Daqqa ia a Palestinian salad specifically from Gazza. It is traditionally made in a special clay bowl which you can’t find anywhere except in Palestine. Of course you can make it in a mortar if you have one. It is basically crushed green chili peppers mixed in with tomatoes and some flavor enhancers. We use the clay bowl because it has a rough interior which helps crush the peppers, add to that the earthiness it brings to this recipe.
This salad is meant to be eaten with bread and not with a fork like a regular salad is. It will have a softer consistency because we crush them together, therefore a hot stove heated pita bread is the perfect accompaniment to scoop up all the juices. Yum!
A key ingredient here is dill seeds. They are small oval very fragrant seeds which we crush in order to release all the oils and flavor. We use them in many Palestinian dishes and they are key in todays’ recipe. Another version of this dish is made with fresh dill and it is equally delicious but today I will be sharing the recipe made with dill seeds.
Use red tomatoes which are a bit on the softer side, these have much more flavor and are easier to crush. For the peppers, I like my Daqqa a bit on the spicy side, actually a lot. Which allows me to use the whole green pepper including the spicy seeds. If you’re not a fan, get rid of the seeds and maybe use ½ the chili and not the whole pod.
Ingredients:
- ½ teaspoon coarse salt
- 1-2 green peppers finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon dill seeds
- ½ a green onion finely chopped
- 1 large ripe tomato chopped
- Juice of ½ a lemon
- Drizzle of olive oil
*This is actually a very simple salad that will be ready in a few minutes. In the clay bowl (or the mortar if you don’t have one) grind your coarse salt before adding anything else.
*Now drop in the dill seeds (picture of them attached) and give them a quick grind too. This releases their flavor and fragrance.
*Chop the green peppers and drop them in, crush them to a flat consistency.
*In with the green onions and lightly crush them too. Green onions are fragile and soft so don’t put in too much effort for those, you don’t want them to reach a paste consistency. If you don’t have green onions use white ones, it’s ok.
*Now chop the red ripe tomato, add it in, and give it a gentle crush too. Add the lemon juice, mix everything up with the spoon, drizzle some olive oil and you’re done.
*You enjoy this amazing salad with stove heated Pita bread, where you scoop all this yumminess in one mouthful and experience the burst of Palestinian flavors. AMAZING!