This simple, colorful salad is packed with bright flavor and has a satisfying crunch. It’s also filled with healthy, fresh ingredients that pair well with most entrees.
You can never have enough variations on the basic Israeli salad. The crisp cucumbers, sweet tomatoes, tart lemon juice and sultry olive oil make an irresistible combination. Recently I had the pleasure of cooking brunch with my good friend Bati Prince and her delightful family. Bati shared with me her go-to Israeli Salad, which includes ripe avocado, red bell pepper and fresh mint in the mix. You can watch us making it together in the video down near the recipe. 🙂
What we call Israeli Salad evolved from a Turkish salad known as shepherd’s salad – coban salatsi, which is closely related to a Persian salad known as salad shirazi, named for the ancient city of Shiraz. This salad is known by different names with small variations throughout the Middle East. In the late 1800′s, coban salatsi became popular on Israeli kibbutzim (communal agricultural collectives) because the ingredients were easy to grow in the warm Mediterranean climate… tomatoes, cucumbers, tomatoes, parsley, onions and peppers. The vegetables are always diced, usually quite small, a practice that started in the Ottoman Empire. Although this salad has different names throughout the Middle East, we call it Israeli Salad because of my husband’s Sephardic background.
Here are some other Israeli Salad recipes you might enjoy:
I’ve broken down the recipe and ingredient amounts below. This would be the perfect salad to make for a Labor Day weekend. This refreshing, low calorie side dish complements a variety of main dishes. It can be served with any meal– even breakfast or brunch!
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Israeli Salad with Avocado and Mint
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 pounds Persian cucumbers diced small
- 1 red bell pepper diced small
- 1 yellow bell pepper diced small
- 1 ounce fresh mint chopped
- 1 avocado diced
- 2 tomatoes diced small
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice or more to taste
- 3/4 teaspoon salt or more to taste
Instructions
- Combine all vegetable ingredients in a bowl. Add olive oil, lemon juice and salt. Stir gently to combine. Taste; add more lemon juice or salt, if desired.
- Serve chilled or at room temperature. As the salad sits, a delicious liquid will collect in the bottom of the bowl. Stir the salad to meld the flavors, or dip bread in this juice for a treat.
Nutrition
tried this recipe?
Let us know in the comments!
Sounds fabulous; can’t wait until our mint comes up (next month)!
Your Israeli salads are amazing! As are many of your recipes- I’ve only tried a few so far. So I realize part of cooking is the process– a huge part– and I do love chopping all these vegetables for the salad, but….. you must have come across the Original Master Slicer which is made in Israel? It is an amazing thing that looks like a salad spinner/food processor– chops vegetables by winding the blade– not electrical– and it’s fun! No, I am not a salesperson for the company. I just really like it.
I look forward to trying many of your recipes. I especially love that you can put in the number of servings. Such a brilliant idea.
Served this at a family birthday this weekend. Delicious!
What a beautiful website, all recipes look very authentic and delicious.
Just one small correction, to my best knowledge the first kibbutz was founded at the early years of the 20th century (I grew up in kibbutz). And yes, tomatoes cucumbers and onions were the every day breakfast salad of my hard working grandparents for many years (:
Tory how long can this be kept in the dressing before serving, particularly the avocados ?
Hi Maraly, this can mostly be made up to a day ahead, however I would add the avocado and mint just before serving to keep both fresh.
Hi Tori, just a quick note to let you know I’m not able to print any of your more recent recipes at all today.
I’m getting a website firewall access denied message for some reason?
I have noticed that it seems to be the more recent recipes where the print button is within the recipe “box” itself, that printing is being denied.
The older recipes that have the button to the upper left of the recipe, are printing fine.
Love your recipes, your notes, and the history of Israeli recipes that you share. What a beautifully rich culture, thank you for opening it up!
Hi Leah, the issue should be fixed now, can you try again? If you’re still have issues try holding down shift button and refreshing the page, then try again. Thanks for the note!
Hi I have 5 kids and need some receipt pls we are kosher and need dinner ideas thanks
Hi Nicole, Tori’s assistant Ashley here. The majority of the recipes on Tori’s site are kosher. Here is a list of links that will take you to all of the Kosher recipes.
Kosher Dairy – https://toriavey.com/recipes/dairy-recipes/
Kosher Meat – https://toriavey.com/recipes/meat/
Kosher Pareve – https://toriavey.com/recipes/parve/