Description
Ezme is a traditional Turkish salad prepared using tomatoes and red peppers. Blanching the tomatoes for just the right amount of time, and then stopping the cooking process with ice water will produce a fresh, light salad that is full of beautiful colour, juicy flavour and zing!
Ingredients
Tomato Ezme
6 large fully ripe tomatoes (350 g tomato flesh)
1 red pepper, roasted and seasoned (80 g)
½ small red onion (30 g)
1 spring onion
1 – 2 chillies
1 Tbsp (15 ml) parsley, chopped
1 Tbsp (15 ml) mint, chopped
4 tsps (20 ml) olive oil
2 tsp (10 ml) lemon juice
zest of one lemon
2 tsp (10 ml) white wine vinegar
1 tsp (5 ml) tomato paste
salt
Instructions
Blanch the tomatoes – cut a small X into the bottom of each tomato (this will help with peeling the skin). Place the whole tomatoes into boiling water for 30 – 60 seconds or until the skin begins to peel. Remove from the hot water, peel and place immediately into ice water (this will stop the tomatoes from cooking).
Cut the tomatoes into quarters and remove the inner juice and seeds. Chop the tomato as finely as possible. Do the same with the peppers, red onion, spring onion, chillies, parsley and mint.
Place all of the ingredients into a bowl and season. Allow to stand for 1 hour so that the flavours can infuse and then serve. (Optional: the mixture can be strained before serving if preferred).
