The Best Way to Make Israeli Salad

Israeli salad
Photo by dimitri.photography on Unsplash

A classic Israeli salad makes a refreshing, crunchy snack or side with any meal. What makes it so great is that it has very few ingredients, is beautifully multicolored, and is super healthy. Even though it’s not too hard to make, there is some technique that goes into making a really good Israeli salad. So, here’s how to make a really delicious Israeli salad.

Basics

For your basic ingredients, you’ll need to chop up cucumbers, tomatoes, and red onion. You’ll want about two cucumbers to each tomato, and no more than a quarter of a medium-sized red onion. Combine them in a bowl and dress with a splash of lemon juice, a splash of olive oil, salt, and pepper.

Technique

The key to a really good salad is to cut it as fine as possible. Cut up your cucumbers into thin strips, and then into small squares. Dice your tomatoes and onions as small as possible, too. This maximizes the crunch and gives you lots more space for the dressing to coat the salad.

To Serve

If you’re making the salad to serve for later, hold off on dressing it until then. If you let the salad sit in the dressing for too long, the salt and lemon juice will bring all the juice out of the vegetables, reducing some of the crunchiness and making the whole dish a bit wet.