Shirazi Salad
Shirazi salad lives or dies on the knife work. Cut everything to the same small dice and every bite tastes complete; chop it rough and it falls apart into separate piles on the fork. Seeding the tomatoes and soaking the onion are the two moves that let it stay crisp and sharp with no salt to draw out water and no oil to coat it. Dress it at the last minute with lime, or with verjuice if you have it, and serve it cold alongside rice and beans.
Ingredients
- 2 wholes Cucumber, about 1 lb (450 g), diced small
- 3 wholes Fresh tomatoes, about 1 lb (450 g), seeds scooped out, diced small
- 1/2 whole Red onions, diced small
- 3 tbsp Mint, chopped
- 1 tsp Dried mint
- 3 tbsp Lime juice, fresh
Method
- Dice the cucumber, tomatoes, and onion into pieces no larger than a corn kernel. The fine, even dice is the dish: it lets every spoonful carry cucumber, tomato, and onion at once, which a rough chop never does.
- Halve the tomatoes and scoop out the watery seeds before you dice them. Shirazi turns to soup within the hour if the tomato jelly goes in, and draining it is what keeps the salad crisp.
- Soak the diced onion in cold water for 10 minutes, then drain it well. The water rinses off the sharp sulfur compounds, so the raw onion reads as bright instead of harsh with no cooking needed.
- Combine the cucumber, tomato, and drained onion with the fresh mint. Crush the dried mint between your fingers as you add it. The two forms do different jobs, dried for depth and fresh for lift.
- Dress with the lime juice only when you are ready to serve, then toss. Verjuice, the juice of unripe grapes, is the classic Shiraz choice if you keep it, and either acid stands in for salt here. Dress it early and the crunch you worked for softens.
Nutrition
Estimated per serving: 60 calories, 2 g protein, 2 g fiber, 15 mg sodium. Computed from USDA FoodData Central reference values for the main ingredients. This is an approximation, not a laboratory measurement. How these are computed.
Cost per serving is estimated from US national-average retail prices for cheap staple forms, using BLS dried-bean prices and USDA produce prices. Prices vary by store and season, so treat it as a guide, not a receipt. How this is computed.
