Salads and Grain Bowls · Card SA03
Turkish Shepherd's Salad
Called coban salatasi at home, this is the small, finely diced salad that shows up beside every kebab plate in Turkey. Tomato, cucumber, mild green pepper and a little onion are cut to roughly the size of a chickpea, then dressed with lemon and olive oil until the bowl turns juicy.
- Prep
- 20 min
- Cook
- 0 min
- Total
- 20 min
- Serves
- 4
- Level
- Easy
- Cuisine
- Turkish
Method
Step 1: Put the diced onion in a small bowl with 1/4 teaspoon of the salt and squeeze it firmly with your fingers for about 30 seconds, until it softens and gives up some liquid. Rinse under cold water and squeeze dry.
Step 2: Take your time with the knife: cut the tomatoes, cucumbers and both peppers into small, even dice. The uniform size is what makes each spoonful taste of everything at once.
Step 3: Combine the vegetables, rinsed onion and parsley in a glass or ceramic bowl.
Step 4: Sprinkle with the remaining salt, pour over the lemon juice and olive oil, and fold everything together with a large spoon.
Step 5: Let the salad stand for 5 to 10 minutes before serving. The salt draws out the tomato juices, which mingle with the lemon and oil into a thin dressing that pools at the bottom of the bowl.
Step 6: Serve it with a spoon, not tongs, making sure each portion gets some of the juice from the bottom.
Kitchen note
Kneading the chopped onion with salt, then rinsing it, breaks down the sulfur compounds that make raw onion sharp while keeping its crunch.
Easy swap
Sprinkle a teaspoon of sumac over the finished salad for a gentle, tart lemony edge.
Filed nearby
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