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!