chopped salad

The best ever quick & easy salad!

Salad for summer! Yes, I am stating that this the best ever quick and easy salad! I love this salad and you can add your favourite ingredients to it, change the spices to your liking and it will become a staple in your home! I first had this salad when I lived in Turkey where it is called ‘coban salatasi’ (say cho-bhan) translated as ‘shepherd’s salad’ – the food the shepherd would take with him for his daily work – often the food would be gifts from farmers whose livestock they tended.

Firstly, this salad should consist of tomatoes, cucumber, onion and peppers, all chopped into roughly equal sized dice, seasoned and flavoured with an oil and lemon dressing. Being a Turkish dish, often you will find this garnished with black olives and sprinkled with the spice sumac and more often than not, the addition of freshly chopped parsley.

Just the fact that the vegetables are all chopped together and the fresh tomato juice mingles with the other ingredients gives this salad that perfect wow factor. I like to add carrots for a different texture and sometimes skip on the pepper, but whatever you choose, it is always delicious. If I am out and order a side salad which comes as wedges of tomato and thick slices of cucumber, I will duly chop it all up and mix it together to make a delicious shepherds salad – it’s so easy and makes the food much tastier!

The recipe for the salad itself is straightforward, but just in case you need one, here it is:

5 from 1 vote
chopped salad
Shepherds Salad
Time
10 mins
 

Delicious chopped salad which is great on its own or as a side for anything!

Course: Salad
Serves: 2
Created by:: Laurena @LifeDietHealth
Gather
  • 4 tomatoes
  • 1 cucumber
  • 1 medium red onion
  • 1 pepper I prefer red or yellow but green is traditional
  • 1 lemon squeezed
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • Salt to taste
  • Black pepper to taste
  • *optional fresh parsley
Prepare
  1. Dice all the vegetables into roughly equal sized pieces (pea sized is best), then mix together adding any juice.

  2. Add the lemon juice, olive oil, salt, pepper and parsley if using.

  3. Stir and leave for the flavours to mingle.

  4. Enjoy!

Tips & Storage
  • Always use tomatoes and cucumber, but change the other vegetables to your liking.
  • Try adding different fresh chopped herbs - basil, coriander, mint.
  • Store refrigerated for up to three days.
  • Vary the amounts of oil and lemon juice.
  • Use fresh lime juice instead or lemon.
  • Serve in lettuce boats.
  • Spoon onto canapes or crackers with houmous.
  • The longer you rest the salad, the more intense the flavours will become. The warmer the salad (i.e. leave it out, not refrigerate it), the more intense the flavours will become.

15 Comments

  • PantryPortfolio 1st August 2018 at 13:53

    I love seeing simple dishes like this that are so clearly a crowd pleaser! I could also imagine serving this over spinach and having it for lunch. Yum.

    Reply
    • Laurena@LifeDietHealth 1st August 2018 at 14:54

      Thank you☺That would be perfect, especially in this weather! Maybe with a dollop of houmous don’t you think?!?

      Reply
  • Eva 2nd August 2018 at 20:02

    I’m very familiar with this salad! Yes, it’s perfect for this weather…still pushing 40′ here in southeastern Germany. Still no internet, bit of a long story but grabbing wifi whenever I can?

    Reply
    • Laurena@LifeDietHealth 2nd August 2018 at 22:06

      Definitely perfect in the heat. I’m guessing you’ve moved in now! Oh no… What happened to the internet? ?

      Reply
  • Eva 3rd August 2018 at 18:23

    We expected someone to set it all up on Tuesday morning but we didn’t realise we had only booked an ‘activation’ slot, so now we have to wait another two weeks for it all to be installed…I won’t bore you with the details lol. Have a nice weekend?

    Reply
    • Laurena@LifeDietHealth 3rd August 2018 at 22:00

      Oh no! You’d think they’d have known that! Oh well, less time to get distracted, more time to settle in, unpack, sort all the furniture! ?

      Reply
      • Eva 4th August 2018 at 19:13

        Oh yes, definitely less distraction haha- always look on the bright side and all that. More time to visit skips and Ikea? Pointless random fact for you: it’s not easy finding somewhere to recycle plastic bottles here for some reason. Hope you’re having a nice weekend?

        Reply
        • Laurena@LifeDietHealth 4th August 2018 at 19:18

          Oh no… Choose glass bottles then? Or make your own whatever is in the plastic ones?juice? smoothies?

          Reply
  • Eva 3rd August 2018 at 18:26

    Oh, and my sense of direction and orientation is rubbish: I meant to say southwest, not southeast Germany☺

    Reply
    • Laurena@LifeDietHealth 3rd August 2018 at 22:05

      Lol… How ever did they manage to find you! ?? I’d done a mental map in my head…and did South East anyway! ???

      Reply
  • Eva 4th August 2018 at 20:08

    Looking forward to our Brita filter finding its way back to us (hopefully by the end of the month)- I’m easily pleased lol.

    Reply
    • Laurena@LifeDietHealth 5th August 2018 at 13:43

      Fingers crossed! ?

      Reply
  • Sophie's Foodie Files 15th August 2018 at 09:29

    Simple yet very delicious too! 🙂 Beautifully presented too!

    Reply
    • Laurena@LifeDietHealth 15th August 2018 at 09:35

      Thanks Sophie. Lovely to see you over here! Have you re-ubscribed to my new site? 😛 xxx

      Reply

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