Recipe Source: Batmanglij, Najmieh. From Persia to Napa. Mage Publishers, Washington DC, 2006 p. 136
After the big buffet lunch I served, I found myself with some ingredients left over. Some of them are more stable than others. Pomegranates, for example, will certainly keep beyond a week, especially if they are still in their skins. Cucumbers, on the other hand, will probably not. We still had some cucumbers a week later that needed eating, so Sunday's open house dinner was a bit heavy on the cucumbers. It involved plenty of pomegranate as well, but that's both the result of having more pomegranates in the house and of personal taste.
I didn't make a lot of changes to this recipe. I wanted to. In fact, I made two versions of this salad. The first version used locally-grown red and green leaf lettuce I'd picked up from the farm itself only the day before. It also substituted a gouda-like goat cheese for the feta (long story.) However, the meat for the dinner was not done as early as I'd expected. We left things prepped and went down to the TV room to watch a recorded version of the Patriots game. Then we all heard a certain tell-tale sound, very much like plates moving around on granite. I ran upstairs and discovered that Yogi, our dog, had chosen to indulge himself. You see, the bowl that contained the greens and cheese also contained the nuts, and Yogi unfortunately has a passion for nuts. He could smell them 
in the salad and felt the pressing need to get to them. Sigh. I had to run out to the horrid little supermarket around the corner from me and replace the greens. Of course, there wasn't anything identifiable as locally grown, so I made do with some "Italian" greens packs. Since I'd used all of the goat cheese on the first batch, I replaced the cheese with the feta that was originally called for.
It's a good thing that the dog is cute. At any rate, the rest of the changes are mostly procedural. I sliced the onion rather than mince it, to make it easier for one of our guests to pick out (she doesn't like raw onions.) I increased the amount of garlic, although I restrained myself and only used four cloves. I used Aleppo pepper for the pepper flakes, reduced the amount of olive oil by more than half, and I didn't shred the lettuce either time. The first time I tore it into bite-sized pieces. The second time the lettuce came pre-shredded. Finally, since my husband had used and misplaced the garlic press for one of the other dishes, I used the mini-prep on the garlic, which didn't work out too badly if I do say so myself.
Tribal Cucumber Salad (serves 8; approx. cost per serving not available)
1 red onion, halved, halves quartered and thinly sliced
1 cup pitted olives - I used green olives with Sicilian herbs, because I had them on hand
2 cucumbers, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced
2 pomegranates, seeded
4 garlic cloves, crushed OR pureed in a mini food processor
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 tablespoon pomegranate molasses
1/4 teaspoon Aleppo pepper
2 teaspoons honey
2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
3 - 4 tablespoons olive oil
2 packs Italian lettuce mix
1/2 cup walnut pieces, toasted
1/2 cup feta cheese, crumbled
Equipment:
- You're going to need a variety of bowls for this recipe. You'll also want a mini-prep food processor or garlic press.
- In one medium mixing bowl, combine the onion, olives, cucumber and pomegranate seeds.
- In another, smaller bowl, mix all the ingredients from the garlic down to the olive oil. Whisk well to combine.
- In yet another bowl, preferably the one you'll be using for serving, combine the lettuce, the walnuts and the cheese.
- Just before serving, pour the first two bowls into the third bowl. Toss well and serve.
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