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Today I’m sharing Parsley Salad.
This traditional salad has so many flavor and texture components. You’ll find zingy parsley, plump and juicy cherry tomatoes, briny black olives, salty feta, crunchy walnuts, and diced red onions. It’s brightened with lemon juice and fruity olive oil. It’s grain free, keto, and paleo-friendly (vegan and dairy free friends can leave out the feta). It’s absolutely perfect next a plate of grilled meat, kibbeh, or a piece of grilled chicken.
When I polled Instagram folks about which types of recipes they’re looking for, by and large, aside from traditional recipes, a lot of people are looking for ways to accommodates their dietary needs in delicious ways. Just about everybody (who follows this blog) is familiar with tabbouleh, the herby traditional salad of parsley, mint, and bulgur wheat. Parsley Salad is somewhat similar to tabbouleh, yet caters for eating differences, and (I think) is even more delicious. It’s a win for everyone!
Ingredients
Parsley
The key to a delicious, fresh tasting parsley salad is proper care of the base: parsley. Fill a bowl with water, swish bunches around in batches, spin them in a salad spinner, then lay them out flat to dry on paper towels for an hour or 2. Gather a handful up by the base of the leaves, almost like a bouquet of flowers, then snap off the stems in one fail swoop. Then go through and chop them, running through them once with the knife is fine (not back and forth).
You can roll washed leaves up in paper towels and store them in a zip top bag for a couple of days. You can also store chopped leaves in a container layered with paper towels for about 2 days, saving lots of time on the day you plan to serve the salad.
Tomatoes
Juicy cherry tomatoes are guaranteed to be tasty, even outside of their summer season.
Black olives
Sliced black olives add a nice complex briny flavor. Any jarred black olives will do.
Feta
Who doesn’t love feta? It pairs perfectly with the olives and provide a nice salty element.
Walnuts
Almost weekly, we chop some walnuts in the food processor and keep them in a container in the pantry. They’re used in so many dishes, including muhammara. I also love to sprinkle them on yogurt or add them to granola.
Red Onions
I love red onion in salad, but they can also be awfully pungent. Salting and massaging the purple alliums, along with the parsley, definitely mellows them without losing any of their punchiness.
Lemon Juice
You would be hard pressed to find any Syrian salad that doesn’t have lemon juice. I buy easily 15-20 lemons weekly. I strongly recommend getting an electric juicer, if you haven’t already, so you can keep a jar of freshly squeezed lemon juice in the fridge.
Olive Oil
Olive oil makes up the other dressing component. It’s so important to have good quality olive oil in your pantry. Sadly, there are so many fraudulent ones on the market that it can become confusing to know what to buy. Fortunately, with a little due diligence, it’s not that hard to find.
Tips:
Find ones with a low acidity level. Anything below .8% is considered extra virgin, and anything as close to possible to .1% is ideal.
Make sure it’s in a dark bottle. Olive oil goes rancid very quickly when exposed to sunlight, so a clear bottle generally indicates it’s not pure.
Look for bottles that indicate a specific region of Italy, Spain, Greece, etc. where it’s produced. Just saying “Product of Italy” can easily mean that the olives were harvested and pressed somewhere else and then just bottled in Italy.
Favorite US brands: Kirkland Signature (no joke, Costco has amazing EVOO for the price), California Olive Ranch
Dubai: Syrian olive oil from Carrefour or Al Douri Signature
Method
Like any salad, the beauty is all in the prep work. You will start with a lot of parsley, about 2 lbs/1 kg. Once you wash the bunches, spin them dry, and lay them out on the counter, it might look like a dizzying amount of parsley, but I promise you’ll get through it. I personally get overwhelmed when there are too many steps the day of serving a dish, so I would say do this step on a separate day. That’s totally optional though, just depending on how much time you have to plan ahead.
After prepping the rest of the ingredients, you will add a bit of lemon juice and salt and massage the parsley and red onion for a minute or two. Why massage? It helps break down the parsley to make it easier to chew and digest, and it also eliminates any punginess in the onion. It’s such an important yet simple step that’s easy to overlook, but I promise it’s worth it!
Then mix everything together and enjoy!
I hope you give this recipe a try! If you do, don’t forget to put it in the comments to let everyone know how it works out. I also love to see your creations! You can tag me on social media at @omayah.atassi and #omayahcooks on Instagram.
Parsley Salad
Ingredients
- 2 lbs parsley
- 1/2 c diced red onion
- 1 c quartered cherry tomatoes
- 1 c black olives, halved
- 1 c cubed feta
- 3/4 c finely chopped walnuts
- 1/2 c lemon juice, from about 3-4 lemons
- 1 tsp salt, plus more to taste
- 3/4 c olive oil
Instructions
- To prepare the parsley, swish it in bowl filled with water, changing the water a few times until it's clean.
- Spin through a salad spinner (optional) and lay flat to dry on paper towels. If using a salad spinner, it should be ready to prep in about 30-60 minutes. Without a salad spinner, about 2 hours.
- Gather the leaves at the stem, like a bouquet of flowers and snap off the stem. Repeat with the rest of the bunches.
- Finely chop the parsley leaves
- This step can be done 1-2 days ahead of time. Line a container with paper towels and add a layer of parsley leaves (about 1/2 an inch). Top with another paper towel and repeat with rest of parsley, alternating the herb and paper towels.
- Combine the parsley and diced red onion in a large bowl with 2 tbsp of lemon juice and 1/2 tsp of salt. Massage for about a minute until softened.
- About 10 minutes before serving, add the remaining ingredients, along with the olive oil and rest of salt and lemon juice. Allow to rest, adjust seasoning, and serve.