Description
Shirazi Salad is bright, fresh, herbal and lemony with an abundance of pleasing textures from tomatoes, cucumbers, red onions and fresh herbs. A simple dressing of lemon juice and olive oil highlights the crisp, bright herbaceous salad. This delectable cucumber salad it complements any main dish from beef, lamb, pork chicken and fish to soups, stews and casseroles.
Ingredients
Units
Scale
For the Salad
- 4 mini cucumbers (Persian cucumbers), small diced
- 10 oz. grape tomatoes, small diced (I used heirloom, but any work.)
- 1/2 cup red onions, minced
- 1/4 cup fresh mint, chopped
- 2 Tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
- 1 Tablespoon fresh cilantro, chopped
- zest of 1 lemon (save the juice for the dressing)
For the Dressing:
- Juice of 2 medium lemons (1/4 cup)
- 1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 Tablespoon dried dill weed
- 1 teaspoon sumac
- salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Wash and chop all your vegetables and herbs. You want the cucumbers and tomatoes to be small diced, while the red onion should be minced. Also chop the parsley, mint and cilantro, finely.
- Zest one of the lemons. You can actually zest both and freeze the zest of the second one for another recipe if you like. But you’ll only need the zest of one for this bright cucumber salad.
- Juice both lemons. You’ll need about 1/4 cup of lemon juice. For the medium lemons I had, it required two.
- Add the chopped cucumbers, tomatoes, red onion, mint, parsley, cilantro and lemon zest to a mixing bowl. Stir everything together to distribute the ingredients evenly.
- In a liquid measuring cup, add the fresh lemon juice, olive oil, dried dill, ground sumac, salt and pepper. Whisk them together to make the dressing for your salad.
- Pour the dressing over your salad and toss to coat all the vegetables.
- You can serve the salad immediately. But, if you have 30 minutes to let it rest in the fridge, the flavors in Shirazi salad come alive and meld to be their brightest best. Yum!
Notes
I don’t have access to the traditional sour grape juice for the traditional dressing. If you do, by all mines give it a try. You could also try substituting lime juice for the lemon, in the recipe.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Category: Salad, Side Dish, Vegetable
- Method: Cold Prep
- Cuisine: Persian American