Baby gem lettuce with burnt aubergine yoghurt, smacked cucumber and shatta

Name: Baby gem lettuce with burnt aubergine yoghurt, smacked cucumber and shatta
Yield: Serves four generously
Cuisine: Israeli
Ingredients: 25 g parsley, roughly chopped; 1 regular English (i.e. not a small Lebanese) cucumber, peeled, sliced in half lengthways and watery seeds removed (180g); 50 ml olive oil; 25 g mint leaves, roughly chopped; ½ a garlic clove, roughly chopped; 35 g Greek-style yoghurt; 1½ tbsp tahini (25 g); 1½ tbsp lemon juice; Salt and black pepper; ½ tsp Urfa chilli flakes (or a small pinch of nigella seeds or black sesame seeds, as an alternative); 2 large aubergines (500 g); Salt and black pepper; 1½ tbsp shatta (red or green) (or rose harissa, as an alternative); 1½ tbsp shatta (red or green) (or rose harissa, as an alternative); ½ tsp Urfa chilli flakes (or a small pinch of nigella seeds or black sesame seeds, as an alternative); ½ tsp Urfa chilli flakes (or a small pinch of nigella seeds or black sesame seeds, as an alternative); 5–6 baby gem lettuces (500 g), bases trimmed; 1½ tbsp shatta (red or green) (or rose harissa, as an alternative)

Preparation info

Serves
four
generously

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Falastin

By Sami Tamimi and Tara Wigley

Published 2020

About

This works well either as a stand-alone starter or as part of a spread or side. It’s lovely with some hot smoked salmon or trout. ‘Smacked’ cucumbers sounds a bit dramatic but, really, it’s just a way of bruising them so as to allow all the flavour to seep through to the flesh. Thanks to Craig Tregonning for this salad.

Getting ahead: Make all the elements well in advance, here, if you like: up to a day for the cucumber and the aubergine yoghurt, and the shatta needs to be ma

Ingredients

Asia
Palestine
Starter
Salad
Gluten-free
Vegetarian

Ingredients

Method