Acılı Ezme (Spicy Turkish Salad)
Acılı Ezme is a very traditional and spicy (or not) Turkish salad with tomatoes, peppers and parsley. It is perfect on any mezze or tapa table.
- Prep time
- 30 min
- Cook time
- 21 min
- Yield
- 4 servings
- Difficulty
- HARD
Ingredients
- 200 g ripe tomatoes
- 1 medium red onion ((abput 150g/5 oz pre peeled weight))
- 2 long mild green Turkish chillies (or 1/2 green bell pepper)
- 2 long mild red Turkish peppers or Romano peppers (or 1 red bell pepper)
- 3 red jalapeño (or any similar sized medium chilli)
- 1 handful flat leaf parsley (())
- 2 tbsp EV olive oil
- 1 tbsp pomegranate molasses
- 2 tbsp hot Turkish pepper paste (OR 1 Tbsp hot red chilli flakes)
- 1 tsp pul biber (or chilli powder (cayenne powder in US))
- 1/2 tsp sumac (omit if unavailable)
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2-3 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- freshly ground black pepper (optional)
Instructions
- 1
Mix 2 Tbsp of the lemon juice and all the other dressing ingredients together in a small bowl and set aside.
- 2
If you have an extra large chopping board, you can chop everything up one by one, then together. If not, use 2 boards, as I do in the video. The traditional method is to chop each ingredient individually, then chop them up altogether.Peel and finely chop the red onion and push to the side. Chop the peppers and chillies and add to the onion pile.Chop this up, mixing the 3 vegetables together and chopping. Push to the side if your chopping board is large enough, and continue with the other ingredients.
- 3
Chop up the parsley finely and add to the pile of chopped up ingredients.
- 4
Chop the tomatoes up finely, then add to everything that's already been chopped up.Continue chopping everything up for a minute, mixing it all up. When done, tip into a large salad bowl.
- 5
Pour the dressing all over and mix well to incorporate all the flavours. Taste and add more salt or sumac/lemon juice if you want it saltier and tangier.Finish off with some freshly ground black pepper.Serve immediately as suggested.
- 6
Place all the salad ingredients (except the tomatoes) in your chopper and pulse to get a small dice.Tip out into the salad bowl
- 7
Now add the tomatoes to the chopper and dice by pulsing. Tip into the salad bowl.
- 8
Pour the dressing all over and mix well to incorporate all the flavours. Taste and add more salt or sumac/lemon juice if you want it saltier and tangier.Finish off with some freshly ground black pepper.Serve immediately as suggested.