ISRAELI SALAD is famous not only in Israel but in New York. You can find many versions of Israeli Salad in delis and restaurants here. It is just little cubes of diced vegetables ( your choice! ) with lemon juice and an olive oil/vinegar Italian dressing. No lettuce of any kind and no creamy dressing! It is soo good! So healthy too! And only 76 calories in the salad pictured above.
Many places here have variations of Israeli Salad. You can choose additions of feta cheese, or tuna fish, chick peas, all kinds of beans, eggs, avocado, cumin, herbs, mint, just to name a few! There are other Mideastern salads similar to this one. Each has its own cultural taste. The diced veggies, lemon, and olive oil dressing seem to be constant in all the variations.
THIS is an ‘ABOUT RECIPE’!
I use whatever vegetables I happen to have on hand! My favorite way is to add chick peas and tuna fish, and fresh parsley if I have it. Israeli salad is something I have often either for lunch or a light supper.
The big deal about this salad is that THE CUT SIZE matters! All vegetables are DICED into one-quarter inch CUBES! Some vegetables go through my chopper twice so they are cubed and not rectangular. This is one of those recipes where there is madness to the method! ha-ha!
I, along with many other people believe the size of the vegetables is important to this salad. Slicing the vegetables does NOT work for this recipe. You DICE! The vegetables have to all be diced the same size into one-quarter inch little cubes. You can do it by hand, but that would take some time. A chopper does it in minutes.
THE CHOPPER: My friend and co-worker, SaraGail introduced me to this great salad. She says the easiest way to make this at home is to use a chopper such as the ones I show here. One is the Progressive Vidalia Chopper, and the other chopper I have is the Mueller Chopper. Both choppers I have used are great and they will cut perfect little cubes of vegetables just the right size for this salad! There are other brands of choppers you can find also.
In less than five minutes, you can have a beautiful, healthy. low-calorie and delicious Israeli salad! Every time I make it, the veggies are a little different! You use the veggies you want! Just dice them tiny!
The spices come from the Italian dressing, but add more herbs if you want! The lemon juice mixed in is so good!
I use a fat-free Italian dressing, so the salad pictured has only 76 calories for one cup! The second salad you see in the slides has some different vegetables in it, but it is still only 79 calories for a cup!
The lemon juice is a must! Don’t skip it! It really makes it a distinct taste.
See the slideshow below for extra pictures with two different choppers.
Enjoy!”
Israeli Salad, Healthy, Low-Calorie, and Delicious!
Equipment
- Chopper
Ingredients
- 10 cherry tomatoes
- 1 carrot peeled
- 1 green bell pepper medium
- ½ zucchini
- ½ cucumber peeled
- ⅓ cup Italian dressing fat free
- 1 can(15 ounces) chick peas drained
- 1 can(4 ounces) tuna drained
Instructions
- Chop all the vegetables in the chopper to be little diced, one-quarter inch cubes. You may have to chop some veggies twice to get the little cubes. The goal is all the veggies are cut to be about the same size.
- Put the vegetables in a bowl. Add the chick peas and tuna, if you choose to use them. This all adds up to about 4 cups. You choose whatever vegetables or add-ins you want!
- Squeeze the lemon juice over everything and then mix in the Italian dressing. Use your favorite oil/vinegar based dressing. I use Fat Free Italian.
- Store the salad covered in the refrigerator.