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Home » Recipes » Mediterranean Recipes

Turkish Sumac Onions

Published: Jun 1, 2024 · Modified: Jul 30, 2020 by Samantha Ferraro · This post may contain affiliate links · 3 Comments

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The perfect condiment for grilled meats or mezze, this Turkish sumac onion salad has thinly sliced red onions tossed with tangy sumac, fresh parsley and bright lemon juice.

Turkish sumac onion salad has thinly sliced red onions tossed with bright sumac, fresh parsley and fresh lemon juice.
Jump to:
  • 🍋 About Turkish Onion Salad
  • 📋 Ingredients
  • ♦️ More About Sumac Spice
  • 🌶️ Substitutions and Variations
  • ⏲️ Instructions
  • 📍 Recipe Tips
  • Serving Suggestions
  • Recipe FAQs
  • More Mediterranean Recipes to Try
  • Turkish Sumac Onions

🍋 About Turkish Onion Salad

Popular in Turkish and other Mediterranean cuisines, sumac onions is the perfect condiment to add to grilled chicken skewers or whole grilled fish, for a bright and crunchy addition.

Thinly slice red onion combines with fresh chopped parsley, a good squeeze of fresh lemon juice, olive oil, tangy sumac and salt. Toss everything together and let the sumac onions marinate while you prepare the rest of your meal.

The next time you're grilling kofta kebabs, or really any Mediterranean mezze, I'd like to strongly suggest (uhh, urge), to mix up this sumac onion salad.

📋 Ingredients

Ingredients for Turkish sumac onion salad including thinly sliced red onions, parsley, lemon and sumac.
  • Red Onion: Thinly slice the red onion as thin as you can. I also like to use a mandolin to get paper thin slices.
  • Parsley: Give the leaves of fresh flat leaf parsley a rough chop. You can use curly parsley as well, but I that because it's heartier, curly leaf parsley needs a finer chop.
  • Olive Oil: This is a simple salad, so use a flavorful and good quality olive oil flavorful the flavors stand out.
  • Sumac: The star of this sumac onion salad is a spice called sumac, which has a distinctive tart flavor. More about sumac below.
  • Lemon Juice: Use fresh lemon juice for this simple onion salad and if you feel inclined, add a scrape of fresh lemon zest as well.
  •  Kosher Salt: All you need is a good sprinkle of Kosher salt to bring all the flavors together.

See recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.

♦️ More About Sumac Spice

The star of this quick Turkish onion salad is a deep red spice called sumac. Sumac comes from the flowering sumac plant and is dried and ground up and is one of the main ingredients in za'atar blend.

Sumac is one of my favorite Mediterranean spices and I use it in a number of ways, including adding a sprinkle on top of vegetable puff pastry tarts, loaded hummus with feta and on watermelon feta salad for a pop of brightness.

You can often find sumac in international or Mediterranean stores as well as on Amazon.

🌶️ Substitutions and Variations

  • Add fresh mint or cilantro along with the parsley.
  • For added spice, add ½ teaspoon of Aleppo pepper.
  • If red onions aren't available, substitute with yellow onions.

⏲️ Instructions

Making this simple Turkish onion salad couldn't be simpler!

  1. Thinly slice the red onion and add to a bowl.
  2. Add the sumac, salt, fresh lemon juice, chopped parsley and good drizzle of olive oil.
  3. Give the onion salad a good mix and let is marinate for 5 minutes so all the flavors some together. Then serve and enjoy!
Turkish sumac onion salad with fresh parsley, lemon juice and olive oil.

📍 Recipe Tips

  • Slice Thin: Use a mandolin for super thin onion slices.
  • Mellow the Onion Flavor: If the onion is too strong, soak the onion slices in cold water for 10 minutes to remove some of the sharpness.
  • Storage: Sumac onion salad will last covered in the refrigerator for 2 days.

Serving Suggestions

Serve the red onion salad over ground lamb kebabs with a good drizzle of tahini sauce and homemade pita bread.

Recipe FAQs

How do you take the bitterness out of raw onions?

Add sliced onions to a bowl of cold water and soak for 10 minutes. Then drain and add to your recipe. The water will help remove some of the sharp bitterness from fresh onions.

How long will red onion salad last?

For a fresh sand crisp onion salad, it will last a good 2 days. As the onions marinate with the salt and lemon, the slices will begin to soften but still taste great!

More Mediterranean Recipes to Try

  • Grilled chicken shawarma kebabs are served on top of hummus and saffron rice.
    Chicken Shawarma Skewers
  • No mayo potato salad with grilled asparagus, capers and dressed in a bright vinaigrette.
    Grilled Potato Salad (No Mayo)
  • Mediterranean Watermelon Salad
  • Zhoug sauce with fresh herbs, jalapeńo and cardamom.
    Zhoug Sauce (Spicy Cilantro Sauce)

Love this recipe? Please leave a 5-star 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟rating in the recipe card below & a review in the comments section further down the page.

Turkish sumac onion salad with fresh parsley, lemon juice and olive oil.

Turkish Sumac Onions

Samantha Ferraro

LittleFerraroKitchen.com

The perfect condiment to topped grilled meats, this Turkish sumac onion salad has thinly sliced red onions tossed with bright sumac, fresh parsley and fresh lemon juice.
4.72 from 35 votes
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Prep Time 10 minutes mins
Total Time 10 minutes mins
Course Side Dish
Cuisine Mediterranean
Servings 4 servings
Calories 73 kcal

Equipment

  • Mandolin

Ingredients
 
 

  • 1 medium sized red onion sliced thin
  • 2 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon sumac
  • Juice of 1 lemon
  • ½ teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 small bunch fresh parsley leaves roughly chopped

Instructions
 

  • Add all ingredients to a bowl and toss to combine.
  • Taste for seasoning and adjust as needed (more salt or more sumac, for example).
  • Let marinated while you prepare the rest of your meal.

Notes

    • Sumac onion salad will last covered in the refrigerator for 2 days.
    • Other substitutions you can do is add fresh mint or cilantro and a za'atar in addition to sumac.
    • Use a mandolin for super thin onion slices.
    • If the onion is too strong, soak the onion slices in cold water for 10 minutes to remove some of the sharpness.
    • Here is a Mediterranean shopping List!

Nutrition

Calories: 73kcalCarbohydrates: 3gProtein: 1gFat: 7gSaturated Fat: 1gSodium: 292mgPotassium: 40mgFiber: 1gSugar: 1gVitamin A: 21IUVitamin C: 2mgCalcium: 6mgIron: 1mg
Did you make this recipe?Let us know by leaving a comment and 5 star rating!

More Flavorful Weeknight Mediterranean Recipes

  • This salmon shawarma salad is full of bold flavors with a spiced salmon filet on top of bright greens.
    Salmon Shawarma Salad
  • This pesto caprese pasta salad with full of cherry tomatoes, Parmesan cheese and a vibrant fresh pesto.
    Caprese Pasta Salad with Pesto
  • Easy one pot pasta recipe with sundried tomatoes and spinach and topped with parmesan cheese.
    One Pot Pasta with Spinach and Tomatoes
  • Turkish lahmacun with lamb and sumac onions.
    Lahmacun (Turkish Pizza)

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Comments

  1. FamilyCook says

    June 22, 2023 at 2:15 pm

    5 stars
    We are a family of 4, 2 that love raw onions and 2 that wouldn't eat a raw onion. We are now a family of Raw onion eaters. The Sumac is great, linda lemony and this is now a topping for our a few time a month Taco bar. Fish tacos, Steak and ground beef or chicken tacos. This Onion Salad goes on all of them.

    Reply
  2. ItsMecookinforU says

    June 19, 2023 at 4:23 am

    5 stars
    I am beginning to see Sumac spice in Mainstream stores a bit now so it was time to try this recipe. So many people dont do raw onion, let me say that if you try this you may change your mind. We are going to try and keep this in our refrigerator at all times. It is a great stand alone dish and if you want toss it together and use it as a topping for any protein. Turkish Sumac Onions goes on our Falafel wrap and Dammm it's good. Chef Samantha makes a Zhoug Sauce, (spicy cilantro). Thats next on my list.

    Reply
  3. Sky says

    June 11, 2023 at 11:35 am

    5 stars
    We followed the recipe Exactly like it says and yesterday at the family BBQ I put the bowl of Turkish Onions on the buffet table. A few people put them on their hot dogs and one person put them on their Burger. Then a few people got up and put the Turkish Onions on their burgers and hot dogs. The entire bowl was gone, luckily almost everybody got to taste the flavor of the sumac spice mixed into this wonderful recipe. I'll double the recipe next time. I ordered the Sumac on Amazon but my neighbor said they have it at the mediterranean market.

    Reply
4.72 from 35 votes (32 ratings without comment)

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