If you’ve ever eaten at a Balkan restaurant, specifically Serbian, you would have seen Šopska Salata as a salad option. This, along with Kupus Salata is a staple and found on the menu of pretty much every restaurant. Coming from Bulgaria, the original dish has sweet or roasted peppers in the mix. Sometimes I put the peppers in, sometimes I don’t; it all depends on if I have some on hand. This time I didn’t have any peppers on hand so I omitted them.
The ingredients are simple: tomato, cucumber, onion, and fresh or roasted peppers all drizzled with some oil and sprinkled with salt, then tossed. I prefer to use shallots in my salad because it’s a milder onion flavor, but feel free to use any onion you’d like. Finally, the crown jewel is placed on top: a generous amount of grated feta cheese.
And that’s it.
Some restaurants have taken this humble salad and modernized it by adding fish on top to make it an entree, and some have even added lettuce to it. I’m not a fan of adding the lettuce to be honest. Some things should just stay as they are.
Šopska Salata /Shopska Salad
Course: SidesCuisine: Balkan, Bulgarian, Serbian4
servings5
minutesA traditional side salad, found on almost all restaurant menus.
Ingredients
3 medium tomatoes, sliced into wedges and then in half
1 medium shallot, diced
1 medium cucumber, chopped
1 sweet bell pepper (or use roasted from a jar)
3 tablespoons (45 ml) oil (I use sunflower)
1/2 cup (75 g) feta cheese, grated
Salt, to taste
Directions
- Combine all salad ingredients into a mixing bowl except for the feta cheese. Stir to combine and adjust for salt.
- Transfer the salad to your serving dish and grate the feta cheese over the top.
- Serve immediately.
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