The perfect accompaniment to any Mediterranean dish, Israeli chopped salad is simple and fresh with tomatoes, cucumbers, fresh herbs and bright lemon.
It wouldn’t be a proper Mediterranean dinner party, without the classic Israeli chopped salad, also called Salad Shirazi. I serve this every single time I’m grilling meats or serving a dip, such as Muhamarra (Turkish Red Pepper Dip) and of course, classic homemade falafel.
I’m telling you, serve the salad, with falafel and tahini sauce, maybe a little zhoug, and you, my friends have the most fantastic Mediterranean dinner!
Chopped Salad Ingredients
I grew up on this salad and do all sorts of variations. The base of this chopped salad is cucumbers, tomatoes, lemon juice and fresh herbs. From there, you can add other vegetables, such as radishes or even sweet melon and chiles to make a sweet savory chopped salad, (which I made for my cookbook .)
- Cucumber and Tomatoes: The classic base to any Israeli chopped salad. I love using thin skinned Persian cucumbers and sweet roma tomatoes. Though, in the summer, heirloom tomatoes are fantastic here.
- Lemons: Use fresh lemons if you can, the flavor is unmistakable and brightens up the entire salad.
- Fresh Herbs: This is where you can have fun. I use a combination or either one of fresh mint, fresh parsley and/or cilantro.
- Dressing: Olive oil and a touch of balsamic vinegar to sweeten the salad up a bit. I often make this with or without the vinegar and just with olive oil and lemon juice, which is lovely as well.
- Salt: A given, a good pinch of kosher salt to flavor the vegetables is a necessity. Season and taste as you go and adjust as needed.
- Other Additions: chopped avocado, chopped radishes, cubed feta cheese, chickpeas and fruit are all fantastic touches.
A Few Tips (for any salad, really)
If making the salad ahead of time, chop the vegetables and add them to a bowl and in another bowl whisk the dressing ingredients and toss salad with dressing right before serving.
Same goes with the fresh herbs, chop them before you are ready to serve so the leaves don’t wilt.
Israeli chopped salad is incredible versatile. Feel free to add feta cheese, chopped avocado, chopped red onion or chopped bell pepper.
Israeli Chopped Salad
Ingredients
- 6 Persian cucumbers peeled and chopped
- 3 Medium sized tomatoes
- 1 Lemon juiced
- 1 Small bunch of mint roughly chopped
- 1/4 cup Extra-virgin olive oil
- 1/8 cup Balsamic vinegar
- 1 tsp Kosher salt or to taste
- 1/4 tsp pepper
Instructions
- Begin by chopping the cucumbers and tomatoes into small-medium sized cubes and reserve a bowl.
- In another smaller bowl, whisk together the olive oil, balsamic and lemon juice until it slightly emulsifies and add dressing to chopped vegetables along with the chopped herbs.
- Season with salt and pepper and taste for seasoning. Serve immediately.
Notes
Nutrition
This recipe was originally posted in 2012 and has been updated February 2020 with added notes and updated photos.
Nami | Just One Cookbook says
May 3, 2012 at 9:21 amHi Samantha! Congratulations on your new design! It looks really nice! Kita has been helping a lot of bloggers with website design (I’ve seen her work on several blogs) and I’m really impressed! Mine needs update one day… This Israeli salad looks so easy to prepare and very delicious. Perfect for spring/summer weather! I love your step by step picture shape/size. It’s really cool. 😉
Val Sweeney Cathell says
May 3, 2012 at 11:03 amSam ~ this site is BEAUTIFUL!!!! Your pics are awesome and it’s a very pleasing and easy-to view site!
Anita at Hungry Couple says
May 3, 2012 at 12:07 pmI share your love of Israeli salad. I usually like it accompanied by some spicy falafel. It’s amazing how such a simple salad can be so cool and refreshing and flavorful!
Kiri W. says
May 3, 2012 at 1:27 pmLove the layout! 🙂 Well done, Kita, as always!
And the salad looks perfect for hot days, such a refreshing mix of flavors 🙂
Jen @ Juanita's Cocina says
May 3, 2012 at 4:00 pmNot only is your blog ABSOLUTELY beautiful, but so is this salad.
Also, your font is ROCKIN’!
Isabelle @ Crumb says
May 3, 2012 at 4:16 pmLove the new look! Kita’s obviously more than just a pretty face and a kickass cook…. but we already knew that, right? 🙂
I love this salad too… I must’ve eaten a metric ton of it when I visited Israel a couple of years ago! it’s so refreshing, especially on hot summer days, so I’m sure it’ll be making an appearance on my table soon… especially once the ripe summer tomatoes finally show up.
Kim Bee says
May 3, 2012 at 9:12 pmThis salad is gorgeous Sam. And so is the blog. I dig it completely. I love the color and I love the lemon at the top. The little admin cartoon is adorable.
Christilynn Corrigan says
May 4, 2012 at 9:36 amGoing to make this for my kick off to summer BBQ! Thanks 🙂
Pat says
June 7, 2012 at 7:41 pmhow much balsamic vinegar… 1/4 cup, teaspoon, tablespoon?
Samantha says
June 8, 2012 at 8:08 amIt is supposed to be a 1/4 cup. Just realized I did not put the measurement. Thanks for the heads up. To be honest, I just eyeball it, but I do like the tang of the vinegar.