Mediterranean cucumber & tomato salad – Maman’s Shirazi Salad

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Created on 9 October 2023
Updated on 6 March 2024

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This 10 mins salad inspired by my mother-in-law's is refreshing, easy to make, and a perfect side dish to any food. The Persian Shirazi salad has been my go-to easy salad, incorporating three main staple ingredients - tomato, cucumber, and onion.

Mediterranean cucumber & tomato salad - Salad Shirazi

This simple Mediterranean cucumber & tomato salad is a classic family recipe in my in-law’s house. My husband is from Iran, and this traditional salad is called Salad Shirazi – named after a city in Iran called Shiraz, where the famous red wine grapes originate.

Make Salad Shirazi with me!

When I was at my in-law’s house, this Mediterranean tomato & cucumber salad was a simple salad she would make for lunch and dinner. Due to the refreshing taste with a hint of sourness from the lemon zest, it is common to pair salad Shirazi with beef dishes, complimenting the beefy taste. It pairs well with her kebab, beef stew, and bean rice especially.

In her kitchen, she often relied on me to chop or cut vegetables. She was always impressed with my speed when cutting the cucumber. A skill that I owe to my mom for outsourcing labor in the kitchen during my early age. After a while, the preparation of salad was delegated to me. She would taste and tell what needed to be added, and now I think I have mastered salad Shirazi well enough that she would immediately approve it.

Influence of Mediterranean food in Iran

I called some Persian salads in my recipe ‘Mediterranean’, as I found many similarities between Mediterranean and Persian cuisine. The geographical proximity and the Silk Road history might be the influencing factors in cooking and the uses of similar ingredients.

Iranian food – photo from eavartravel.com

These similarities can be seen in

The everyday use of healthy fat in food such as olive, goat cheese, butter, and heavy consumption of yogurt
The method of cooking the meat which is through grilling and stewing
Use of herbs and spices, including dills, parsley, basil, and fenugreek.
Incorporate legumes in many foods – Check my Persian lentil soup and Persian lentil rice.
Have quite a variety of pickled vegetables eaten as a side dish or meze
Sharing numerous similar dishes – Dolmeh is similar to Greek food called Dolma, Falafel is the same as in Egypt, Mast o khiar is a yogurt and cucumber sauce also seen in Greek and Turkish meze.

What to eat this Mediterranean salad with?

The Iranian way of eating salad Shirazi – paired with beef stew, beans rice (like the photo below) or fish.
The Mexican way of eating Pico de Gallo – as a dip or side with taco
Arabic way – Stuff it in pita bread with falafel or as a side with Arabic rice.

Beans rice with Shirazi salad – Photo from eavartravel.com

Ingredients to make salad Shirazi

Tomato

Similar to Iranian food, tomato is widely used as a base ingredient in Mediterranean cuisine. Pick the tomato as red as you can possibly find to get that bright color, but make sure it’s still hard and not too ripe. Overripe tomatoes will make the salad too watery.

Cucumber

I use small Persian cucumbers for this recipe. Depending on where you are, this thin cucumber might called as Japanese cucumber. Whatever the name, try to get the one with a crunchy texture and fewer seeds. If you watch my video, you will notice I didn’t peel the skin. Cucumber skin holds many vitamins and minerals and I like to include them as maman does.

Lemon

There is no salad Shirazi without acid. Other variations of salad Shirazi incorporate unripe grape juice or pomegranate vinegar instead of lemon. They give a slightly sweet, sharp, and vinegarish tanginess. My mother-in-law sometimes uses it too. However, it can be hard to find in my country, so I just stick with lemon.

Onion

Onion does make a huge difference when it comes to salad. I use 1 whole red onion in this recipe. You want to add enough sharpness to your salad but not too much that it gets too harsh on your tongue. You can control the amount by adding gradually and dice them very thinly so they spread evenly in their tiniest shape.

Ingredients to make Mediterranean cucumber and tomato salad / Salad Shirazi

Other ingredients you can add to this Mediterranean cucumber and tomato salad

If I feel like having extra volume in my cucumber and tomato salad, I would add more ingredients like avocado and parsley. Another way that Persians add sourness to their salad is by using sumac. You can read more about sumac in my other post featuring sumac salad.

Talking about sumac, I have created a salad dressing for Shirazi salad incorporating sumac as the souring agent and flavoring. This dressing not only saves me time when preparing Shirazi salad but also enhances the nutritional value of my salad bowl. I found it equally great on green salad too.

If you like adding some Mediterranean touch to this salad, add olive oil, olive, feta cheese, and Italian parsley. Try wine vinegar as the acid to get that tanginess with a slightly sweet taste.

How long you can keep Shirazi salad in the fridge?

This cucumber and tomato salad can get a bit watery the longer you keep it, but the good thing is, it gets more refreshing and deep in taste. Cover them in a closed-lid container, preferably air-tight, and keep them in the fridge for up to 4 days.

What is Persian salad made of?

The famous salad in Iran is called Shirazi salad. The name is taken from a city located in the southwest of Iran called Shiraz – known for its ancient poets, artists, and wine. Shirazi salad is made of cucumber, tomato, and onion, dressed with a choice of different acidity according to personal preferences including lemon, vinegar (white, pomegranate, and grape vinegar) seasoned with salt, sometimes sumac and dried mint.