Chopped Rocket Salad

Roka Salatası

 

Rocket is a staple green in the west of Turkey, enjoyed in its bitter full-grown form unlike the subtler baby rocket typically favoured by the western world. A fish dinner in Turkey is simply incomplete without a rocket salad to accompany it. You cannot have one without the other. This is my favourite version, a well-rounded salad to serve with any seafood. The flavours are simple, but use absolutely crisp ingredients and it just makes sense with the soft, slightly fatty texture of locally-caught fish.

 

sml         bunch rocket, roughly chopped

12           cherry tomatoes, quartered

2              yellow bull-horn chilli peppers, diced

2              red bull-horn chilli peppers, seeded and diced

4 baby   cucumbers, diced

Sml         bunch parsley, roughly chopped

4              radishes, thinly sliced and cut into thin strips

juice of 1 lemon

4 tbsp    olive oil

                Salt & pepper

 

Toss together all vegetable ingredients just before serving. Serve alongside fish or other seafood.

 

 

 

VARIATION: for a classy version to serve with chicken or red meat, toss 10 roughly crumbled walnut halves and some crumbled fetta cheese through, and substitute 2 tbsp pomegranate for the lemon juice.