Iranian Shirazi salad, a refreshing summer salad to enjoy with grilled meats, chicken kebabs and as a side dish. Shirazi salad takes its name from the Iranian city of Shiraz. It’s easy, quick, colorful and much lighter than a pasta salad.
Shirazi salad with cucumbers, tomatoes and onions is very similar to Moroccan salad. The ingredients are almost identical, except for the herbs and the preparation method.
This cucumber salad contains dried or fresh mint and parsley, whereas Moroccan cucumber salad contains no herbs.
Each family prepares it in their own way. In Morocco cucumbers and tomatoes are peeled and finely chopped with onions. The salad is eaten with a spoon and not, like Iranian salad, with a fork.
I like both versions very much, but I prefer the Moroccan salad, which I find much more refreshing. It is served with eggplant zaalouk salad and smoked bell pepper salad as an accompaniment to many dishes.
There’s no shortage of it on any table around the main course, which can be a prune tagine, a vegetable tagine, the famous daghmira roast chicken dish and so on…
The way the vegetables are cut makes all the difference in these two salads, both of which contain cucumber, tomato and onion.
In Morocco, a real cucumber and tomato salad has nothing in common with the texture of shirazi salad, in which the vegetables are diced.
Today I’d like to offer you the Iranian version, a quick and easy summer salad that’s a perfect accompaniment to a barbecue or oven kebabs.
Table of Contents
Tips for a fresh salad
For a tasty, refreshing Shirazi salad, choose fresh, seasonal vegetables. This economical, easy-to-prepare salad requires only a few readily available ingredients:
Cucumber: Persian cucumbers are perfect for their crunchiness, but English cucumbers also work well thanks to their thin skin and absence of seeds.
Tomatoes: Choose ripe but firm ones. Remember to remove the seeds and juice to prevent the salad from becoming too runny.
Onion: Red, white or sweet, use whichever you prefer, according to taste.
Fresh mint: Adds a typical aromatic touch. If you don’t like the taste, you can replace it entirely with parsley.
Parsley: Fresh and finely chopped.
Olive oil: For seasoning, use a quality oil.
Lemon: Its juice provides the acidity needed to balance the flavors.
Salt and pepper: Adjust to taste.
Ingredients:
NB: You’ll find the printable recipe card at the end of the article.
- 3 medium cucumbers
- 2 large tomatoes
- 1 small onion
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- Salt
- Pepper
- 5 mint leaves
- 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
- 1 lemon
How to prepare shirazi salad
There’s nothing complicated about preparing this salad. It’s a salad that’s very quick to prepare, and you can even make it in advance.
Wash and dry vegetables thoroughly. Remove the seeds and juice from the tomatoes. Cut everything finely into brunoise, very small dice.
Mix in a bowl with the olive oil and lemon juice, season with salt and pepper.
Add chopped mint and parsley and stir before serving. If you want to prepare the salad a few hours in advance, simply place the chopped vegetables in an airtight tin without seasoning.
Chill well in the fridge before dressing for a refreshing salad.
Season just before serving or a few minutes before. The salad will drip a little, but it’s a pleasant juice that adds freshness and is thirst-quenching.
Simple Shirazi Salad Recipe (cucumber-tomato-onion)
INGREDIENTS
- 3 medium cucumbers
- 2 large tomatoes
- 1 small onion
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- Salt
- Pepper
- 5 mint leaves
- 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
- 1 lemon
PREPARATION
- Wash and dry vegetables.
- Peel and seed tomatoes.
- Finely dice all vegetables (brunoise)
- Mix in a bowl.
- Chill well in the fridge before dressing for a refreshing salad.
- Season with salt, pepper, olive oil and lemon juice before serving.
- Mix before adding the chopped mint and parsley.
- Serve the Shirazi salad chilled.