Cucumber and Stone Fruit Salad

A super simple early summer side dish

Hello, lovely readers and cooks. This week, in addition to our regularly scheduled content (which you’ll get on Thursday or Friday), I have a short bonus recipe for you. I came up with this salad while making the khoresh gheymeh (yellow split pea and beef stew ) from last week’s interview with Persian American home cook Mory Fontanez. I had been hoping to make a classic Shirazi salad to go with the rich, flavorful main, but when I couldn’t find good tomatoes, I changed course and used what I had at home in that same form factor. The result was great and would also be wonderful as a side for a barbecue. I hope you enjoy it!

Cucumber and Stone Fruit Salad

This recipe is more of an idea than a set of commandments. It takes inspiration from Persian Shirazi salad in its form factor and in the addition of mint (though I’ve used fresh mint here while the original usually calls for dried mint). The dressing is just a drizzle of olive oil and a squeeze of lemon, so you should adjust them to suit your own tastes. (Maybe start with about 1 teaspoon of each and then go from there.) If it turns out that your fruit isn’t great for any reason, you could also add a pinch of sugar, to bring out the nectarine and apricots’ flavors, before proceeding with the rest of the recipe.

Serves 4 as a side

2 Persian cucumbers
2 apricots
1 nectarine
4 fresh mint leaves
Extra-virgin olive oil
Meyer lemon
Flaky sea salt

Trim the ends off the cucumbers and then cut them into ½-inch pieces. Pit the apricots and nectarine and cut them into ½-inch pieces. Thinly slice the mint leaves. Toss the fruit and mint together in a medium bowl. Drizzle in a little olive oil, then add a squeeze of lemon juice and a big pinch of salt. Toss everything again, and taste; adjust oil, lemon, and salt as needed before serving.

Photo: Georgia Freedman