Crushed Green Olive Salad with Celery and Mint

I knew I was going to love this salad as soon as I read the recipe. I am a big fan of good green olives and celery. In fact, when I travel I always pack green olives and celery as an airplane snack. Also, this salad has mint in it and I love mint in salad. This will be the sixth salad with mint that I have published on this blog. Seriously, type mint into the search bar. Crazy right?

The flavour and texture of the salad is refreshing and complex, especially since it has so few ingredients! You really do have to use good quality olives though. No olives from a can! My favourite olives to use in this salad are Castrelvetrano Sicilian olives which are bright green, very mild in flavour and easy to crush. Cerignola olives also very, very good here.

One of the beautiful things about this salad is that you can make it year round since celery (god bless it) is always available. I have served this salad along side Potato Pizza with Caramelized Onions, as a side dish with simply prepared fish, and in a buffet of summer salads when it became to hot to eat anything cooked.

This recipe is adapted from “Made in Sicily” by Giogio Locatelli by way of the exemplary food blog Lottie and Doof. I have adapted it further to suit my own taste and patience (or impatience) for meticulously cutting and measuring when it comes to making salads.

CRUSHED GREEN OLIVE SALAD WITH CELERY AND MINT

About 1 cup of olives for each person
About 1 cup of diced celery for each person
As much minced fresh mint as meets your fancy (a couple of sprigs per person)
Fresh lemon juice from one lemon for every four people (the original recipe used wine vinegar)
A splash of good extra virgin olive oil
sea salt and pepper to taste

Smash the olives and remove the pits. Toss the olives with the celery and minced mint. Dress with lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper to taste. If you want to extend this salad further you can use it as a topping for a green salad, just dress the lettuces with additional lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper.