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