Shepherd’s Salad: Adding Flavor to a Light Meal

Every now and then, we would like to cut back on heavy foods and eat just enough to satisfy the stomach. However, most light meals tend to sacrifice flavor in order to provide you with a healthy meal. Well, it is time you knew about Shepherd’s Salad, the perfect dish that will satisfy both your taste buds and cultural appetite.

What is Shepherd’s Salad?

Shepherd’s Salad is a classic Turkish dish and a vegetable lover’s delight. It is filled with plenty of flavorful ingredients, including chopped tomatoes, cucumbers, cubanelle peppers, red onions, and parsley. It is also topped with extra virgin olive oil, lemon, and feta cheese.

It’s a simple chopped salad that is most often found in countries around the Mediterranean. The origin of this tasty dish is rather simple. In Turkey, the name for this dish is called choban salad, which means Shepherd’s Salad in Turkish. Shepherds would go their farms, taking some of their daily crops, including the cucumbers, tomatoes, and other delicious ingredients, and mix them together into a salad. From that point on, this fairly common dish was named after the shepherds who made them.

Make it Yourself

As you can imagine, such a simple dish can be done at home for your tasting pleasure. The best part about Shepard’s salad is that it is different from the usual lettuce-based salads. The chopped pieces of tomatoes and cucumbers give this delicious meal a nice and juicy taste.  Another important aspect is that it compliments chicken and other dishes if you want to make it part of a more filling meal.

Ingredients:

• 1 large tomato
• 1 cucumber
• 2 cubanelle peppers
• 1 red onion
• ¼ cup of parsley
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice
• 6 teaspoons of olive oil
• Salt
• Pepper

First, you are going to want to peel and seed the tomato and cucumber. Once that is finished, you are going to dice the tomato, cucumber, peppers, onion, and parsley – mixing them together into a bowl. In a separate bowl, combine the lemon juice and olive oil, with some salt and pepper to taste. This will be your dressing. Mix it together with the diced vegetables and you are done. It should take you less than 10 minutes to make and enjoy this savory meal.