This recipe was given to my by my Aunt Suzy several years ago in a collection of recipes using preserved lemons. For my husband and my wedding present, she gave us "dinner in a box for a year," and 4 times that year she gave us a box full of menus, ingredients, recipes and accompanying wine for us to cook up gourmet meals together. One of the boxes was full of preserved lemon recipes, and a few menus for Mediterranean meals using them. This recipe was included, and I've made it several times since then!
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<br />I added the olives to the recipe, and I think it is a must have. I love the olive, beet and orange combo...those flavors are wonderful together. I've made it without the walnuts before (just because I burnt them accidentally and didn't have time to make more), and it was still great. The preserved lemons are optional, but I think add such a great kick to it. The problem is that purchased preserved lemons are never as good as homemade, and it's not really an ingredient that most cooks have on hand. But I included the recipe for them, and I highly recommend making them...they keep for a year, and there are so many wonderful things you can put them in!
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<br />My aunt said that she got this recipe originally from the cookbook "From Tapas to Meze: First Courses from the Mediterranean Shores of Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, the Middle East, and North Africa" by Joanne Weir.
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<br />The original recipe says that it serves 6, but my husband and I can eat the whole thing as a main course, sharing with our toddler son. So I'm going to say that it serves 4 (we eat a lot of salad), but if you're going to serve it as a side dish or tapas style, stick with the "serves 6" estimate. - margauxbakes

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