Azerbaijan enjoys a summer abundance of tomatoes, cucumbers, herbs and other fresh ingredients.
Not surprisingly, salads are a popular side dish or starter at many Azerbaijani meals. Tomatoes and cucumbers are the mainstay of summer salads, combined in this recipe with spring onions, radishes and a sour cream dressing.
Preparation time: 20-30 mins
Cooking time: 0
Serves: 4-6
Ingredients
- 200 g/8 oz tomatoes
- 200 g/8 oz cucumbers (Azerbaijani cucumbers resemble the shorter garden cucumbers and have more bite and flavour than the longer Dutch and English cucumbers)
- 100 g/4 oz spring onions and onions
- 200 g/8 oz radishes
- small red onion (optional)
- 100 g/4 oz sour cream
- a few sprigs of dill
- salt & pepper
Preparation
- Finely slice the tomatoes, cucumbers and radishes and place in a bowl.
- Peel the red onion and cut into rings. Add to the salad.
- Season with salt and pepper and add the chopped dill.
- Gently stir in the sour cream, taking care not to damage the salad ingredients.
- If you are feeling creative, layer the salad ingredients on top of lettuce leaves and decorate the top with sour cream, though this has the downside of making a simple salad rather fiddly!