Shopska Salad (Bulgarian Tomato Salad with Grated Cheese)
Bulgaria's signature salad: roasted red pepper, tomato and cucumber dressed with sunflower oil and vinegar, then buried under grated white cheese until the vegetables disappear. Roasting the peppers and piling the cheese on top rather than mixing it in are what make it shopska.
Ingredients
- Ripe tomatoes · in big chunks; half this dish is tomato quality4
- Cucumbers · thick half-moons2
- Red bell peppers · roasted and peeled2
- Red onion · sliced as thin as you can0.5
- Flat-leaf parsley · coarsely chopped1 handful
- Hot pepper · optional, laid whole on top1
- Cheese (the point of the dish)
- Sirene · Bulgarian white brine cheese; use 150 g if substituting feta, it's saltier200 g
- Dressing
- Sunflower oil · not olive oil — see the tips4 tbsp
- Red wine vinegar2 tbsp
- Salt · right before serving
- Black pepper · to taste
Steps
- ⏲ 15 min
Char the whole red peppers over a flame or under the broiler for 10–15 minutes, until the skin blackens and blisters. Put them in a covered bowl for 10 minutes and the skin lifts by itself.
- ⏲ 5 min
Peel and deseed the peppers, then tear them into rough strips by hand. Keep any juice in the bowl for the dressing.
- ⏲ 8 min
Cut the tomatoes into big wedges and the cucumber into thick half-moons, and slice the onion as thinly as you can. Peel the cucumber if the skin is tough.
- ⏲ 2 min
Put the tomato, cucumber, torn pepper, onion and chopped parsley in a wide, shallow bowl.
- ⏲ 2 min
Whisk the sunflower oil, vinegar, reserved pepper juice and black pepper, pour it over and toss gently. **Hold the salt for now.**
- ⏲ 15 min
Firm the cheese in the freezer for 15 minutes, then grate it on the fine side of a box grater. Cold, it shreds like snow instead of smearing.
Salt the salad, then bury it under the grated cheese — **enough that you can't see the vegetables**. Don't toss it in; the first bite should be cheese. Top with the hot pepper and serve cold, straight away.
Tips & Variations
Variations
- Raw pepper version: Skipping the roasting is more common in restaurants now. Much faster, but without the sweetness and smoke of roasted pepper it's closer to a plain tomato-cucumber salad.
- Ovcharska salad: The same base plus boiled egg and ham — a meal in itself.
- Snezhanka: A different Bulgarian salad, vegetables bound in yogurt. Often ordered alongside shopska.
- Double cheese: Bulgarians order extra sirene too. 200 g is a floor, not a ceiling.
- With rakia: In Bulgaria shopska opens the meal, as something to eat alongside rakia (fruit brandy).
Tips
- Roast the peppers. That one step is what separates shopska from a generic tomato-cucumber salad. Don't be shy about letting the skin go black — you're peeling it off anyway.
- Freeze the cheese before grating. At room temperature sirene or feta smears into lumps on the grater. Fifteen minutes in the freezer gets you the snow in the photo.
- Don't toss the cheese through. It belongs on top. Mixed in, the vegetables weep into it and the whole first impression of the salad is gone.
- Salt last. Salted early, the tomatoes give up water, the dressing thins and the flavour goes flat.
- Use sunflower oil. Olive oil turns this into a Mediterranean salad. The Bulgarian character comes from sunflower oil's neutrality; grapeseed or canola is closer than olive if you have neither.
- Cut the quantity if you substitute feta. It's saltier and firmer than sirene, so the same 200 g lands as a salt bomb. Use 150 g and skip almost all the added salt.
- The story that the white cheese, green parsley and red tomato were chosen for the Bulgarian flag is widespread, but there's no solid evidence it was designed that way. The better-supported account is that the state tourism agency standardised and promoted the dish in the 1950s–60s.
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