PURSLANE salad with summer vegetables & spearmint
Traditionally, people served this salad with marinated anchovies instead of cheese and chopped spearmint with the other vegetables, omitting the bread. They used olive oil to “polish” the vegetables with just a little vinegar, flavoured with fragrant roses. Try replacing the lemon juice in salads with pomegranate juice during the season when pomegranates are ripe.
Quantity for 5 people
Ingredients
Cut one large tomato, or two medium-ripe but firm tomatoes, into medium-sized cubes.
1 small cucumber, well-washed and cut into small cubes.
1 green pepper in small cubes
2 green onions; use the onion leaves only, finely chopped.
1/2 tb spoon of celery, finely chopped
1 tb spoon of purslane (in summer) or watercress, finely chopped
1-2 tables poons of bread cubes baked in the oven
1/3 cup pitted green olives
the juice of 1 or 2 pink grapefruits
100 grams of Syros’ traditional sour white fresh cheese
Sauce with extra virgin olive oil, lemon, and mint
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup lemon juice, or 1/3 cup if the juice is not too sour
1 tsp. washed and dried mint leaves
Blend all ingredients in a blender until well mixed.
Preparation
Cut the leftover bread (at least a day’s old) into small cubes, brush with olive oil, and sprinkle with oregano and sweet paprika. Bake in the oven at 180 degrees Celsius until golden brown. If stored in a tin, it can last for a long time.
Marinate the olives in the grapefruit juice for at least 8 hours.
Mix all the ingredients with 1/3 cup (add a little more if needed) of the sauce, season with salt and pepper, stir gently and serve with the cheese on top, hand-grated into bits.
Top the cheese with a little more sauce.
