Shopska Salad

On our trip to the Balkans we discovered the shopska salad and fell in love with it. It is served at virtually every restaurant in the Balkans and one or both of us had one at most of our restaurant meals. 

It was developed in the 1950s by some of the leading chefs in Bulgaria who were asked to develop recipes that would encourage tourists to visit. It gets its name from the Shopi people who inhabit the region of Shopluk,  which is where Bulgaria, Serbia and Macedonia meet. It is also known as the Bulgarian salad. We know it is popular in Serbia, Croatia, Macedonia, Albania, Kosovo and Montenegro and it is apparently also popular in Romania, the Czech Republic and Hungary, as well as Bulgaria. 

The usual ingredients are tomatoes, cucumbers, onion, peppers, sirene cheese (a white brine cheese) and parsley. The vegetables are usually diced and salted and then a light dressing of sunflower or olive oil is added. Sometimes vinegar is added as well. The vegetables are then covered in a thick layer of grated or diced sirene cheese. 

My favorite shopska salad was the first one I had, at the restaurant Zeken Salas in Krcedin, Serbia (Judy had one earlier in Sarajevo). The taste of the grated salty cheese over the vegetables was amazing. I wished that first meal that I'd just ordered two or three of the small shopska salads and I wouldn't have cared for anything else. I remember that it also had a distinctive vinegary taste. Some that we had later were grated with large pieces of cheese, but I really prefer the grating with the small grater that gives it the puffed up, powdery texture. 

Restaurant Inat Kuca in Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina. The ingredients on the menu were listed as paprika (red pepper), tomato, onion, cucumber and Bosnia feta cheese. 

My first shopska salad at Zeken Salas in Krcedin, Serbia, the best one of the whole trip.

Vinotueka Temov in Skopje, Macedonia.

Restaurant near  Sinan Pasha Mosque and Prizrenska Bistrica River in Prizren, Kosovo.

Letna Bava Kaneo in Ohrid, Macedonia.

Damar in Ohrid, Macedonia.

Pizzeria Giardino in Kotor, Montenegro.

I found three different shopska recipes in a quick Google search. I wanted to get a feel for what kinds of proportions the recipes called for. 

About.com for Eastern European Food called for 4 tomatoes, chopped; 1 large cucumber, unpeeled and chopped; 4 green or red peppers, roasted or raw, chopped; 1 large yellow onion, chopped, or 6 green onions, sliced; 2 tablespoons of chopped parsley; 1/2 cup of sunflower oil; 1/4 cup red-wine vinegar; 1/2 cup of Bulgarian sirene cheese or feta cheese, crumbled; salt and pepper. Put oil, vinegar, salt and pepper in a jar. Cover and shake until well-blended. Toss with vegetables in a serving bowl. Top with the cheese.

Find Bulgarian Food called for the following ingredients: 4 ripe tomatoes; 2 long cucumbers; 1 onion; 1 red or green pepper; 1/3 bunch of parsley; 2 tablespoons olive oil; 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar; 1 cup (1/2 pound) of Bulgarian cheese (or feta cheese).

Food.com called for the following ingredients: 4 medium tomatoes; 4 cucumbers, peeled; 1 green bell pepper, diced; 1 red bell pepper; 1 bunch of spring onions; 1 bunch of parsley; 2 to 3 tablespoons of olive oil; 1 cup feta cheese or Bulgarian white cheese; and 5 to 10 black olives to garnish.

There is quite a disparity in ratios. Based on my experience eating them, I wanted a roughly equal ratio of tomato to cucumber. So I chopped up 2 cucumbers; 3 tomatoes (I used two at first, and then added a third because it needed more); at least 1/2 a chopped up yellow onion; 1 diced red pepper; about 1/3 of a bunch of chopped parsley; 1 1/2 tablespoons of olive oil; 1 1/2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar and Greek feta in brine. Grating the feta with a small grater produced the fluffy cheese look that I enjoyed. 

Ingredients for my shopska salad: two cucumbers, three tomatoes (I added an additional one), one red pepper, a 1/2 yellow onion, 1/3 bunch of parsley, Greek feta (sheep) cheese, red wine vinegar and olive oil.

Feta in the brine

Chopped ingredients for one serving, before the cheese.

Shredded feta on top of the chopped ingredients.

My creation was very good, but it needs further work. I need to find a source for sirene cheese. I think it was better than the Greek feta. From what I can find on-line, it appears that sirene cheese is a Bulgarian feta. One cheesemonger commented that Bulgarian feta is generally saltier and more assertive than many Greek fetas and the Bulgarian feta is a bit granier and more dense. He also noted that feta was historically made with goat milk, but can be made with sheep or cow milk as well (most of the feta I see is sheep milk). I believe that at least one of the shopska salads we had was made from cheese made out of goat milk. I also intend to cut down on the dressing and put a little greater ratio of olive oil to red wine vinegar. Those we ate did not have as much liquid in them.