Shirazi salad
Three vegetables and lime juice — the whole difference lies in the size of the dice. Shirazi is cut to pieces the size of a corn kernel, fine enough that it is eaten with a spoon rather than a fork. That uniformity is the point: one mouthful should hold all three vegetables at once, not one after another. Coarsely cut, shirazi is just cucumber and tomato salad.
Your own work in that: 0 min.
- Dicing 20 min
- Chilling 15 min
Step by step
0 / 6 doneDice everything to 5 mm
First cut the watery seed pockets out of the tomatoes (save them for a soup or sauce). Then cut the cucumber, tomato flesh and onion into an even dice of about 5 mm — the size of a corn kernel. It takes twenty minutes and is the only work in this recipe. A blender or chopper will not do: they release juice and turn the vegetables to pulp.
Ingredients: 400 g cucumbers · 400 g tomatoes · 1 pcs red onion
Everything the same size, around 5 mm.Drain the tomatoes
Put the diced tomatoes in a sieve over a bowl for a few minutes to let the juice run off. Skip it and the salad turns watery within a quarter of an hour, with a puddle in the bowl instead of a dressing. Add the juice to a soup or sauce.
Ingredients: 400 g cucumbers · 400 g tomatoes · 1 pcs red onion
A few minutes in a sieve — the juice stays in the bowl, not in the salad.Rinse the onion under cold water
Rinse the diced onion under cold water and pat it dry. Rinsing tames its bite. In a salad of such delicate vegetables, raw onion would dominate everything else, and it should be only one of three equal parts.
Ingredients: 400 g cucumbers · 400 g tomatoes · 1 pcs red onion
Mix the dressing separately
Whisk the lime juice, oil, sumac, dried mint, salt and pepper. Dried mint, not fresh — in Iran this salad is traditionally made with dried mint, for its more concentrated flavour. Fresh mint goes on top, for aroma.
Ingredients: 2 pcs limes · 3 tbsp olive oil · 1 tsp sumac · 1 tsp dried mint · ½ tsp salt · ¼ tsp pepper
Combine and chill fifteen minutes
Toss the vegetables with the dressing and refrigerate for 15 minutes. No longer: salt draws water out of the cucumber and after an hour the salad is swimming. A quarter of an hour is enough for the flavours to meet while the vegetables stay crisp.
Ingredients: 2 pcs limes · 3 tbsp olive oil · 1 tsp sumac · 1 tsp dried mint · ½ tsp salt · ¼ tsp pepper
Fifteen minutes, no more — salt pulls out water.Scatter fresh mint before serving
Chop the fresh mint and scatter it immediately before serving. Stirred in earlier it darkens and wilts in the lime juice. Serve alongside rice, grilled meat or stews (khoresh) — in Iran shirazi is a refreshing side, not a dish in itself.
Ingredients: ¼ bunch fresh mint
Before you start
A cucumber without seeds
A long greenhouse cucumber has thin skin and few seeds, so it needs neither peeling nor seeding. Peel a field cucumber and cut out the centre — otherwise the salad turns watery whatever else you do.
Sumac for depth
Not every Iranian home adds it, but sumac brings an acidity of a different profile from lime: fruitier and more astringent. It gives the salad more depth. If you have none, simply leave it out.
Make it just before serving
This is a one-sitting salad. By the next day the vegetables are limp and swimming — and draining will not save it, because the structure is gone. You can dice the vegetables up to an hour ahead and keep them separately in the fridge, but dress fifteen minutes before serving.
