Israeli Salad is a Middle Eastern recipe with a blend of finely chopped vegetables, lemon olive oil dressing with freshly chopped parsley. It pairs beautifully many breakfast, lunch, and dinner recipes.
Our Israeli Salad is a must make salad that is full of flavor! It’s a staple in our home and so easy to make. If you’re looking for a way to add some colorful raw veggies to your diet, this is it! This side dish salad is similar to Shirazi Salad (Persian Cucumber and Tomato Salad). With salad Shirazi, we use mint and cut the vegetables a bit larger.
The History of Israeli Salad
While Israeli Salad is the well-known name for this dish, this recipe, like many other Middle Eastern recipes, originates from Palestine and Arab countries and is called vegetable salad. This includes hummus, falafel, etc.
I grew up enjoying this salad, and it’s still enjoyed in our family and throughout Israel. It’s not only a staple in our home but there as well! It is served with most dishes like salsa and chips, pita, and Israeli Salad.
WHAT’S IN ISRAELI SALAD?
Israeli salad ingredients are simple and delicious. We let the fresh produce shine in this raw Middle Eastern side dish.
- Roma tomatoes
- English cucumbers or Persian cucumbers
- bell pepper
- white or red onion
- parsley
- lemon juice
- olive oil
- sea salt to taste
- fresh herbs
The base is always cucumbers and tomatoes, but herbs may vary depending on the family recipe.
HOW TO MAKE ISRAELI SALAD
- Start by washing your veggies. (check out our recipe for Fruit and Veggie Spray)
- Then, finely dice the tomatoes, cucumber, peppers, onions, and parsley.
- Once you’ve chopped all of the chopped vegetables, add them to a large bowl (not a small bowl; this is a decent amount of salad, and you want to be able to mix without spilling) with the chopped parsley.
- Drizzle with the olive oil and lemon, then salt to taste, viola – that’s it!
We like to have a large batch of this in the fridge at all times and make it weekly.
HOW LONG DOES THIS SALAD LAST?
It should last about 3-4 days, depending on the amount of lemon used. We usually make this and eat it within 2-3 days. We wouldn’t go over 4 days as the lemon starts to break down the vegetables, and they get a bit soggy and waterlogged. It’s much better to enjoy fresh and crisp.
HOW TO SERVE ISRAELI SALAD:
There’s no wrong way to enjoy this salad. You can enjoy this with breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Yes, I said breakfast! My family loves this over omelets, fried eggs, Mediterranean rice, beef kofta (we now make this with impossible beef), or even turkey meatballs (this also works well with impossible or any other plant-based vegan meat alternative) with Middle Eastern flavors. My family will enjoy a pita spread with hummus and this salad.
RECIPE TIPS:
- Make this in advance or right before serving.
- Double or even triple for entertaining.
- The peppers, cucumbers, and tomatoes will release some water when it sits in the refrigerator. This is normal. You can use a slotted spoon to remove the desired amount.
- You can do a small dice or finely chop this salad. You could even do a rough chop and make it more rustic.
- This is naturally a vegan recipe, but you can make it vegetarian by adding in some feta cheese.
- Want to add some vegan protein? Add in some chickpeas! Chickpeas are a staple in Middle Eastern recipes.
Israeli Salad
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Print Pin SaveIngredients
- 3 Roma tomatoes
- 1 cucumber Persian or English
- 1 red pepper
- 1/2 medium onion red or white
- 1/2 cup parsley chopped
- 1/8 cup lemon juice fresh
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Slice the tomatoes in half and discard the seeds.
- Chop the tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, onion, and parsley.
- Place the chopped vegetables and parsley into a bowl.
- Add in the lemon juice, olive oil, and salt.
- Mix until combined and serve as desired.
Tried this recipe?
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Nutrition
The nutritional information is automatically calculated and can vary based ingredients and products used. If the nutrition numbers are important for you we recommend calculating them yourself.
I had all the ingredients on hand and just made this dish. It tastes amazing! So fresh! Thank you!
I need to make an Israeli salad for 100 people how many tomatoes cucumbers peppers etc do I need to buy. I have a machine to dice them. Want to fill two large foil roasting trays
It would really depend on what else you’re making. We haven’t made in that great of a scale.
When we were in Israel , I ate this salad three times a day. When we got home, I’ve searched for a recipe to make it here. This is very close. Thank you so much for posting this recipe!
Some may have slight variations between measurements 🙂 This recipe is from my family who came here from Israel, so happy to hear it’s close to what you were wanting and hope you enjoyed!
I absolutely love this salad! I make one with the same ingredients minus the parsley and using a different dressing. To store in the fridge I use a quart mason jar and just gently roll the jar on my counter to remix for serving.
Yay! Isn’t it the best? LOVE your storage tip! 🙂
I made this to go with a fish fry we were hosting and it was a hit. Simple and very tasty.
Isn’t it so simple? Glad everyone enjoyed 🙂
This salad was so fresh and flavorful love the simplicity of this dish . My new favorite to bring to potlucks
Yay! So glad you enjoyed!!
I don’t understand how it is Israeli. Tomatoes and bell peppers are native to the Americas and cucumbers to India. People all over the world eat tomato and cucumber salad with a bit of onion.. What makes it Israeli?
Israeli Salad is served with most meals in Israel, it’s also one of their most known dishes. If you have a meal in Israel, there’s a 9/10 chance this will be served with it. To Israel, this salad is like the salsa at a Mexican restaurant. 🙂
This sounds a lot like tabouli v. Yum
ooh yum, yes a bit similar! 🙂
I made this for lunch and I make a lot of it…It was really great salad…..Will have the rest for sjpper.. It was really enjoyable.
Tried this recipe and it was delicious, I did add a little celery to it. Thank you for your recipe.
So glad you enjoyed!!! 😀
If you want to prepare the salad in advance don’t season it until just before serving. Same goes if you prepare a large amount to sit in the fridge, take as much as you like and season just your portion.
I have a Tupperware with sort of a sieve at the bottom, this really helps it keep fresh in the long run as the salad doesn’t sit in its juice (again, unseasoned).
Great tip! We usually eat it up within 2 days. I actually use the extra juice as a dressing for salads.
Absolutely delicious! It’s like summer in January!
Yay! So glad you enjoyed it!! 😀
LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this salad.! I’ve made two half recipes for the two of us in 4 days! Today I’ll be putting this salad with garlic hummus on Greek flatbread. YUM!!!! Thank you for this wonderful salad.
You’re so welcome and thank you for commetning! Isn’t it so delicious?! That sounds soo good, yum!!
Love this Israel salad i kicked it up a notch doing individual servings letting my veggies be room temperature and serving with hot bacon drippings salt pepper to taste and we even crumbled the bacon on our servings i know its a vegetarian dish then whats left i put the olive oil lemon jucie salt pepper and then refrigerate my family loved it just a food for thought
COURTNEY,
THIS SALAD LOOKS AMAZING, FRESH, COLORFUL, APPETIZING AND I AM GOING TO MAKE IT VERY SOON, AS WE LOVE GOOD FRESH VEG’S. COULD WE USE A DRESSING, OR WOULD IT RUIN
IT? SOMETIMES A LITTLE RED WINE VINEGAR AND OIL IS SO GOOD. WE ARE NOT LEMKN FANS ON SALADS BECAUSE OF THE HIGH ACID CONTENT.
Thank you! Absolutely, you could try adding whatever your preferred dressing is. Oil and vinegar would work with the fresh herbs. 🙂
This was excellent.
So glad you liked it! 😀
Love this! Cannot believe I never made this before but glad to have found your recipe on here. I substituted light Italian dressing for the olive oil but did try it both ways and it’s a winner no matter which way I tried it. Thank you!
So glad you love it! Oooh yum, what a great way to enjoy it with the dressing!
I can’t wait to Tyler this recipe. I will let you know how it goes!
We hope you love it! 🙂
I love this salad! The freshness and simplicity make it one of my go to favorites.. It’s always a hit!
So glad you enjoyed one of our favorite salads, so good!
This salad is wonderful! I sometimes add the chickpeas,imitation crab meat and macoroni and have a main dish. J we love it.
So glad you’re enjoying. It’s soo good!
This sounds delicious. Will try it very soon.
We hope you love it!
Made this for family potluck.. I made the following changes…
Used the small multi-color peppers
Green onions
Garbanzo beans
Added a splash of basaltic vinegar to the dressing
And feta cheese on the side
Giant hit with even picky eaters. Will become a “must bring”.
There is mention of fresh herbs but not in the recipe itself. What might be used ?
The recipe calls for fresh parsley in the recipe box 🙂
This salad is actually made all over the middle east and North Africa as well as Israel! We lived and worked in Libya for. 5 years and that’s where I first ate it. It is also good made with cilantro instead of parsley. My favourite!
So glad you enjoy it too! Yes, cilantro is also good, and mint as well!! 😀 We use mint more for Shirazi salad though.
Hi,
I am wondering, could you use Cilantro in place of the Parsley in this salad? I wonder if it would taste good. Thanks!
Absolutely! It will give it a different flavor, but still delicious. We even sometimes use a tiny bit of mint as well. 🙂
I really appreciate that you said this salad originates from Palestine. So many delicious foods we equate with Israel were first Palestinian, but have been appropriated.
Absolutely, we always share the origins of a recipe. ❤︎