Slata tounsia — finely diced Tunisian salad with hard-boiled eggs, olives and mint

pareve Tunisian Jewish · very easy · 30 min, including 20 hands-on

The salad of Tunis: tomatoes, cucumber, mild green peppers, onion and apple cut into 3–5 mm dice, dressed with lemon, olive oil and dried mint rubbed between the fingers, then topped with hard-boiled eggs, olives and capers. Pareve, it goes equally well with a meat or fish dish.

Ingredients for two

Method

1. Lower the eggs into a small saucepan of boiling water and cook for 9 minutes; cool under cold water, peel and set aside. Meanwhile, rinse the vegetables and fresh mint and dry thoroughly (pat the mint between two sheets of kitchen paper). Squeeze the half lemon into a small bowl (about 25 g juice) and remove the seeds.
2. Peel the onion and cut into even 3–4 mm dice, slicing finely in one direction, then the other. Put in the salad bowl with the lemon juice and salt, and leave to mellow for 5 minutes while you finish the chopping.
3. Quarter the tomatoes, remove only the very watery seed pockets, then cut the flesh into 5 mm dice. Halve the cucumber lengthways, leaving it unpeeled if it has thin skin, as Israeli cucumbers do. Remove the centre only if it is full of seeds, then cut into 5 mm dice. Split the mild green peppers, remove the seeds and white membranes and cut into 4 mm dice; cut the hot chilli, if using, into 2 mm dice. Do not salt the vegetables separately: all the seasoning is already in the bowl.
4. Cut the apple into 5 mm dice, leaving the skin on if it is thin, and immediately add to the bowl of lemon-dressed onion; stir to coat so it does not brown. Add the olive oil, pepper and dried mint, crumbling the mint between your fingers over the bowl; stir with a fork for 10 seconds: the dressing is ready.
5. Add the tomatoes, cucumber and peppers to the bowl and mix gently with a spoon, without crushing the tomatoes, until every piece glistens. Taste a piece of cucumber: it should be crisp, tangy and just salty enough; adjust the salt if needed.
6. Quarter the eggs and slice the olives into rings. Arrange the egg quarters, olives and capers on top of the salad without mixing them in. Finely shred the fresh mint by rolling the leaves into a cigar shape and slicing with a sharp knife, then scatter over. Serve immediately, with bread to mop up the juices at the bottom.

On your plate

Cooking tips

The very fine, even chopping makes this salad: plate and serve immediately, as the tomatoes and cucumber release water while standing. When serving it as part of a kemia before a meat dish, make it last so the diced vegetables stay crisp. To get ahead, boil and peel the eggs, keep the chopped, thoroughly dried vegetables in a container in the fridge, and put the lemon juice in a bowl; dice the apple, dress the salad and add the eggs, olives, capers and fresh mint just before serving. For a meal without meat, add 80 g drained tuna in oil, flaked over the eggs: this is the full Tunis version. Half a green pepper can stand in for the mild green peppers; omit the hot chilli for a milder palate.

Equipment : small saucepan, chopping board, sharp knife, small bowl, salad bowl, fork

Slata tounsia, the finely diced raw vegetable salad of the Jews of Tunis, topped with hard-boiled eggs, olives and capers; made without tuna for meat meals.