Turkish Choban Salad

Food is unlikely subject on the blog, since most of you know that I'm not a natural cook ;-)  But this simple salad you see around Istanbul this time of year can't even stump me. It's easy and a nice alternative to the lettuce-based salads we are used to.

Basic ingredients include tomatoes, cucumbers, parsley, olive oil and lemon. You can make a fine choban salad with just that. To spruce it up slightly, add dried mint, scallion (or green onion) and green pepper. We like to add pomegranate syrup which you can find here and has great flavour.

(On the internet you might see olives and feta cheese added to this - tasty, but not an authentic Choban Salad, it becomes an Akdeniz Salad, meaning Mediterranean Salad!)

This is the simple version we threw together the other night at dinner.

Afiyet olsun! 

(Bon appetit!)