Legume & grain salads are perfect for Ramadan meals.
Cook up a huge pot of beans, grains and use it in a variety of soups and salads, combined with simple dressings and vegetables.
Take one is this salad, take two is a soup using much the same ingredients. I particularly like this salad for the complex citrus flavours running through it – kumquats, nicely chopped up; some preserved meyer lemon zest, rinsed and mushed up with ease and some fresh lemon juice.
{The Art of The Savoury Salad}
The dressing combines olive oil, plain date caramel and a few other ingredients to create a ‘sauce’ that coats the grains nicely.
I like to add the grains of mograbieh, with some of the cooking water so this warm, vibrant salad is ‘sauced’ of its own…
- 2 cups Mograhbieh, about 4 cups cooked
- Tomatoes, diced or quartered if using cherry tomatoes
- Spring onions, white and green chopped
- Green bell pepper, diced
- Kumquats, diced
- Preserved lemon, strips rinsed and
- Olive oil
- Lemon juice
- Date caramel
- Za'atar
- Cilantro
- Cook Mograbieh by steaming in a couscousier or by boiling in a pot, for 12 - 15 minutes, till cooked through and soft. Some people like it with a bit of bite - go with what you prefer
- While it cooks, make the dressing by combining a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, a squeeze of lemon juice, date caramel, Za'atar, the preserved lemon zest which should have turned to mush, salt and pepper
- Add the vegetables and cilantro to the dressing and stir well
- Finally, put the cooked, still-warm Mograbieh grains in and stir well to combine
- Taste and adjust accordingly with olive oil lemon juice, date caramel or z'atar. Serve as a salad and save any leftovers for soup
- M