Bulgarian national salad (shopska)

Published on 15 min side, ahead, summer, fall

I was introduced to this super simple salad recipe when traveling in Eastern Europe. A similar recipe exists in multiple of those countries, and always stars three main ingredients: cucumbers, tomatoes and feta. From there, everything else is optional.

Ingredients

  • 1 cucumber, diced
  • 3 tomatoes, diced
  • 1 feta cheese, diced
  • 0.5 red bell pepper, dicedoptional
  • 1 small red onionoptional
  • 1 tbsp sunflower oiloptional
  • 0.5 tbsp red wine vinegaroptional
  • Fresh parsley, thinly choppedoptional
  • Pepper and saltoptional

Instructions

  1. Dice the cucumber, feta cheese, tomatoes and bell pepper. Dice the onion in small pieces. Add everything to a big salad bowl.
  2. Drizzle sunflower oil and vinegar over diced vegetables. Season with salt and pepper. Chop parsley and sprinkle on salad. Stir to coat evenly.

Note: It is possible to omit everything except for the cucumber, tomatoes and feta cheese.

Adapted from this original recipe