Food carries stories and memories. We all have these associations with food and I believe that’s one of the things that strongly connects us humans on a global scale. When I think back to my younger years I remember a few dishes that always made me happy when I saw them on the dinner table. I decided to dedicate this 3rd chapter of the Persian Dishtales to a side dish, a somewhat simple salad. In Farsi we call it Salad-e-Shirazi. Let’s break that down! The word salad, well there’s not much to explain there. 😉 The word Shirazi literally translates to from the city of Shiraz. The connection between this dish and that majestic city only occurred a few years ago for me, when I had the chance to discover one of my favorite places on this beautiful planet of ours.
Shiraz is known as the city of poetry, flowers, wine and the ancient Persepolis, the capital city of the historical Persian empire. Somewhere between visiting the over 2500 year old remains of that ancient city, listening to poetry of the infamous Persian poets and sipping wine (yes indeed, wine) in the beautiful gardens of my hotel I felt a certain balance of greatness in this city unlike anywhere I’ve traveled to in the world. That same balance is present in this salad and considering that it’s named after this city, well that only makes sense to me. Although I assume that for many of you a trip to Iran isn’t necessarily on your to-do list, I hope that through sharing this (recipe) I can bring you at least a little closer to one of my favorite places in the world.
Until next week and for now I wish you all a happy weekend!
BUY:
- Serving a whole bunch & a late night munch)
- 5 tomatoes
- 1 large cucumber
- 2 red onions
- 1 lime (or lemon)
- Olive oil
- 2 tbsp dried mint
- Salt & pepper to taste
DO:
- The clue to a great Shirazi is to first remove the cucumber seeds and then you simply chop all veggies as fine (small!) as possible.
- Add the lime juice and herbs; mix well!
- Add some olive oil, mix again and you're ready serve!
