Summer days make it tempting to have a light salad of fresh vegetables. Today, I have a classic recipe for the famous Shopska salad for you, which is also very popular in the Czech Republic.
What Is Shopska Salad?
Shopska salad is a vegetable salad made from fresh tomatoes, yellow banana peppers, onion, and cucumbers. It is seasoned with quality oil and drizzled with vinegar. Feta-style cheese shines as an essential component.
Enjoy the salad as a side dish to a main meal or as a light meal on its own.
In the Czech Republic, we call this type of salad "šopský salát ".
Origin
Shopska salad clearly comes from the Balkan peninsula, the location of former Yugoslavia. This federation gradually broke up into separate states in the last decade of the 20th century, dissolving completely in 2008.
It is not entirely easy to determine the origin of shopska salad, as each of the successor states appropriates it as a national culinary treasure.
The salad can be found everywhere in the modern Balkan countries such as Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Bosnia on a local restaurant menu.
However, the origin of the shopska salad is generally attributed to the Bulgarians. Czechs soon imported this dish to the Czech Republic because Bulgaria has always been a popular holiday destination for them, and the salad tastes simply delicious.
Enough chatter, and let's check out the recipe!
Ingredients
- English cucumber; also known as European cucumber. It has a long, slender shape, does not contain seeds, and has a slightly sweet taste.
- Tomatoes; ripe, mid-sided
- Yellow banana pepper; with a mild, sweet taste
- Yellow onion
- Sunflower oil; or another good quality, rather neutral-tasting cooking oil, such as canola
- White wine vinegar; or classic vinegar, pay attention to the dosage because each type of vinegar has a different distinct taste
- Feta style cheese; the authentic recipe calls for the so-called Sirene cheese, a white brined cheese with a crumbly texture, sold in blocks. Feta cheese, however, serves just as well.
✅ You’ll find the exact amount of ingredients below in the recipe card, which you can also print out.
Instructions
STEP 1: Peel the onion, clean the vegetables, you can also peel the cucumber.
STEP 2: Finely chop the onion. Cut the cucumber, tomatoes, and banana pepper into small cubes about ¼ inch in size.
STEP 3: Mix briefly and arrange in a salad bowl.
STEP 4: Drizzle with good quality oil and vinegar.
SEP 5: Top with crumbled Feta-style cheese.
Serving
Serve the shopska salad as a side dish to a main meal or as a light meal on its own.
If you like, chill it in the fridge. However, take it out of the cooler and leave it on the kitchen counter for a while before serving.
Tip for serving: Add vinegar and oil to the salad so that everyone can season it to their taste.
Cooking Tips
- If there is any salad left over, store it covered in the fridge. I recommend eating it within two days; otherwise, the vegetables will soften and not be as fresh and crunchy.
- If you wonder what cheese to use shopska salad, I recommend the Feta cheese, a safe bet. The cheese is quite salty, so you don't need to add more salt to the salad.
More salad recipes
- Tomato salad – Czech "rajčatový salát"
- Lettuce salad with buttermilk dressing
- Cucumber salad – Czech "rajčatový salát"
Recipe card
Czech Shopska Salad
Ingredients
- ½ English cucumber (or any seedless fresh cucumber)
- 3 Tomatoes (ripe, mid-sized)
- ½ Yellow banana pepper (or any sweet yellow/white/green pepper)
- ½ Yellow onion (mid-sized)
- 1 Tbsp White wine vinegar (or any common vinegar - add in small doses and check the taste)
- 1 Tbsp Sunflower oil (or any quality vegetable oil such as canola)
- 2 oz (55 g) Feta-style cheese (Feta, Sirene)
Instructions
- Peel the onion, clean the vegetables, you can also peel the cucumber.
- Finely chop the onion. Cut the cucumber, tomatoes, and banana pepper into small cubes about ¼ inch in size.
- Mix briefly and arrange in a salad bowl.
- Drizzle with good quality oil and vinegar.
- Top with crumbled Feta-style cheese.
Notes
- Makes 1 portion. If you want more yields, simply multiply the amount in the recipe by the number of portions.
- SERVING: Serve the shopska salad as a side dish to a main meal or as a light meal on its own. If you like, chill it in the fridge. However, take it out of the cooler and leave it on the kitchen counter for a while before serving.
- Tip for serving: Add vinegar and oil to the salad so that everyone can season it to their taste.
- If there is any salad leftover, store it covered in the fridge. I recommend eating it within two days; otherwise, the vegetables will soften and not be fresh and crunchy.
- If you wonder what cheese to use shopska salad, I recommend Feta cheese, a safe bet. The cheese is quite salty, so salt is not added to the salad separately.
DISCLAIMER: Because I come from Central Europe, my recipes are based on metric units such as grams or milliliters. Check out how I convert metric units to the U.S. system:
Conversion chart
Viktor
Original, Balkan style Shopska salat is without vinegar.
Petra Kupská
Ahoj Viktor, thank you for your comment. We do use vinegar in the Czech version of the Shopska salad. But for sure, that doesn't mean that the original recipe doesn't contain it. Either way, the salad tastes great!
Frančeska
Ahoj Petra! I stumbled across your website yesterday when I typed "šopsky Salat" into Google-- we are going through a hot spell in the San Francisco Bay Area and I was craving this delicious salad and the chance to use my home grown cucumbers. I am making it for dinner tonight with a California twist: due to the pandemic, I am not able to get Balkan cheese, so I'm substituting goat cheese because I feel it has the necessary tang.
I was really excited when I saw your website and recipes-- the "Cook Like Czechs" name is great. I had the opportunity to study architecture for a summer at čVUT in Prague in 1993... I fell in love with the city, the country and the Czech people, so much so that I went back for three weeks the following summer with my mom. Seeing all of your food photos made me smile. I remember eating SO MANY of those things! I too have two teenage boys age 14 and 11 and I agree, school and work from home for the past 18 months during Covid has been a challenge. My creative outlet is growing my own vegetables and cooking delicious things! I'm really excited to try some of your other recipes 🙂
Petra Kupská
Hi Frančeska, thank you for such a beautiful message and memories of the Czech Republic in the early nineties! At that time, we were shortly after the coup; after 40 years, the communist regime disappeared, and we entered a new era of democracy 🙂 I remember that time, and I have to smile. Life was different back then; people were full of vigor and enthusiasm. I believe you enjoyed your time studying in Prague! (apropos, the classic Czech recipes have not changed, the dishes remain the same 🙂
Thank you also for the comment about the Šopský salad. Goat cheese is an interesting idea; I mostly use it to garnish beetroot and walnut spread.
Many greetings to you, your family, and the two little boys you have 🙂 Petra