Salatet Jarjir

the Levantine rocket salad: whole leaves torn by hand rather than chopped, with tomato, sweet onion, sumac, and a dressing of nothing but lemon and good oil

Origin: The Levant

From the journey of Rocket.

This is the composed version of a habit that is usually not composed at all. Across the Levant jarjīr is most often set on the table as a bunch, undressed, to be torn and eaten by hand between mouthfuls of everything else, in the same way that spring onions and radishes are put out. Salatet jarjīr is what happens when that bunch is given a bowl, and the restraint of the dressing reflects its origin: lemon and olive oil, salt, and sumac for a second, fruitier acidity behind the first. Nothing is added that would compete with the leaf. The one technique worth insisting on is that the rocket is torn rather than cut, and left in large pieces. Levantine salads in general favour the hand over the knife, and with rocket there is a practical reason: a blade bruises the mid-rib and draws out a flat bitterness, whilst tearing along the leaf leaves the pepperiness clean. Cutting also produces uniform pieces, which is precisely what this salad does not want. The pleasure of it lies in the unevenness, so that one mouthful is mild leaf and tomato and the next is a whole hot leaf on its own. It belongs beside grilled meat and beside mezze, and in Palestinian and Jordanian practice it frequently appears alongside musakhan or grilled chicken, where the sumac in the salad answers the sumac in the dish.

Ingredients

Salad

  • 200 g rocket (arugula), large bunches with stems, well washed
  • 3 medium ripe tomatoes, cut into rough wedges
  • 1 small sweet white or red onion, sliced very thin
  • 1 handful flat-leaf parsley leaves, whole

Dressing

  • 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 tbsp lemon juice, freshly squeezed
  • 1 tsp ground sumac, plus more to finish
  • 0.5 tsp sea salt, or to taste
  • 1 clove garlic, crushed to a paste with a little salt (optional)

Method

  1. Wash the rocket in a large bowl of cold water, lifting it out rather than pouring it off so the grit stays behind. Dry it thoroughly. Tear the leaves from the coarsest stems and leave them large, in pieces roughly the length of a finger.
  2. Slice the onion as thinly as you can manage and put it in a small bowl with the lemon juice and salt. Leave it for ten minutes whilst you prepare everything else.
  3. Whisk the olive oil, sumac, and the optional garlic into the lemon and onion.
  4. Put the rocket, tomatoes, and parsley in a wide bowl. Pour over the dressing and turn it through with your hands, lifting from the bottom rather than stirring.
  5. Taste for salt and lemon, scatter a little more sumac over the top, and serve at once.

Notes

Use the largest, coarsest rocket you can find rather than the fine leaves sold in bags; the salad wants a leaf with some substance and real heat. If only mild bagged rocket is available, increase the quantity and cut back the tomato slightly. Sumac is not optional in the way the garlic is: it supplies a fruity, astringent acidity quite different from lemon, and the salad is noticeably flatter without it. In parts of Palestine and Jordan a spoonful of pomegranate molasses replaces some of the lemon, which is very good against grilled lamb. The salad does not keep, and leftovers are not worth refrigerating.

The Gastrographer

The Gastrographer

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Ingredient originTrade or transit route
Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control
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