Ripe tomatoes and crisp cucumbers shine in this simple Shirazi salad recipe. Serve the cucumber and tomato salad alongside meat entrees and rice dishes for an easy, refreshing addition to any meal.
What is Shirazi Salad?
Shirazi salad (salad-e Shirazi) is a refreshing Persian salad named for Shiraz, one of the country’s oldest cities in the southwestern region of Iran. It’s made with finely diced cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, and fresh herbs, typically parsley or mint. It’s dressed with olive oil, lemon juice, and salt—though some versions use verjuice (ab ghooreh, a sour grape juice) or pomegranate molasses, letting the bright veggies shine through.
You can find similar cucumber salads across the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia, from simple Jerusalem salad and Egyptian salad to Indian kachumber salad and Turkish coban salatasi. Each version is unique but shares the same foundation, a combination of fresh chopped vegetables.
Key Ingredients
Prioritize fresh vegetables and herbs to make this summer salad. Here’s everything you need to get started.
- Tomato: Roma tomatoes work best since they have less moisture than other varieties.
- Cucumber: Persian cucumbers have the best crunch, but you can use an English cucumber in a pinch.
- Onion: I enjoy the sharpness of red onions, but swap them out for shallots or white onions if that’s what you have.
- Mint: Garnish with fresh mint leaves or parsley.
- Lemon Juice: Fresh lemon juice brightens the salad’s citrusy flavor, or substitute it with verjuice or pomegranate molasses.
- Olive Oil: Use high-quality extra virgin olive oil for the best flavor.
- Spices: Use black pepper and kosher salt to enhance the salad’s flavor and draw moisture from the fresh vegetables.
Additions and Substitutions
- Experiment with mix-ins. Include chopped olives, green bell peppers, chickpeas, white beans, or crumbled feta cheese.
- Balance the flavor. Use red wine vinegar instead of lemon juice.
- Spice things up. Massage ground sumac into the onions like you would prepare sumac onions. The ground sumac berries provide a tart and sweet flavor. Sumac is a popular Middle Eastern spice found online and in health stores. However, I recommend visiting a local Middle Eastern grocery store to explore. Include a pinch of ground Aleppo pepper or Urfa pepper flakes for even more flavor and a bit of heat.
How to Make Shirazi Salad
The full recipe with measurements is in the recipe card below.
Step 1: Use a sharp knife to finely dice the cucumbers and tomatoes and toss them in a salad bowl with kosher salt. Cover and set aside for 20 minutes.
Step 2: Drain the excess liquid (about ½ cup) and transfer the chopped onions and mint or parsley to the bowl.
Step 3: Stir in the lemon juice, olive oil, and black pepper until the vegetables are coated.
Expert Tips
- Prepare the cucumbers. Consider peeling and scooping out the seeds and soft center if using English cucumbers.
- Salt the tomatoes and cucumbers. Chopped vegetable salads tend to release water once dressed. Salting the tomatoes and cucumbers beforehand helps draw out excess moisture, preventing the salad from becoming watery. It’s an extra step, but it’s worth the wait.
- Uniformly dice the vegetables. Shirazi salad is known for its finely diced vegetables rather than larger chunks, allowing them to absorb the dressing more evenly.
If you enjoy Shirazi salad, pair it with one of these dinner recipes!
What Do You Serve With Shirazi Salad?
Shirazi salad pairs beautifully with hearty stews like ghormeh sabzi, flavorful rice dishes such as, such as chicken tikka biryani, chelow, polo, or saffron rice. And you can’t go wrong with these meat entrees: koobideh kabobs, joojeh kabobs, and lamb shoulder chops.
If you want to serve the salad as a main dish, consider adding protein, like grilled chicken or chickpeas, to make it more filling. I love bringing this salad to potlucks with BBQ-baked chicken legs or grilled tandoori chicken.
More Tasty Pairings:
Storage
Store the leftover salad in an airtight container for 3-4 days.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I peel cucumber for salad?
Peeling the cucumbers is entirely up to you. Some people dislike the texture of the peel, so if that’s you, use a vegetable peeler to remove the peel before dicing and tossing the pieces with the other ingredients.
More Salad Recipes:
Shirazi Salad
- 6 Persian cucumbers, finely diced into ½-inch pieces
- 1½ pounds tomatoes, cored and finely diced into ½-inch pieces
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ medium red onion, finely diced into ¼-inch pieces
- ¼ cup parsley or mint leaves, chopped
- ¼ cup lemon juice, 1-2 lemons
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- Use a sharp knife to finely dice the cucumbers and tomatoes and toss them in a salad bowl with kosher salt. Cover and set aside for 20 minutes.
- Drain the excess liquid (about ½ cup) and transfer the chopped onions and mint or parsley to the bowl. Toss to combine.
- Stir in the lemon juice, olive oil, and black pepper until the vegetables are coated.
- Prepare the cucumbers. Consider peeling and scooping out the seeds and soft center if using English cucumbers.
- Salt the tomatoes and cucumbers. Chopped vegetable salads tend to release water once dressed. Salting the tomatoes and cucumbers beforehand helps draw out excess moisture, preventing the salad from becoming watery. It’s an extra step, but it’s worth the wait.
- Uniformly dice the vegetables. Shirazi salad is known for its finely diced vegetables rather than larger chunks, allowing them to absorb the dressing more evenly.
Mariska
Monday 21st of August 2023
This is so my kind of salad—fresh ingredients, infused with olive oil, and so simple to make. I can eat this every day, Tressa!
Tressa Jamil
Monday 21st of August 2023
I feel the same way. I tell people all the time that I could eat salad every day and never get tired of it.