Shopska Salad

A day late this week, as we just returned from vacation in Ontario, Canada. While there we had this wonderful salad in a Serbian restaurant. In researching, I came to see the same recipe listed as Croatian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, etc. Nevertheless, it was great. It is important to dice the vegetables as indicated. If not, you may think you are making a Greek salad as the ingredients are very similar without the black olives!

Shopska Salad

Servings 6

• 1 large beefsteak tomato about or the same amount of regular tomatoes
• 3 mini cucumbers each about 15 cm/ 6 inches long or a regular long cucumber
• 3 bell peppers red, yellow and green
• 1 medium onion red or white
• 1 handful fresh parsley
• 3 tablespoons sunflower oil
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar to taste
• 1 cup feta cheese
• fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. Chop the tomatoes into cubes. Halve and chop the mini cucumbers. If using a large cucumber, remove the seeds with a tablespoon. Chop the bell peppers. Finely chop the onion and the parsley.

2. Mix all the vegetables in a large bowl.

3. Dressing: whisk together the sunflower oil, red wine vinegar, fine sea salt, and pepper. Add to the salad and stir.

4. Crumble the creamy feta on top of the salad. Sprinkle cheese on the salad or mash it with a fork and smear on top of the salad. You can also crumble it and stir it into the salad.

5. Adjust the taste with salt and pepper and more vinegar, if you like it.