesame seeds, toasted
1/4 to 3/4 cup olive oil

Toast sesame seeds over medium heat in a saute pan, stirring constantly for about 3 to 5 minutes. Watch these closely as they can burn pretty quickly. Set aside and let cool.

Add the toasted seeds to your blender container. Blend the seeds until they form a paste. Begin slowly pouring in olive oil and blending at the same time, about medium speed, until smooth and pourable. You will need to stop and agitate the mixture down with a spoon or spatula to ensure that all ingredients are well blended.

Pour out into a small container and place in the refrigerator. This holds for a few weeks.

Israeli Salad

Make 3 to 4 servings

1/2 red onion, chopped
5 Israeli cucumbers or one English Cucumber, chopped
1 1/2 tomato, chopped
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon Big Bottom Market Honey
1 teaspoon each of salt and pepper
1/2 cup mixed olives (pitted or not, your choice)
Hard boiled eggs

Combine all of the ingredients, except the egg and the tahini, in a bowl and mix well. Spoon out into bowls and serve with with tahini and cut up hard boiled eggs.

This is so easy and so delicious.