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This Iranian salad hits way above its weight. Shirazi salad is kind of like Iran's answer to salsa or pico. Think of it like Israeli salad, but with wayyy more flavor. And did I mention this killer recipe only has 4 quick steps?
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Traditionally served with Persian rice and kebabs, shirazi salad is named after the city of Shiraz in southern Iran. No lettuce, no vinegar-just crisp cucumber, tomato, red onion, herbs, and a little citrus. It's kinda the perfect side for borani banjan, and vegan shawarma.
This super-well tested recipe keeps it traditional with a hint of dried mint and sumac, and a lemon-olive oil dressing that doesn't overpower. It's quick, refreshing, and nourishing as heck.
Just made this last week. Perfect accompaniment in the Sabich Sandwich, even though I can also eat it as a stand alone salad or side dish. Nice, fresh summery dish. Cant wait til cucumber/ tomato season kicks in. I'll be making it every week. Although I haven't done it yet, I can see my self adding couscous to make a nice cold salad / side dish.
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🥰Why you'll adore this shirazi salad recipe
✊ Vegan AF & GF: Like all of my vegan Middle Eastern recipes, this doesn't have any yogurt, mayo, or weird, untraditional creamy dressing. It also happens to be completely gluten-free, which is great, since you hate gluten with all of your heart and soul…
🕒 Done in Under 15 Minutes: If you can chop, you can make this. No cooking, no chilling required unless you want to. Most of the time this recipe takes is the tomato draining so that your salad isn't a swampy gloom-fest that sucks. Just enough time for you to write a poem about your dog, and quickly graffiti it on the Whitehouse, or whatever.
✅ Tested and Approved Worldwide: Like all my vegan recipes, this one was dialed in by hundreds of recipe testers all around the world before I hit publish.
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🥗Shirazi salad Ingredients
Persian cucumbers
Persian cucumbers with thin skin and extra crisp texture hold their shape and don't need peeling, which is why I rock them in cucumber beet salad, Korean cucumber salad, Thai cucumber salad, and Japanese cucumber salad too. The base makes this one of the most refreshing Mediterranean salads.
English cucumbers are also fine to use in this light salad. The fact that they are bigger doesn't matter, since I wrote the measurements for this recipe in cups anyway. Regular cucumbers can work, but they have a lot of water and may make your salad soggy. Seedless cucumbers or mini cucumbers are great alternatives that have fewer seeds.
Mint
This recipe uses dried mint in the salad itself, but if you have fresh mint, it's great to use as a garnish for the salad.
Got dried mint just to make this with, and don't know what else to make with it other than tea? Use it up in yayla corbasi, Turkish rice, or makdous (oil cured eggplant).
Sumac
Dry and citrusy, sumac brings tartness without adding liquid. It tightens up the flavors and makes the tomatoes and onion pop. You'll find it starring in Moroccan carrot salad, cranberry ezme, and muhammara, too-anywhere a sharp, lemony edge needs to cut through richness.
Tomatoes
My go-to tomatoes for this salad are big ol' beefsteak tomatoes, because they have a high meat-to-skin ratio. Same reason why I rock them in my zaalouk and matbucha.
The main thing is that we are gonna drain them to make sure your salad doesn't come out watery and lame, ok?
*See the recipe card at the bottom of the page for exact quantities, nutritional info, and detailed cooking directions.
🤯Variations
Turkish acili ezme
Chop the veg super fine so it's almost spoonable, and add Aleppo pepper or pul biber for gentle heat and deep red color. Like Shirazi salad, acili ezme is bright, and fiery.
Shirazi Salad with Baharat and Radish
Adding some thinly sliced radishes and baharat brings some really nicely balanced warmth and muskiness. This salad is especially good with grilled stuff and mercimek kofte.
Syrian Fattoush
Fattoush is probably the most famous salad from anywhere in the Middle East. It's loaded up with za'atar roasted pita chips and dripping with pomegranate molasses dressing.
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📖 How to make shirazi salad
No need to guess your way through this salad, just follow the steps below and you'll have it nailed the first time. Or if you're the print-it-and-smudge-it type, there's a recipe card waiting at the bottom.
Step One
Andrew Dice Clay:
Finely dice the cucumbers, tomatoes, and red onion.
Step Two
The Bog Of Eternal Stench:
Want a swampy, sucky shirazi salad on your hands? Then skip this step. If not, drain your tomatoes in a wire mesh strainer for 10 minutes.
✅ Shake the strainer once or twice while the tomatoes drain to get as much water out as you can.
Step Three
Sumac-Ac-Ac-Ac-Ac-Ac, You Oughta Know by Nowwww:
Add the chopped veggies to a bowl along with the herbs, sumac, olive oil, lemon juice, and salt.
Step Four
Dressed to Impress:
Stir until evenly combined. Taste and adjust salt or lemon and salt if needed. Serve at room temp or lightly chilled.
💡Serving Ideas
This salad belongs right next to a big ol' bowl of Lebanese lentil soup or Moroccan spiced lentils.
It's perfect in a mezze spread with makdous, Lebanese baba ganoush, harissa hummus, or kisir.
It even turns a bowl of rice into a pretty darned special meal. Rock it over Persian rice, Lebanese rice, Egyptian rice, or Moroccan rice and prepare yourself for surges of joy, shivers of pure-glee, tears of happiness, and other emotional symptoms like those.
👉Top tips
- Seed wet tomatoes: If your tomatoes are watery, scoop out the seed pulp so it doesn't flood the salad.
- Use a serrated knife: It makes cutting tomatoes easier and cleaner, helping you get those tidy little uniform cubes without turning them to mush.
- Drain the day after: Leftovers can get swampy, salt keeps pulling moisture from the veggies. Give it a quick drain and stir, and re-season before serving again.
🤷♀️ Recipe FAQs
Traditionally, it's optional, but a little bit of cold-pressed extra-virgin olive oil smooths out the sharpness and helps carry the flavor.
Absolutely. Stuff it into freshly grilled kuboos with vegan kofta, or into a sabich sandwich.
Please don't. This is not a gosh darned Middle Eastern pico de galo popsicle! You will be sent to Shiraz hell for committing such a terrible deed. That is a special kind of hell presided over by a devil who's carefully crafted out of bubbly old hummus from Samsclub…
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Shirazi Salad
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups Persian cucumbers diced
- 3 cups tomatoes diced
- ½ cup red onion diced small
- 4 teaspoons dried mint
- 2 tablespoons parsley chopped
- ¾ teaspoon sumac
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- ½ teaspoon salt or to taste
To Garnish:
- Mint leaves
- Parsley leaves
Instructions
- Dice the cucumbers, tomatoes, and red onion.
- Drain the tomatoes in a wire mesh strainer for 10 minutes.
- Mix all diced vegetables in a medium bowl, along with the chopped mint and parsley, sumac, olive oil, lemon juice, and salt.
- Toss gently until everything is well combined. Serve chilled or at room temperature.
Notes
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Jen says
I made this fantastic salad to go with the Mujadara Lentils, and let me tell you... I received rave reviews from my tribe, one of whom is my SO, who played football, grew up in KC on ribs, wings, and potato salad, and has never tried any ethnic food whatsoever in his lifetime. There were multiple comments like, "Oh my god..." and "this is the most amazing..." I made a double-batch of Shirazi, and between that and the Mujadara, there were almost no leftovers! The following week, I made the Aloo Gobi with similar reactions. Everyone is excited to see what I'll make next. My advice? Go to an international market and buy the actual ingredients (real Persian cucumbers, cumin and mustard seeds, etc.) or, better yet, purchase them through Adam's links so we can support this uber-talented chef! It really isn't that expensive and makes a world of difference in the taste. And now I have a basket in my pantry of wonderful spices to try more of Adam's recipes. I'm stoked!
hg says
Just made this last week. Perfect accompaniment in the Sabich Sandwich, even though I can also eat it as a stand alone salad or side dish. Nice, fresh summery dish. Cant wait til cucumber/ tomato season kicks in. I'll be making it every week. Although I haven't done it yet, I can see my self adding couscous to make a nice cold salad / side dish.