green olive and walnut salad
Green olive and walnut salad with a pomegranate molasses dressing is a recipe from Claudia Roden’s Med: A Cookbook. Full of texture from the crunchy walnuts and juicy olives, there’s plenty of freshness from the pomegranates and tangy from Zejd’s pomegranate molasses. This is a dish to showcase the flavour of souri olives from Lebanon.
Zejd’s souri green cracked olives are picked early in the season and as a result have a fresher taste. In Lebanon it’s traditional to preserve the pit in the olive to maintain flavour. Even though supermarket olives will be pitted, it honestly takes no time to remove the stones from 100g of olives, and the floral scent of the olives while you do it, is amazing.
If your bottle of pomegranate molasses is made with sugar, add more lemon. You’re after tartness here. Zejd’s pomegranate molasses has no added sugar or salt, and is designed to be sharp. When we entered it for a well known taste award, we were surprised by the feedback, which stated that the molasses was “too acidic”. We feel, and luckily so do our customers, that its tartness is to be treasured. Although it works wonderfully well drizzled over ice cream, it is intended to add sourness and depth to salads and meat dishes. Last but not least, when choosing parsley, check that the leaves are soft, and remember to slice, rather than chop when preparing the leaves.
serves 4
ingredients
100g Zejd cracked green olives, drained
50g walnuts chopped
3 spring onions chopped
25g parsley sliced finely
2 tbsp Zejd extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp Zejd pomegranate molasses
salt to taste
Aleppo chilli flakes to taste
handful of pomegranate seeds (optional but beautiful!)
method
- Pit the olives and roughly chop to the same size as the chopped walnuts. Add to a serving bowl along with the chopped spring onions, and finely sliced parsley.
- In a small bowl, mix the extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, pomegranate molasses, salt and chilli flakes, tasting to make sure the balance between acidity and sweetness is right. Pour over the salad ingredients, and scatter the pomegranate seeds on top.