Ali Baba Cave Tahini Salad, sans parsley and mint.
Tahini Salad from Ala Baba Cafe is the secret ingredient in the miraculous shawarma wraps served at this long gone and sorely missed spot in San Francisco’s Lower Haight. I was delighted to find a snapshot of the menu and learned that the shawarma wrap was served with “hummous, parsley, onions, potatoes and tahini salad”. Tahini salad? Luckily that was also served, as a side dish, and we learn it contained “tomato, cucumber, parsley mint and tahini sauce”. I was so excited I left out the parsley and mint in this test run, but the salad was still delicious and the wrap I made with it was as good as I remembered, Makes about a pint, enough for several wraps or side salads.
Ingredients:
1 whole cucumber, peeled and cored (or use Persian cucumber which requires neither)
2 plum tomatoes
1 t dried spearmint or 1 T finely chopped fresh
¼ c chopped parsley*
For the sauce:
6 T tahini (mix of solid and liquid if separated)
1 clove garlic
¼ c lemon juice
¼ t kosher salt
about ¼ c water (see below)
Method: emulsify sauce ingredients in mini-chop, adding enough water to make a pourable/spreadable but not watery sauce. Chop cucumber and tomato into small dice and combine with sauce along with parsley and mint. Give the favors a few minutes to meld, then serve as a side salad or spread on the interior of a shawarma wrap.
*If using chopped parsley in your shawarma wrap you can reduce or eliminate it here.
Shawarma Wrap under construction, sans parsley and mint.
Y’know, if the tomatoes were ham chunks, or tomatoes with ham chunks, it’s a complete meal. Ham and tahini seems oddly familiar.