Shopska Salad is a fresh, flavorful Macedonian salad that is perfect for summer time! Grab your fresh cucumber, tomatoes, peppers and onions and get ready for a side dish you will want to serve with everything!
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Shopska salad is a very popular salad from Macedonia and Bulgaria and once you try it, you’ll know exactly why. It’s light, fresh and so flavorful! Every summer, my family spends the month of July eating a simple salad made of tomatoes, cucumbers, and red onions. It’s delicious and it just reminds me of hot summer days with garden-fresh food. This Shopska Salad takes that recipe and adds even more light ingredients to make an incredible briny but still easy salad.
This salad is very similar to Kachumbari or Pico de Gallo but with a more Mediterranean twist. With fresh tomatoes, cucumber, onions and peppers all covered in grated feta cheese, it is exactly the side you need to accompany Gyros or any grilled meat.
Just like a delicious Green Goddess Salad this dish comes together quickly and is ready to be eaten right away!
My Thoughts on Shopska Salad
After testing my Shopska Salad from Macedonia/Bulgaria, I sat down to record some quick thoughts on what went well, what my biggest challenges were, and anything I could think of to help you enjoy this recipe as well! Watch the video below.
Why Make This Recipe
- Simple Ingredients: What’s beautiful about this dish is the way simple ingredients meld together to create something so light and fresh!
- Fresh: This salad pairs beautifully with grilled meat and crusty bread. It’s the perfect burst of flavor to add to your meal!
- Authentic Balkan Flavors: Enjoy the same flavors found in traditional kitchens across Macedonia, Bulgaria, and Serbia.
Ingredients to Make Shopska Salad
Here is a visual overview of the ingredients in the recipe. Scroll down to the recipe at the bottom for quantities.
- Roma tomatoes: Roma tomatoes are a good option because they have a lower water content so they create less sogginess. I wouldn’t recommend beefsteak tomatoes because of the amount of seeds in them. Cherry tomatoes are not traditional but would also be nice and crispy!
- Yellow onion: You can substitute white onion for a sharper flavor or red onions for a sweeter flavor. You can also use scallions for a more subtle onion flavor.
- Green Sweet Snap Pepper: A sweet snap pepper is closest to what would be used in Macedonia, so I purchased Sweet Snap Peppers from Trader Joe’s. You can substitute a green bell pepper, but a red bell pepper or roasted red bell pepper will also work.
- Olive oil: Some traditional resources say there is no oil in a shopska salad, but other locals use oil. You can use your own judgement here if you want to include it in your salad!
- Red wine vinegar: Some Macedonians use red wine vinegar while other people opt for apple cider vinegar or even lemon juice.
- Feta cheese: Find feta cheese in a block rather than crumbled. Sirene cheese is what Bulgarians use, but feta is a great substitute. I used a feta that was packaged in liquid for optimal freshness so that the cheese shreds and doesn’t crumble while shredding.
- Kalamata olives: Olives are optional, but to me the salad is not complete without the salty flavor it brings!
Recipe Variations
As with most regional recipes there are plenty of variations to this salad! Feel free to add some fresh parsley or lemon juice for an extra burst of flavor. This salad is vegetarian but to make it vegan you would need to choose a vegan cheese to use.
How to Make This Recipe
Step One: Combine all your ingredients in a large bowl and mix.
Step Two: Finely grate your feta cheese over the top and garnish with olives.
Expert Tips
- This salad is best enjoyed while it is fresh. Serve it right away!
- This salad leaves a lot of juice at the bottom of the bowl which is perfect for dipping crusty bread into. I’m drooling just thinking about it!
Recipe FAQs
I would recommend serving your salad in a shallow bowl so that the feta remains on top! And serve it with Qofte and bread with this Ajvar recipe for an incredible Balkan meal!
This is not a great recipe to make ahead of time. It’s best enjoyed right away to keep all the veggies crisp and flavorful.
Did you enjoy this recipe? If so, try these other recipes I’ve selected just for you:
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Shopska Salad (Shopska Salata)
Ingredients
- 4-5 ripe Roma tomatoes, chopped
- 1 english cucumber, chopped
- ½ small yellow onion, thinly sliced or diced
- 1 green pepper, diced (I used a Sweet Snap pepper from Trader Joe’s to have a similar pepper as what is used in Macedonia)
- 3 Tbsp Olive oil
- 2 tbsp Red red wine vinegar
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- 4 oz Feta cheese block, they normally come in 8 oz blocks and you will need to use about half of it
- 5-6 kalamata olives
Instructions
- Combine 4-5 ripe Roma tomatoes, 1 english cucumber, ½ small yellow onion, 1 green pepper, 3 Tbsp Olive oil, 2 tbsp Red red wine vinegar, and Salt and pepper in a large bowl.
- Place the salad in your serving bowl. Then use a cheese grater to finely grate 4 oz Feta cheese block onto the top of the salad. Garnish with 5-6 kalamata olives. Serve and enjoy!
Video
Notes
- Roma tomatoes: I wouldn’t recommend beefsteak tomatoes because of the amount of seeds in them. Cherry tomatoes are not traditional but would also be nice and crispy!
- Yellow onion: You can substitute white onion for a sharper flavor or red onions for a sweeter flavor. You can also use scallions for a more subtle onion flavor.
- Green Sweet Snap Pepper: You can substitute a green bell pepper, but a red bell pepper or roasted red bell pepper will also work.
- Red wine vinegar: Some Macedonians use red wine vinegar while other people opt for apple cider vinegar or even lemon juice.
- Feta cheese: Sirene cheese is what Bulgarians use, but feta is a great substitute.
- Kalamata olives: Olives are optional.
- This salad is best enjoyed while it is fresh. Serve it right away!
- This salad leaves a lot of juice at the bottom of the bowl which is perfect for dipping crusty bread into. I’m drooling just thinking about it!
Nutrition
Recipe Origins
Although this simple side dish has probably been enjoyed for centuries, the name “Shopska Salad” was first recorded in 1940 in a Bulgarian cookbook, referring to a relish-like dish. The version we know today was actually devised by the state tourism company Balkantourist in 1955.
Petar Doychev, a key figure in Bulgarian tourism, championed the dish’s creation and rollout across tourist hotels. The colors of the salad are said to represent the Bulgarian flag with red, white and green. Shopska was actually one of several “tourism” salads invented during the socialist era, but it became the only one to endure, ultimately achieving status as a national culinary symbol in the 1970s and 80s, and even earning the title of Bulgaria’s most recognizable dish.
If you ask anyone in the region, you may hear different versions of who really made the first iteration of this recipe. Macedonia, Bulgaria and Serbians will all happily claim it!
Today Shopska salad remains a very popular dish in the region and a staple in most households.
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