- This is a salad I
grew up with in Egypt. It's an easy Mediterranean
tomato cucumber salad that we ate all the time, and I still make it to this day. Come with me. (rhythmic music) This here is the juice of life. We call salad whiskey. It's a magical blend of
olive oil, lemon juice, and the juices from the
tomatoes and cucumbers, all the goodness from the salad concentrated in one little
shot we call salad whiskey. Cheers. (suspenseful music) (rhythmic upbeat music) This is the salad
I grew up with. In Egypt, we call it 'salata,' and it's a very simple salad
made of three main ingredients, tomato, cucumbers, and parsley. And sometimes, you jazz
it up with a little onion, or otherwise other veggies
that you might have on hand. So, we're gonna keep
it super simple. Take about seven-ish
Roma tomatoes, and I'm just gonna
kind of dice them up. This particular salad was a
staple at my parents' home. It really is so simple. And for that reason, make it with the best tomatoes and cucumber that you can find. We're gonna give
Max a little bit. There you go. Yeah, he's like, he's
almost vegetarian. He loves veggies. Okay, here we go. There's a version of this salad in the Mediterranean
dish cookbook, but it's a little
bit more dressed up. I just wanna show
you the most basic because once you master this, it's like you can do so much. All right, so we're
going into the bowl with our chopped tomatoes. For the cucumber, I like to use an
English cucumber here because, I feel like I've
said this so many times, I find it a little bit sweeter, but also, you don't have to
worry about removing the skin because the skin is not waxy. It's just like nice
and thin and smooth, and the cucumbers are seedless. Max equally likes cucumbers. He just loves his veggies. He's got some Mediterranean
blood, I'm pretty sure. Okay, one English
cuc, diced or chopped. Whatever you get there,
I don't really care. A little bit of red
onion or shallots. This is really the basic salad from which other salads have
derived their existence, like fattoush salad, tabouli, even Greek salad. There's just a lot more variety. So, now, we're gonna
chop up some parsley. Point your knife down,
watch your fingers and chop like a pro. (knife thumping) A nice parsley shower. Doesn't
this look great already? Here's my philosophy
about a dressing. If you have olive oil
and some sort of citrus, like lemon or lime, you're good on salad
dressing, trust me. You do not need to pay
for salad dressing. (rhythmic music) First, a pinch of kosher
salt and black pepper. For me, I like to add a
nice teaspoon of sumac, which is tangy and
adds a lot of depth. So, for the dressing,
no big fuss here. Like I said, cup your
hand to catch the seeds. Thank you for coming. Juice of one large lemon. Did I almost forget
extra virgin olive oil? Not the ingredient to forget. This is the ingredient
that pulls it all together, and I like a nice
generous drizzle, two table spoons or so. Between the lemon juice
and the olive oil, and the juices coming out
of the tomato and cucumber, what you end up with
is an amazing dresses. Dresses. What you end up
with is an amazing, very light
Mediterranean dressing. And as the salad might
sit for a few minutes, it collects in the
bottom of the bowl and creates what my dad used
to call 'salad whiskey.' We fight over that stuff. The juice from the
veggies with the olive oil and the citrus is
our salad whiskey. (rhythmic music) It's like tomato juice. People drink tomato juice.
Why is this a problem? Have you not ever
had a tomato juice? - [Cameraman] Is it not
just like super lemony? - It's delicious. Cheers. It's so good. Really good. This is the perfect
everyday salad. It's fresh. It's
crunchy. It's delicious. Tangy. Mmm. So much flavor,
such little effort. For more amazing
Mediterranean salads, check out my next video. Find the recipe for this easy Mediterranean
cucumber tomato salad over on
TheMediterraneanDish.com. I will see you later. Ciao. (upbeat rhythmic music)
