Hatay olive salad (zeytin piyazı)
Hatay's registered olive salad: cracked green olives, spring onion, tomato, red pepper, pomegranate molasses and extra virgin olive oil, for four.
- Time
- 20 minutes
- Serves
- Serves 4
- Level
- Easy
- Cuisine
- Turkish (Hatay)
Served in Hatay at breakfast, at lunch or as a meze, this salad was registered on 9 July 2025 as a geographical indication (no. 1752) on behalf of the Governorship of Hatay. The registration document also defines the recipe: cracked green olives, spring onion, tomato, red pepper, the registered Hatay pomegranate molasses and extra virgin olive oil. The quantities below are the document's own for four people.
The real work is in the olives. Halhalı, haşebi or gemlik olives are picked green in September and October, cracked with a wooden mallet or a stone, and debittered in drinking water for about 7 days, with the water changed every day. They are then kept in brine of around 20 percent salt, which is why the salad can be made all year round. If you want to prepare cracked olives yourself, see how to make cracked olives at home.
Directions
- If the cracked olives come from brine, taste one; if salty, soak them in clean water for 1-2 hours and drain.
- Remove the pits; in cracked olives the flesh comes away easily. Halve any large pieces.
- Peel the tomato and cut it into small dice.
- Seed the red pepper and chop it finely.
- Finely chop the spring onion with its green part, and the parsley without the thick stalks.
- Put the olives, tomato, pepper, spring onion and parsley in a bowl.
- Add the salt, pomegranate molasses and olive oil.
- Toss gently so the olives do not break up.
- Serve with lemon wedges.
Tips & storage
Use real pomegranate molasses. The registration requires Hatay pomegranate molasses (registration no. 1361). Some products sold as "pomegranate sauce" are sweetened with glucose syrup and acid; the ingredient list should say pomegranate only.
Salt last. The saltiness of brined olives varies from batch to batch. The document's 2 g of salt assumes olives that have already been desalted, so taste first.
Peeling the tomato is part of the recipe. The skin leaves tough strips in the salad, and the production method in the document asks for peeled tomato.
Storage: the finished salad keeps 1-2 days in a closed container in the fridge; tomato and parsley release water as it stands, so make only what you will eat.
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