This salad is Sylvia Titizian‘s family’s salad that is made with the surquig or shankleesh cheese; in Lebanon, this salad is part of a large mezze spread and usually enjoyed with a glass of arak, our national drink. Sylvia’s family uses walnuts, I used pecans.
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 or 2 balls of surquig or shankleesh cheese (can be bought at middle-eastern stores or made-see previous post), chopped in small pieces
- 1/2 cup of walnuts, chopped coarsely
- 2 Large tomatoes, chopped
- 1 red pepper, chopped
- 1 red onion, sliced
- Dressing: olive oil – I used walnut oil and raspberry vinegar
62 Comments
I am sure that I cannot find this cheese here… I do not leave in Athens and you understand it is something unreachable outside itl!!
The ingredients are excellent… I really enjoy watching your meals/meze/salads all recipes!!
I should really try to get my had on this cheese Joumana. It looks so tempting. Have a wonderful time in your hometown.
I will have to look for these cheeses because this would make a delicious and different appetizer. I love your walnut and raspberry vinegar dressing – sounds perfect with the other ingredients!
Excellent!
Cheers,
Rosa
This appetizer truly ascends the concept of cheese and crackers. Surquig looks so much like feta, but firmer. I’m going to have to look up the type of milk that is used to make this cheese, it looks so good!
The salad looks wonderful! I will have to try to make the cheese! Your photos are outstanding!
wow, what an amazing salad. This is definitely one salad I won’t turn my nose up on! I think I would prefer this with pecans, too!
Toujours un plaisir de te rendre visite.
les photos sont très belles et ta salade certainement bonne.
Va savoir pourquoi, elle me rappelle les vacances et la chaleur de l’été.
A très bientôt.
Looks a bit like feta. Is it similar? Looks delicious! And your new profile picture is gorgeous!
Thats a tempting cheese salad, love this..
I have heard of arak. This salad has so many lovely ingredients. It would be perfect with fresh, warm bread.
I adore salads like this, Joumana, but the cheese makes all the difference. Will have to search it out! Any alternate suggestions?
Barbara: just take some feta, add some spices or herbs or both and voilà!
Jolie salade pleine de saveurs! est-ce fait avec du fromage de brebis le shankleesh? Je ne connais pas du tout…ca ressemble un peu à la feta, non? en tout cas, ton amie Sylvia a des recettes bien sympa…je me dis qu’il doit faire chaud au Liban vu les plats frais que tu prépares dernièrement. Profite bien!
encore une recette tres gourmande
Bravo Joumana, this is spectacular, and you are a winner, you did an excellent job with this appetizer salad., this is the most requested appetizer salad in my family, it brings us all together and crowd our memories one another in our minds. I like how you added the pecans it is nice hearing them fall on the plate.
We are all visitors on this earth, if we can’t help each other and not share our recipes, then what do we take with us when we leave this earth.
I am very grateful to you for posting my family recipes, and humbled by giving me credit for it, which by the end you were the big laborer of this recipe.
Blessings , Sylvia
I do enjoy walnuts combined with cheese. The anise flavor of your national drink is a really nice combination!
So many things that are new… arak.. and that cheese… just got haloumi, now must find this new cheese… delish!
yummy & a healthy salad…
This looks like such a great treat. I hope I can find the cheese!
Looks beautiful (as always). Another amazing appetizer from you to try out!
Now I am convinced that I should make the cheese. Wonderful flavours in the salad.
Dear Joumana – How did I miss 3 posts??I just checked the day before and I cannot believe I missed your post on dolmades – I LOVE dolmades…I also love this salad – amazing how a little bit of tomato, red onion, walnuts and the right cheese can create such magic.
I can’t even imagine how much fun you are having right now in your hometown( don’t look now but my envy is showing
Enjoy it and share the snippets of life there with us so we can visit through you
Take care my friend ~
Devaki @ weavethousandflavors
It looks delicious! Remindes me on labneh:)
Oh! What a beautiful salad…I would so love to taste the shankleesh cheese, as I luv cheeses.
J’ADORE!!! dès que j’ai un peu de temps, je me mets au travail.. merci pour la recette!
this looks yummy. too bad the cheese isn’t available here. can i replace this with feta cheese?
Looks so good! I love the inclusion of walnuts, and walnut oil as well. Raspberry vinegar is something new for me, is it really raspberry-flavoured?..
très élégante dans tes articles et photos!!!!
bisous
Lovely, Joumana!
Recipe looks simple yet so flavorsome! I haven’t seen or heard of shankleesh cheese. Is it similar to Feta or Cottage cheese? It looks tempting and good. I would love to taste Arak too.
J’aime beaucoup cette salade, elle est fraîche et pleine de saveurs. Tes photos sont toujours un régal pour les yeux!
Lovely salad.I am just wondering if it will taste good if I make it with Indian cottage cheese/ tofu….
this is exactly the kind of salad i love to eat. yummy, fresh and satisfying.
And yet another cheese gets added to my list of cheeses to try.
Awesome salad!
Oh and my favorite winter squash is kabocha as well! I just couldn’t find any!
Looks Like a wonderful salad I have had something similar with feta, but your cheese sounds wonderful!
A truly satisfying summer salad!
I’ll have to make the cheese in order to prepare this dish but it looks so good that I won’t mind. I hope you are having a great day. Blessings…Mary
This is my kind of salad – it looks so tasty and perfect for a potluck!
So scrumptious. Joumana, i love your new photo in the left margin…wow- you look lovely. Any chance you’ll take photos and put up posts about your beautiful city? I hope so. Enjoy your hols. x shayma
This looks so fresh, lovely and flavorful. I’ve never made any kind of cheese myself, but to make this dish, I think I’ll pull out all the stops and make my own shankleesh. Thanks for these two great recipes. – S
This is a beautiful salad. All the flavors go together so nicely — I love the nuts in there for a little crunch with the creamy cheese and refreshing tomatoes!
great salad, love all the flavors and the cheese looks amazing..
sweetlife
This is such a great idea! Your pictures are amazing… not to mention the thoughts of serving this…. Thanks so much.
This unique cheese reminds me of feta cheese. Nice idea to switch up on the nuts for variation
This looks so good. I’ll have to learn to make that cheese.
The cheese sounds very exotic to me! And must be the key flavor balancing the other ingredients
Oh wow! What’s not to love! This looks amazing!
I wonder if I could use goats cheese or feta for this? They are making me hungry!!!
Fantastic!
What aree the spices in the salad?
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