Shirazi salad has always been one of my top three favorite salads. It’s deceptively simple with just a few ingredients. But it tastes so freakin good.
The simple combo of tangy lemon juice, fresh mint and fresh veggies is just perfection.
Shirazi Salad Ingredients
- Roma tomatoes: Make sure to get super firm tomatoes so they slice well. Or you can opt for cherry tomatoes if you want a sweeter salad.
- Persian cucumbers: These cucumbers work best, because well, this is a persian shirazi salad haha. But they also happen to have the best flavor profile and they’re the sweetest cucumber variety. However, English cucumbers also work well.
- Red onion
- Lemons
- Mint: You’ll need both fresh mint and dried mint. Fresh mint is not really traditional, but I like the bright vibrant flavor it brings to the salad.
- Olive oil
- Kosher salt
Shirazi Salad Dressing
So technically speaking, shirazi salad dressing is basically just lemon juice. However, I like to veer from tradition and add in some olive oil to help with nutrient absorption (many nutrients/vitamins need fat to be properly absorbed in your body).
That said, make sure to use an olive oil with good flavor — if it’s even slightly bitter it’ll make the salad taste bad. So use something fancy!!!
Cheat Sheet to this Recipe
Listing out a few pointers to this fresh and easy shirazi salad recipe.
- Chop all the veggies super small and uniform. One of the defining qualities of shirazi salad is the uniformity of the veggies. Highly recommend taking the time to properly chop the cucumber, onion and tomato into perfectly tiny cubes. The salad just tastes better like this, iykyk!
- Make this salad when you’re ready to eat. Another tip with shirazi is to make it right before you’re ready to eat. The longer it sits, the soggier the veggies get. It’s definitely not the type of salad you can meal-prep.
- Keep all the ingredients cold. Nothing is worse than warm tomatoes or cucumber imo. Plus, this salad is just so much more refreshing when it’s cold.
What to Eat with Shirazi Salad
Typically shirazi salad is a side salad or a starter to the actual meal.
But I love eating it with white rice. Or eating it with fluffy quinoa and my spicy black lentils. Another option is to eat it in pita bread / flatbread as a wrap with some hummus or tzatziki on top. Or have shirazi salad with roasted chickpeas.
The world’s your oyster when it comes to this salad, you just can’t go wrong haha.
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If you make this recipe, make sure tag me on Instagram or TikTok at @munchingwithmariyah so I can share on my stories! Love seeing when you make my recipes!!!
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Shirazi Salad
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 5 1x
- Category: Salad, Side Dish
- Cuisine: Iranian
Description
A simple combo of tangy lemon juice, fresh mint and fresh veggies. Aka the perfect summer salad.
Ingredients
- 4 medium Persian cucumbers
- 4 medium Roma tomatoes, firm
- ½ medium Red onion
- 1 medium Lemon, juiced
- 1 tbsp Dried mint leaves
- 1 tbsp Olive oil
- 1 tsp Kosher salt
- Handful of fresh mint, finely minced
Instructions
- Finely chop the cucumbers, tomatoes and onion into little cubes. The goal is to have them as uniform as possible, but essentially you want them small enough that you can get each veggie in the same bite.
- Add the chopped veggies into a large salad bowl, pour over the lemon juice, along with the dried mint leaves, olive oil, salt and fresh mint. Toss to mix and adjust for salt.
- Serve immediately.
Notes
*If you don’t have fresh mint, 1 Tbsp of dried mint leaves works just as well.
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