Instructions: Traditional Jewish cuisine is not noted for its reverence toward raw vegetables. Unfortunately, many Jewish cooks look at salad as "rabbit food"-literally, undigestible by humans. Aside from fears of digestive agony, many observant Jews avoid eating leafy greens like lettuce because of the laborious process of ensuring it is kosher, which involves picking through each leaf to make sure it is free of bugs.

In the sunnier climes of Israel, however, salad is a way of life, and is usually served with breakfast, lunch, and dinner. One of the most popular salads in Israel, dubbed "Israeli salad," is a deliciously crunchy mixture of diced vegetables thats especially appealing in the scorching heat of summer.

Israeli salad is as a perfect prelude to a simple meal off the grill, and is also delicious served as a topping for falafel. It can even be served at an Israeli-style breakfast with a bowl of plain yogurt alongside.

Israeli salad typically contains a mixture of vegetables-usually cucumbers, tomatoes, and onions-chopped into small dice and simply dressed with a mixture of olive oil and lemon juice. All cooks add their own stylistic imprint to the salad: Additions include radishes, bell peppers, carrots, pickled gherkins, red pepper flakes, or zaatar, a spice mixture that is widely available in Middle Eastern markets. Most Jewish cooks do not add lettuce, both because it distracts from the pleasant crunchiness and "chopped" appearance of the salad, and because of the insect issue.

Because the salad is so simple, its flavor and texture rely on using the freshest ingredients. Look out for juicy, locally-grown tomatoes, avoiding the pink, fuzzy specimens often available at the grocery store. (And remember: If possible, use your tomatoes quickly so you can avoid refrigerating them, which causes them to lose some of their firmness.) Plum tomatoes, which have firmer flesh and fewer seeds than beefsteak tomatoes, are a good substitute for farm-fresh produce.

As for cucumbers...Israeli passions run high on the subject. "Thats not a cucumber!" my Israeli brother-in-law always says when confronted with an overgrown, seedy American specimen coated with wax. At the time I first heard his protests, I thought they were simply Israeli produce snobbery-but seeking out the best cucumbers really makes a difference for this salad. The smaller, bumpy Kirby cucumbers are more flavorful and crunchier than the regular variety.

Another good alternative is the English hothouse cucumber, sometimes touted as a

"burpless" cucumber. If you buy regular supermarket cucumbers, be sure to peel or thoroughly scrub the skins to get rid of any waxy residues. (And a tip for the burping problem: Cut the cucumbers into slices, then rub the pieces together until theyre slightly frothy. Rinse, then chop.)

Dressing the salad is a matter of personal preference. A light drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil and freshly squeezed lemon juice, perhaps accented by chopped fresh herbs, is simple and delicious. Another alternative is to use sesame-seed paste, or thina. Jarred thina looks like natural-style peanut butter, and contains a layer of oil on the top. To transform raw thina into dressing, stir it as much as possible in the jar to incorporate the oil, then remove a bit to a bowl. Add water and freshly-squeezed lemon juice to taste until the thina is of dressing consistency, then salt to taste. Another dressing option is a yogurt-based sauce, which is particularly good for breakfast.

If you would like to email yourself the recipe for later use, or share the recipe with your friends or family, enter the email addresses below and this recipe will be emailed to you and others as well.