Green olive, walnut and pomegranate salad

“This little salad, a thrilling mix of flavours, textures and colours that is almost too glorious to look at, is a speciality of Gaziantep, a Turkish city on the border with Syria, famous for its gastronomy. If you don’t have pomegranate seeds, never mind.”

Reprinted with permission from “Med” by Claudia Roden, Ebury Publishing Co. 2021

Serves 4

Ingredients

100g good-quality pitted green olives in brine, drained

50g walnuts

3 spring onions, chopped

bunch (25g) of flat-leaf parsley, leaves chopped

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 tbsp lemon juice

2 tbsp pomegranate molasses

salt, to taste

chilli flakes, to taste

3 tbsp pomegranate seeds

Instructions

Coarsely chop the olives and walnuts, place in a serving dish and mix with the spring onions and parsley.

In a small bowl, mix the olive oil, lemon juice and pomegranate molasses with a little salt and chilli flakes to taste. Pour over the olives and walnuts and sprinkle with pomegranate seeds.