Persian Walnut Salad with Herbs, Cucumber and Radishes – a nutritious summer side to all your outdoor grilling and gatherings! Vegan adaptable!
Toasting the walnuts gives this Persian Walnut Salad an earthy depth and delicious umami flavor. Together with cool crunchy radishes, crisp cucumbers and mounds of fresh herbs like mint, dill, cilantro, chives and parsley this refreshing salad pairs incredibly well with grilled chicken, meat or fish.
A flavorful and easy summer side dish and one that can be made ahead, this Persian Walnut Salad is perfect for potlucks and gatherings!
This week I’ve partnered with California Walnuts to create this refreshing summer side dish. The toasted walnuts give the salad a wonderful earthy crunch and delicious texture, not to mention added protein (4 grams/ounce), fiber (2 grams/ounce) and good, plant-based fats (13g/oz polyunsaturated and 2.5g/oz monounsaturated fat)and healthy plant-based fats.
Feel free to keep this Walnut Salad vegan or add feta for extra richness.
Walnuts are also cholesterol-free and are the only nut with a significant amount of plant-based omega-3 ALA (2.5 grams/ounce).
If making ahead for a potluck or gathering, just layer the ingredients, keeping the herbs on top ( so they stay fresh) and toss with dressing right before serving!
The simple lemony dressing enhances all the flavors of the herbs.
Right before serving, taste and adjust lemon and salt one more time.
Give this Persian Walnut a try this week and see what you think!
RELATED: MAKE AHEAD VEGAN SALADS!
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Persian Walnut Salad
- Prep Time: 15
- Cook Time: 10
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 6 1x
- Category: salad
- Method: tossed
- Cuisine: persian
Description
Persian Walnut Salad with Cucumbers, Radishes, Mint, Dill, Cilantro and Parsley. Loaded up with fresh herbs this refreshing summer salad is the perfect side to summer grilling!
Ingredients
- 1 cup walnuts, lighted toasted
- 1 bunch radishes, thinly sliced (use a mandolin) or sub halved cherry tomatoes when in season
- 5 Persian (or Turkish) cucumbers, thinly sliced ( or sub 1 large English cucumber)
- 4 scallions, thinly sliced
- 1 cup chopped parsley
- 1 cup chopped cilantro
- 1/2 cup chopped mint
- 1/2 cup chopped dill
- 1/4 cup chopped tarragon or chives
- 1/2– 1 cup crumbled feta (optional)
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest
- 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, more to taste
- 1/2 teaspoon allspice
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
Notes
Feel free to make ahead, adding the dressing closer to serving time -so herbs stay nice and fresh looking. Always re-taste before serving, adjusting salt and lemon.
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 263
- Sugar: 2.1 g
- Sodium: 126.3 mg
- Fat: 25.3 g
- Saturated Fat: 4.5 g
- Carbohydrates: 7.4 g
- Fiber: 2.5 g
- Protein: 6 g
- Cholesterol: 11.1 mg
This salad is so delicious and flavorful. I’ve made it several times and everyone has loved it. I love all the fresh herbs in this recipe, it’s loaded with nutrients!
So happy to hear this Gina!
Excellent flavors and so refreshing! I used cherry tomatoes in place of radishes, roasted pine nuts in place of walnuts, served it over a few handfuls of arugula and topped it with feta cheese. Lovely presentation.
Sounds yummy!
Excellent!
I did riff on at the salad a bit as I didn’t have a radish but instead used julienned kohlrabi. I don’t like cilantro so left it out and didn’t have dill or tarragon. But walnut with cucumbers and citrus was amazing. Added CSA purslane which married well with citrus flavors
ooo I love purslane! Love the improvising!
This salad is so delicious and so healthy! All those fresh herbs are so nutritious. I’ve made this salad many times, most recently for our Persian New Year Celebration, Nowruz. The salad was devoured and all gone!
Awesome Gina! 🙌
So yummy and refreshing and best of all easy and quick! I kept the recipe vegan but instead of lemon I used a fresh peach. Half in the dressing with a little honey and half chopped up in the salad. Just because I have a line up of ripe peaches on my window sill.
I was also able to use all the herbs from my garden: basil, thyme, mint and parsley. Forgot to take a pic! We ate it too fast!.
Awesome Diana!
Made this. Very good! Always look forward to your Saturday morning recipes
Hi,
I have made many of your recipes and enjoyed them with my family. I was born in Tehran and have been making Persian food for my family for 30 plus years here in Houston. The Persian Salad that you have today is not really a Persian recipe. There are two other veriations. One has cucumber, tomato, and onion all chopped to small peices mixed with lemon juice and salt and pepper. The other one is made with chopped cucumber, Greek yogurt, and dill weed, salt and pepper. Some people put mint instead.
Thanks
Sima
I was wondering about that and appreciate your comment. I love to learn about traditional foods of many cultures and also switching them up some with whatever ingredients are in season.
Appreciate this Sima. I love the idea of that cucumber and greek yogurt with dill. Will have to try that.
Delicious, beautiful, vibrant, and fresh!I’ve made this a few times lately for small gatherings and everybody comments on both how lovely it looks and tastes!
Thanks Tonya! xo
Perfect summer salad. So good and refreshing. Will definitely make again. Thank you for the recipe.
This recipe sounds delicious. However, I’m not able to use citrus (lemon/lime/orange) in my cooking. Is there another dressing that I could make that would be good with this recipe but does not include lemon?
Try subbing with Champagne or AC vinegar. Start with less, and add more to taste.
Made this again at a summer barbeque and was enjoyed by everyone … without fail! Such a refreshing salad anytime of the year.
Awesome, great to hear!
Very refreshing and so fast and easy
Just delicious and so refreshing. Love love the mint in this recipe. Will def do again and again!
In the end I did not put the orange slices and stuck to the true recipe. It was a big hit with everyone. I served it between the soup and the main course and they all said it was a delicious and refreshing course before the main. Thanks again Sylvia.
This looks amazing and perfect to serve at my Christmas dinner. Can I add slices of oranges? Will definitely put on my menu. Thanks Sylvia.
Of course, give it a try! You can always test it first, with a little piece of orange and see what you think!
7 some halved cherry tomatoesmaking this tomorrow when the family comes over, will add a pear as suggested in comments
A lovely interesting salad, worth serving cold( it was a hot day and I had gotten my vegetables out beforehand, next time I’ll make sure to have them fresh out of the fridge) the only change that I made was adding a sliced pear to the salad. Thanks for a great recipe
Just made this recipe today and it’s so fresh, delicious and nutritious!
So happy you liked it and thanks for you comment!
So happy you liked it and thanks for your comment!
Delicious salad! I kept going back for more! I added chopped arugula with the fresh cilantro and parsley, and added dried mint and dill to the dressing. Next time, I’m going full on fresh with the herbs! Thank you so much for your beautiful and healthy recipes.
This sounds like a great seasonal salad for summer. I love middle eastern food and add nuts to everything!