Simple Shirazi Salad (Persian Recipe) - Little Sunny Kitchen (2024)

This Mediterranean Shirazi salad is so fresh, simple, quick, and easy to make! It complements so many dishes and adds a lot of color and flavor to your meals. Uses very simple common ingredients, and ready in just 15 minutes.

What is Shirazi Salad

Shirazi salad or salad-e Shirazi is a traditional cucumber and tomato Persian salad that comes from Shiraz; a city in the South West of Iran.

It has a similar flavor profile to Greek salad, but it’s naturally vegan without the addition of feta or any other cheese. The dressing is so simple and couldn’t be any easier to make! It uses extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice seasoned with a pinch of salt and ground black pepper.

Traditionally sour grape juice (ab-ghooreh) is used in the dressing, but it’s a hard-to-find ingredient, I substitute it with lemon or lime juice.

When it comes to herbs, Shirazi salad is best known for using dried and crushed mint leaves. Dried mint has a unique flavor, and often used in Middle Eastern cooking.

Fresh mint leaves are delicious in Fattoush Salad, which is a lettuce salad with fried pita croutons and lots of crunchy vegetables.

The Ingredients

• Cucumber – normally crisp Persian cucumbers are used, but if you can’t find them (I rarely can) use an English cucumber instead, it has fewer seeds and thin skin so you don’t need to peel the cucumber.
• Tomatoes – pick a variety of tomatoes that are firm, not too juicy, too seedy, or over-ripe. I usually go for Roma, Campari, or salad tomatoes.
• Onion – red, white, or yellow.
• Dried mint – crushed dried mint is what’s used in Shirazi salad. If you can’t find it, you can easily make it by dehydrating some mint leaves and crushing them with your hands. You can substitute dried mint with half a cup of fresh chopped mint leaves.
• For the dressing, use extra virgin olive oil, lemon or lime, salt, and pepper.
• Parsley – not a typical ingredient in traditional Persian salad, but I like to add it.

How to Make Shirazi Salad

Finely dice the vegetables, but do not use a food processor or a chopper for that. The dice should be as fine as what you’d do for tabouleh salad. More like this tahini salad, or pico de gallo salsa. See pictures below.

Make the dressing. Just combine the olive oil with lemon juice, salt, pepper, and add in the dried mint. If you want to emulsify the dressing, use a whisk but this step is not necessary nor traditionally done.

You can also add the dressing ingredients on top of the diced vegetables rather than whisk in a separate bowl, mix the salad very well.

Toss the salad with the dressing until everything is well coated in the dressing. Serve immediately or allow the flavors to settle and infuse for 30 minutes before serving.

Top Tips for Making Salad Shirazi

• If using juicy tomatoes, place them in a colander after dicing to get rid of the extra juices.
• This salad is best prepared and enjoyed immediately (or within an hour) as the vegetables become soggy with the dressing if stored in the fridge overnight. However, if you’re making this a couple of hours ahead, that works fine but I recommend dressing it right before serving.
• Add more fresh herbs such as cilantro, dill, and mint leaves. This is not traditional but can be a tasty addition.
• Serve this salad with rice dishes such as Mujadara, or stews, Middle Eastern pastries, hummus, and soups.