We ate this Turkish-style onion salad with Claudia Roden’s excellent and very simple recipe for rice with red lentils from the Book of Jewish Food, with the additional garnish of hard boiled egg, artichoke hearts and toasted almonds. The salad is deliciously sharp and tangy and smokey and is also especially excellent with grilled mackerel or lamb kebab and flat bread.
Ingredients:
1 large white onion
pomegranate molasses
1/4 a lemon
flat leaf parsley
sumac
How to make:
Take a large white onion, peel and trim it – maintaining the bit at the base that holds it together – and cut it into 4.
If you have a gas hob: turn on the flame and prop the onion quarters up around it with the surface directly touching the flame. As each side chars a little, turn it so another side can receive the same treatment.
If you have electric, use a hot grill, or a very hot dry pan to achieve a char.
When done, remove the onions and pull the layers apart.
Mix with 1-2 tablespoons of pomegranate molasses, the juice of 1/4 a lemon, a hefty pinch of salt and a small bunch of roughly chopped flat leaf parsley. Garnish with a sprinkle of sour-sharp sumac.
Serve alongside rice and/or kebabs.
Dinner Document 