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EveryCheese

Salads and fresh plates

Shopska salad

Bulgaria's salad of tomato, cucumber, pepper and onion buried under a snowfall of grated white sirene.

Shopska salad is chopped tomato, cucumber, roasted or raw pepper, onion and parsley, covered with a thick layer of grated sirene, the white brined cheese of Bulgaria. It is eaten as a starter with rakia, the fruit brandy. It is Bulgaria's best known salad, and also popular in North Macedonia, Serbia and across the Balkans.

What goes in

Sirene: 20%20%Tomatoes: 30%30%Cucumber: 20%20%Peppers: 15%15%Onion and parsley: 10%10%Oil and vinegar: 5%6parts
  • Sirene420%, Grated over the top.
  • Tomatoes630%, Diced.
  • Cucumber420%, Diced.
  • Peppers315%, Roasted or raw.
  • Onion and parsley210%, Chopped.
  • Oil and vinegar15%, Light dressing.

Rough parts by weight. The ring shows each ingredient's share of the dish.

Made step by step

Each drawing shows the operation for that step. Quantities and timings differ from house to house; this is one traditional way, in outline.

  1. Step 1: Bake Roast and peel the peppers, or chop them raw.
  2. Step 2: Layer Dice the tomatoes, cucumber and onion and mix with the peppers and parsley.
  3. Step 3: Layer Dress with oil, vinegar and salt.
  4. Step 4: Grate Grate the sirene finely over the top in a thick layer.
  5. Step 5: Serve Serve cold, with rakia.
  6. Sirene: 20%20%Tomatoes: 30%30%Cucumber: 20%20%Peppers: 15%15%Onion and parsley: 10%10%Oil and vinegar: 5%
    Finished Shopska salad, by share.

A tourism invention

Shopska salad was created in the 1950s by Balkantourist, the Bulgarian state tourism agency, which developed a series of national salads for restaurants. It was named after the Shopi, the people of the Sofia region. The white cheese, red tomato and green cucumber are often said to match the white, green and red of the Bulgarian flag, though that may be later lore.

Sirene

Sirene is a white brined cheese, made from cow's, sheep's or goat's milk, similar to feta but often a little saltier and moister. For shopska it is grated finely over the top, so the salad looks dusted with snow. Some cooks add a whole roasted pepper or an olive on top. The dressing is sunflower or olive oil with a little vinegar.

Where it is used

Starter with rakiaSummer table

The cheeses in it

SireneThe Bulgarian white cheese grated on top.

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Sources and further reading

About this page

Original text and drawings by the EveryCheese desk, written with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. The shares are a rough, illustrative ratio, not a recipe: every family and kitchen makes it differently. If we have something wrong, tell us.

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

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