Refreshing Sumac Salmon Kale Salad with Tahini Vinaigrette

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Recently, my husband and I have been listening to a lot of podcasts and watching documentaries about health and diet.  The concept that food is medicine seems so revolutionary and yet so simple at the same time.  I recommend everyone watch the documentary “Forks over Knives” and read the book or watch on Youtube “The China Study”.  Whole food plant based diets are linked to complete decrease in cancer and cures to autoimmune diseases.

I can go on and on about this documentary but I’ll just let you watch it.  Just know that I’ll be eating a lot more vegetables and salmon and a lot less meat and I hope I can inspire you to do the same! Enter Salmon kale salad with Tahini Sesame Vinaigrette and Pickled Turnips into my life and in my belly. 

Recently, I went to a restaurant in LA called Fundamental LA and they had an amazing Salmon Kale salad with pickled turnip and a ginger vinaigrette.   You know how super giddy I get when I see anything Middle Eastern in my cuisine.  That was me when my salad came out with pink pickles on top.  The pickled turnips are so nostalgic of Syria and the Middle East because they’re consumed all the time!  Mainly in a falafel sandwich or with certain entrees but we like to even eat them solo as a crunchy snack.  I call them the Middle Eastern pickle because that’s exactly what they are.   Pink pickles. 

I’m working on a separate post on how to make pickled turnips because there is a natural trick to achieve that color and because they're just that good.  So stay tuned!  In the meantime, you can find pink pickles at any ethnic Middle Eastern supermarket. 

The addition of fresh mint and thai basil leaves really make this salad such a burst of amazing flavors.  Combine that with the tahini dressing and the sumac salmon and then top it off with crunchy pink pickles and we got ourselves a winner salad. 

INGREDIENTS

3 cups Kale, chopped

1/4 cup Fresh mint

1/4 cup Fresh thai basil

1/4 cup pink pickles, thinly sliced

1 salmon

1 teaspoon sumac

1 tablespoon sesame seed (optional)

For the Vinaigrette

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup tahini

1 teaspoon sugar

1/4 cup rice vinegar

salt & pepper to taste

INSTRUCTIONS

Add greens into one bowl

In a separate bowl, mix ingredients for vinaigrette

Add salt, pepper, and sumac to the salmon

Heat olive oil in saucepan and sauté the salmon over medium heat for a few minutes on each side (keep on stove until its cooked to your desired liking)

Add Sumac Salmon to the greens

Top with pink pickles thinly sliced

Sprinkle with sesame seeds (optional)

The BEST CREAMY Tahini Salad of ever!

So remember I said I come from a family of traditions... well, this is one of them!  My family goes all out for Sunday brunch with all the usual Middle Eastern suspects; jams, cheeses, fava bean salad (ful mdamas), chickpea yogurt dish (tisi'ya// fetay), eggs, walnut stuffed pickled eggplants (makdoos), olives, and pita bread galore.  I remember my dad would always cut the pita bread into half circles and make us fava bean salad pita sandwiches drizzled with yogurt (so. friggin. good btw).  So when my mom would make breakfast, she would make this tahini salad and as a separate brunch dish she would make the fava bean salad which is called Ful.  The ful dish is made up of basically this tahini salad plus boiled fava beans and more olive oil.   My siblings and I never knew the name of this particular tahini salad so we would always beg my mom to make it and refer to it as, the ful without the ful salad.  

So I present to you the "ful without the ful salad".   There was a period where I would eat this every single day.  The way the tahini lemon sauce marrys the crunch cucumber and juicy tomatoes is just out of this world.  

I can eat this salad on its own but its also great served with chicken kabobs or lamp chops or really anything. 

This dressing is everything.  Make some and store for later! 

It's important to toss the salad because you want all the flavors to combine with the tomatoes.  You want the onions to release their flavors as well.  I've been trying to stay away from consuming too much bread (very difficult because bread is def one of my weaknesses) so I eat this salad as is, but it's actually good with warm pita bread.  Feel free to add more or less of whatever you like.  My sister loves cucumbers so she usually adds way more cucumbers, I like it more lemony so I'll add more lemon.  Don't be afraid to adjust to your liking! 

INGREDIENTS

2 cups cherry tomato or 2 Tomatos diced

2 Cucumbers diced

1/2 Red onion diced

3 Tablespoons tahini

Juice of 1 lemon

2 Tablespoon olive oil

1 teaspoon Dried Mint

Salt to taste

INSTRUCTIONS

Dice all the ingredients and place into a bowl

Wisk together Tahini, Lemon, Olive Oil, Dried Mint, & Salt

Toss together and serve!

Kofta Tahini

THERES MORE TO DO WITH TAHINI THEN MAKE HUMMUS!  I feel like with all the hummus recipes out there I even forget that we use tahini for so much more then just hummus!  And this is one of those things, kthanksbye. 

But seriously, tahini is one of those things that makes me laugh because my mom would have to climb mountains and cross rivers to go to a little ethnic store over a half hour away (thank God my local supermarket carries it now haha) that would import this and we were the only kids in the entire neighborhood that even knew what it was.  She would always do her ethnic grocery shopping on Saturdays because that was when the pita bread was fresh but also because my dad wanted to go too, he's a secret foodie.  It was like a family field trip and we would stock up on fresh pita bread, tahini, all kinds of fresh produce, different cuts of meats, an assortment of middle eastern cheeses and olives.  We would come back home with bags of groceries and I remember my siblings and I not even waiting until the groceries have been put away to stuff our faces with fresh pita sandwiches my mom would make on the fly.   It would be happy chaos in the kitchen as everyone is rummaging through bags trying to figure out what they want to eat.  My mom, the savior that she is, would somehow make this tahini sauce in minutes without anyone even noticing and hand everyone a fresh falafel sandwich using the crispy cucumber and fresh tomatoes we just got drizzled with the tahini sauce, or a Nabulsi cheese with crunchy green pepper and fresh tarragon wrapped in warm pita.  

Now, it's like the world has discovered our little kitchen gem and it makes me smile like ya, I knew about that before I was even born, welcome to the club :)  In the Middle East, they use tahini to make hummus, sauce, breakfast, cookies, cakes, the list goes on.   I tend to make a lot of tomato and eggplant based dishes I'm realizing and when I want to change it up I usually go Asian or this dish.

The sauce is this amazing yogurt based tahini lemony based sauce that like I mention already, we use for falafel sandwiches, shawerma meat sandwiches (we always use a garlic sauce for the chicken shawerma sandwich), fava bean breakfast dish called foul mddamas or on a potato dish.  Usually everytime I make this I'll end up with extra sauce (intentionally) which I store in tuber ware and I'll make falafel the next day and use the leftover sauce.  Done and Done.  But no joke, it might be one of my all time favorite sauces because its so full of flavor yet feels light and smooth.

In fact, I posted and raved about the amazing sauce right here http://www.sweetpillar.com/blog/2015/10/7/zaatar-crusted-shrimp-with-lemon-tahini-drizzle

This dish is kofta skewers baked with a yogurt tahini sauce and then topped with potatoes.  Some people opt to not spend the extra time making little kofta skewers and instead just pressing it onto the pyrex so its one giant kofta pizza basically and then topped with the sauce and potatoes.

I like the addition of the potatoes because it gives the dish an additional texture.  If you notice I leave the skin on the potatoes because most of the nutrients of the potatoes is actually in the skin so I just scrub them really well and leave them on but you can remove the skin or remove the entire potato addition from the dish if you don't like potatoes.  

I first put parsley and onions in the processor so all the juices come out and can be absorbed by the meat.  I then add the spices and parsley onion mixture.  Usually I add this amazing Turkish spice blend that I purchased at the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul a few years ago but that has since finished and I don't even know the name of it to purchase more.   When I bought it they put it in a little plastic bag which I transferred to a mason jar and that was it.  No name, no label.  I've tried to hunt it down but haven't found anything comparable.  So if anyone can help, let me know!  But anyway since I've departed ways with my Turkish blend I use a middle eastern all spice which is a mix of cumin, coriander, paprika, etc.

INGREDIENTS

1 lb Ground beef (or lamb - if using lamb combine it with beef otherwise it's too heavy)

1 Small onion

2 Garlic clove

1/4 cup flat-leaf parsley

1 tablespoon All Spice (if you cannot find middle eastern all spice you can mix 1/2 teaspoon of each ground cinnamon, paprika, cumin, ground cloves, nutmeg & coriander)

Salt

Pepper

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat oven to 350

Combine all the ingredients for the yogurt tahini sauce in a food processor and set aside (see link for previous post with ingredients for sauce)

If frying potatoes, heat up vegetable oil and fry at this point and set aside

If baking potatoes, put potatoes on baking sheet and drizzle with oil and put in the oven for 10-12 minutes

In food processor pulse onion, parsley, and garlic

Add onion mixture to ground beef along with spices, salt and pepper

Mix with your hands long enough for all the flavors to really mix together (1-2 minutes)

Using your hands make round balls then press them so they elong and are fingerlike length and form kabob shape

Using either vegetable oil or sunflower oil sautee the kabobs in a frying pan. Sautee them about 5-6 minutes so they are brown on the outside but still slightly rare on the inside (we're going to put them back in the oven so you don't want them to overcook but instead finish cooking in the oven)

Place the kabobs on a pyrex

Pour the tahini yogurt sauce over the kabobs and top with potatoes and put in the oven for 5-7 minutes

Garnish with parsley, paprika, and/or pine nuts

Serve with rice or pita bread