Healthy, light and refreshing Persian Shirazi salad with cucumber and tomato is a simple salad packed with herbs and tossed in an olive oil and lime dressing. This quick and easy side dish can be served with almost every meal.
What is Shirazi Salad?
Shirazi salad (known as salad-e shirazi) is a traditional Persian salad that originated in southern Iran. Similar to a Greek salad, its main ingredients are tomato, cucumber, and onions, but it has a lot more herbs. The vegetables are also diced into small pieces, like in a pico de gallo.
Here is what you will need to make a Shirazi salad:
- tomatoes - you will need 2 cups of tomatoes, diced into very small pieces. This is about 3-4 Roma tomatoes or 20 cherry tomatoes.
- cucumbers - you will need 2 cups of diced cucumber as well. Small Persian cucumbers work best, but you can also use English cucumbers too.
- onions - also diced into small pieces.
- dressing - olive oil, lime juice, salt and pepper
- herbs - fresh parsley and dried mint
How to Make the Best Persian Shirazi Salad
Salad Shirazi is ridiculously easy to make in 5 minutes with a few simple ingredients. Once you have prepped and diced your vegetables, you simply toss them together with the dressing and herbs.
- Dice the tomatoes, cucumbers and onions into small ¼-inch pieces. Transfer to a medium bowl.
- Add olive oil, lime juice, parsley, mint, and salt and pepper. Toss to combine.
- Serve immediately, or cover and place in the refrigerator and chill for at least 30 minutes to allow the flavours to infuse together more.
Tips for Making Shirazi Salad
- Chill the salad. You can serve the salad immediately, but for best results, chill it for at least 30 minutes. This will allow the herby flavours to better infuse into each ingredient.
- How to serve Shirazi salad. Serve this salad with a full Persian dinner including Basmati rice with saffron and Persian saffron chicken kebabs (joojeh kabob). Don't forget some Persian treats for dessert too. My favourites are rice cookies (nan-e-berenji) and chickpea cookies with pistachio (nan-e-nokhodchi).
More Salad Recipes
- The Perfect Greek Salad
- Summer Corn Salad
- Strawberry Avocado Salad with Poppyseed Dressing
- Easy Homemade Potato Salad
- Mediterranean Chickpea Wedge Salad with Hummus Dressing
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Recipe
Persian Shirazi Salad with Cucumber and Tomato
- Total Time: 5 minutes
- Yield: 4 side salads
- Diet: Vegan
Description
Healthy, light and refreshing Persian Shirazi salad with cucumber and tomato is a simple salad packed with herbs and tossed in an olive oil and lime dressing.
Ingredients
- 2 cups tomatoes (about 3-4 Roma tomatoes or 20 cherry tomatoes), diced
- 2 cups small cucumbers (about 2 small Persian cucumbers), diced
- ½ cup onions, diced
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon lime juice
- 2 tablespoons fresh parsley
- ¼ teaspoon dried mint
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
Instructions
- Dice the tomatoes, cucumbers and onions into small ¼-inch pieces. Transfer to a medium bowl.
- Add olive oil, lime juice, parsley, mint, and salt and pepper. Toss to combine.
- Serve immediately, or cover and place in the refrigerator and chill for at least 30 minutes to allow the flavours to infuse together more.
Notes
Chill the salad. You can serve the salad immediately, but for best results, chill it for at least 30 minutes. This will allow the herby flavours to better infuse into each ingredient.
How to serve Shirazi salad. Serve this salad with a full Persian dinner including Basmati rice with saffron and Persian saffron chicken kebabs (joojeh kabob). Don't forget some Persian treats for dessert too. My favourites are rice cookies (nan-e-berenji) and chickpea cookies with pistachio (nan-e-nokhodchi).
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Category: Salad
- Method: Toss
- Cuisine: Persian
Gail says
I really enjoyed this - easy to make and very refreshing on a hot day. Thank you
Charlie says
So simple and good!
Sam | Ahead of Thyme says
Thank you! So glad you liked the recipe!