Tomato and Preserved Lemon Salad
I have based this tomato and preserved lemon salad recipe on the traditional Moroccan shlada matisha wal hamed markad. A simple fresh salad that I have reworked with the addition of red onion and a preserved lemon crumb. This zesty tomato salad is a perfect summer salad to make when tomatoes are at their best. It’s a great make ahead salad. You can make the crumb, dressing and prep the red onions, preserved lemon and herbs in advance. Then you just need to slice, quarter or chop the tomatoes just before you plan to serve up. This method makes it a perfect take along salad.
Equipment
- Smoothie/personal blender (optional)
- Food processor (optional)
- Mandolin (optional)
- Large shallow serving bowl or 4 individual soup bowls.
Ingredients
- 750 g tomatoes
- 1 large red onion
- 1 ½ large preserved lemon
- 1 – 1 ½ cups fresh breadcrumbs
- large bunch flat leaf parsley
- small bunch of garlic chives
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 lemon (zest and juice)
- 1/3 cup + 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- Sea salt
- White pepper
Instructions
- Assemble ingredients.
- Wash and dry the herbs (I use a salad spinner). Wrap herbs loosely in paper towel and leave in fridge until required.
- Remove lemon segments from preserved lemons and rinse under cold water. Pat dry with paper towels and set aside.
For the preserved lemon crumb:
- Preheat the oven at 160°C conventional / 140°C fan forced.
- Spread breadcrumbs on a medium sized baking sheet and either spray with olive oil while tossing the breadcrumbs or finely drizzle 2 tablespoons of olive oil over the crumbs and toss through.
- Generously sprinkle with salt.
- Bake in preheated oven, stirring the crumbs every 5 minutes until they start to turn golden brown (10-15 minutes).
- Meanwhile, chop 2 tablespoons of parsley and cut half a preserved lemon into 5mm squares.
- Add parsley and preserved lemon to crumbs and continue baking and stirring until crumbs are golden brown.
- Cool to room temperature and set aside.
For the dressing:
- Zest and juice 1 lemon.
- Pick the leaves from the parsley stems, setting aside 2 tablespoons of small leaves for assembling the salad.
- Cut the chives into batons.
- Add to the jug of a personal blender or an immersion blender jug: - 1/3 cup olive oil - Half the lemon juice and all the zest - 1 tablespoon honey - Chives and parsley.
- Blend dressing until well emulsified.
- Adjust dressing to taste with lemon juice, honey, salt and pepper.
- Keep dressing in refrigerator until ready to assemble salad.
Finishing prep and assembling salad:
- Slice four preserved lemon peel quarters into long strips 4-5mm thick.
- Slice red onion into slices 3-4mm thick, circles on a mandolin or half circles with knife.
- Slice or chop tomatoes into your preferred shapes.
- Just before serving, layer the salad into a large serving bowl or four individual bowls: - Shake dressing before pouring into bottom of serving bowl or, alternatively, serve dressing on the side. - Layer tomatoes, onions and preserved lemons, sprinkling each layer with salt & pepper. - Top with halved cherry tomatoes (if using). - Sprinkle with chopped parsley. - Sprinkle some of the crumb and serve remaining crumb on the side.
Just before you cook with abandon…
‘Fresh’ breadcrumbs: I admit ‘fresh’ in the context of breadcrumbs is a bit of a red herring as you certainly don’t want to use fresh baked bread. My go to bread is a day old (or so) sourdough. I don’t know about you but we regularly have a part of a loaf that never gets eaten. My routine is to remove the bottom crust (it’s pretty tough) and roughly tear up the bread into chunks and pop them in a bag and into the freezer to make croutons or breadcrumbs down the track.
Frozen bread makes it super easy to make breadcrumbs in the food processor, using the pulse button. You can also process room temperature day old bread but do it in small batches and in short bursts.