Shirazi Salad
TURKISH · TURKEY

Shirazi Salad

سالاد شیرازیSalad

Dice everything small, dress it with nothing but lime, salt and a gloss of olive oil, and let the juices pool at the bottom of the bowl. It is the crisp, sour reset that every Persian meal leans on.

Total
20 min
Heat
0/5
Serves
4

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Flavour profile

Heat
Funk
Acid
Richness
Umami
  • Crunchy
  • Fresh
  • Herby
  • Sour

The real deal

Region
Shiraz, southern Iran — the salad every Iranian table sets down beside rice and kebab.
Technique
Everything cut into small, even dice so it eats with a spoon, then dressed with lime or lemon, salt and a little oil and rested briefly so the juices mingle.
We kept
The fine dice, the cucumber-tomato-onion trio, the mint and the sour lime dressing; nothing softened, nothing cooked.

Ingredients

4 Serves

salad

  • 2 · peeled if the skin is thick, seeded
  • 3 · firm, ripe, seeded
  • 1 · very finely diced, rinsed

Dressing

  • 2
  • 2 tbsp
  • ¾ tsp

finish

  • 1 tsp · rubbed between the palms
  • 3 tbsp · optional · finely chopped
  • 1 tsp · optional

Method

  1. Peel if the skin is thick, halve it lengthways and scrape out the watery seeds with a spoon. Cut into small, even cubes about 0.5 cm across and tip into a wide bowl. Halve , squeeze out the seeds and cut the flesh into cubes the same size as the cucumber so every spoonful is even. Dice as fine as you can — smaller than the cucumber, so it seasons rather than crunches. Rinse the dice in a sieve under cold water and shake dry; that takes the raw burn out and leaves only sweetness.

    Seeding is not optional: the seeds are what turn a Shirazi salad into a puddle.

    A coarse onion dice dominates everything else in the bowl. Take the extra minute.

  2. Chop finely. Rub between your palms to wake it up.

  3. Squeeze over the vegetables, add and , and toss gently with your hands or two spoons. You want everything coated, not bruised.

    Taste the lime before you commit: a dry lime needs two, a juicy one only one.

  4. Fold in the herbs, cover and rest in the fridge for 20 min. The salad should be cold and just starting to sit in its own pink-tinted juice.

    Past an hour it keeps softening; it is at its best from half an hour to two.

  5. Taste for salt and lime, dust with and serve straight from the bowl, spooning some of the juices over each portion.

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