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Shopska salad is a Macedonian chopped salad recipe made with fresh cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, and peppers, with creamy feta and a drizzle of oil and vinegar. It’s the simplest salad with the most amazing flavors!
For another traditional side dish, try my tomato onion salad and Russian salad recipes. Or, toss together the famous La Scala chopped salad.
Macedonian Shopska salad is THE summer salad. As soon as the smell of fresh cucumber hits your nose, I’m sure you’ll agree! I think I ate this traditional chopped salad for four weeks straight when I visited my sister in Macedonia years ago.
It’s a delicious blend of everything I love to eat, mainly fresh garden cucumbers, tomatoes, and tangy feta. No fancy salad dressings here, just oil and vinegar. Full stop. With the help of the tomato juices and creamy feta, it’s like a flavor explosion!
About This Macedonian Shopska Salad Recipe
- Simple to make. All the vegetables get chopped and then tossed in a super-simple vinaigrette. The simplicity of this dish lets the ingredients shine.
- Made for sharing. That’s how you eat this salad in my homeland: All the forks in one salad bowl! When it’s not just family, it’s just as delicious dished onto plates.
- Only the freshest ingredients. Even better if you have the veggies in your garden!
- Make it in advance. Since this salad needs a little time to chill in the fridge before serving, it’s a great option to make ahead for parties and holidays.
What the Heck Is a Shopska Salad, You Might Ask?
Shopska salad is a type of cold salad. This recipe includes ingredients like tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, banana peppers, and crumbly feta cheese. You may already be familiar with its cousin, the Greek salad, which typically includes olives. Bulgaria’s version of shopska is even its national dish.
The entire Balkan peninsula claims Shopska as its salad. We like to debate ownership of everything over there, from ajvar (red pepper relish) to baklava, kebapi (kebabs), musaka, and land. It’s how it goes. All love!
Gather These Salad Ingredients
In her Mediterranean grandmotherly way, my Baba had a knack for turning the simplest ingredients into the BEST meals, and that includes a traditional chopped salad. When making Shopska salad, ensure that your tomatoes are juicy. I’ve included notes below, and you’ll find the full printable recipe in the recipe card after the post.
- Ripe Tomatoes – The ripest you can find that are plump, firm, and juicy. Good choices are Roma tomatoes, vine tomatoes, and heirloom tomatoes. I like to roll larger tomatoes gently against the countertop, like you would a lemon, to release their juices before I chop them up.
- Banana Peppers – These mild peppers are a staple in Macedonian cooking, and my grandmother would always grow them in her garden. If you can’t find banana peppers, green bell peppers make a good substitute.
- Cucumber – I use English cucumbers, which tend to be long. Mediterranean/Persian cucumbers are shorter with fewer seeds. Both will work in this recipe; you may just need an extra Persian cucumber if they’re on the smaller side.
- Yellow Onion – Choose a mild yellow or white onion, like Vidalia or shallot. Red onion also goes nicely in this salad.
- Olive Oil – Quality counts! You can make the simple dressing with a mild or more robust olive oil, depending on what you prefer.
- Vinegar – Red wine vinegar is my first choice, but you can use white wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar, or balsamic.
- Feta Cheese – Traditional shopska salad recipes use a brined cheese called sirene. It’s similar to feta, only milder. I use feta cheese since it’s readily available in most stores. Goat cheese or shaved Parmesan cheese are also good alternatives.
- Parsley – Freshly chopped. You can also use basil.
What to Serve With a Macedonian Chopped Salad
If you want to eat Shopska the authentic way, it’s one bowl, several forks, and a big feast of grilled meat on the side. I serve it with grilled steak skewers, chicken skewers, or seafood, like tilapia. It’s also a delicious light side to a fried pork pizza. Don’t forget Macedonian dinner rolls (kifli), and give this bambus cocktail a try, too.
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Shopska Salad
Ingredients
- 3 to 4 ripe tomatoes, chopped
- 2 green banana peppers, chopped, or you can use a green bell pepper
- 1 long English cucumber, chopped
- 1 small yellow onion, diced
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- ⅓ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar, or to taste
- ½ cup crumbled feta cheese
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
Instructions
- Combine the veggies. Place the chopped tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and onions in a large serving bowl.
- Toss with dressing. Add salt, pepper, oil, and vinegar to a bowl and whisk to combine. Pour the dressing over the salad mixture, toss it, and mix until well blended. Taste for seasonings and adjust accordingly.
- Add cheese. Top with crumbled feta cheese and sprinkle with fresh chopped parsley.
- Chill and serve. Refrigerate for about 20 minutes, or until ready to use. Serve.
Nutrition
Nutritional info is an estimate and provided as courtesy. Values may vary according to the ingredients and tools used. Please use your preferred nutritional calculator for more detailed info.
How to Make Shopska Salad
The longest step is the chopping, but I’ll often get my girls involved, and it goes quickly! To make this easy shopska salad the Macedonian way, follow along below:
- Get out a large serving bowl. Add your chopped tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and onions.
- Make the vinaigrette. In another bowl, whisk together the salt, pepper, oil, and vinegar. Pour the dressing over the chopped salad.
- Toss, then add cheese. Toss the salad with the vinaigrette. Give that a taste and adjust the seasonings as needed, then crumble over the feta cheese. Sprinkle the salad with chopped parsley.
- Chill and serve. Refrigerate the salad for at least 20 minutes so all the flavors have a chance to mingle. This is a great salad to prep the day before, too. When it’s time to serve, pass around the forks, and enjoy!
Storing Leftovers
Shopska salad stores very well in the fridge for up to 3-4 days. Store leftovers airtight and enjoy them for easy lunches. I like to top my leftover salad with cooked chicken or quick air fryer salmon for a light meal.
Hey!
I see I’m late in the game here.
I’ve been scouring the internet on how exactly my grandmother would make this underrated, yet BEESSSTTT salad recipe on the freaking planet!! … and then I came across your blog.. so here I am Katerina 🙂
You are not just posting a great recipe for the world to adopt into their salad deprived lives (and I mean that with so much love guys) – which I’ll be referencing to for my upcoming dinner party…
BUT, you are also hands down hilarious! So thank you for that.
I needed a good laugh.
I jas sum Makedonče, and I am so proud to be.
For those who do not understand what I just said, I just wrote in my Macedonian Mother tongue that ‘I am Macedonian’.
Listen I know you don’t give a rip on what people think of you clearly, as I am also cut from the same cloth, and it’s pretty wonderful.
We really have zero filter. It’s in the genetics no?
Everything you said I definitely agree with. We all believe we invented this salad, but I’m here as another pillar to confirm that, YES, Macedonia did serve that first šopska dish, and also YES, Wikipedia is not a reliable source of education historically either.. lmao.
Anyway. I just need to tell you that clearly we’re BFF’s, and I just want to share that love back to you.
By the way.. I said a prayer even though I’m a year and a half late. Hope you made it.
Okay, ❤️ing you from far away, even though we’re complete strangers.
Bye čupe!! ❤️☺️
This is Macedonian. Historians agree that It’s from the Macedonian region that was given to the Bulgarians as part of the Bucharest agreement of 1913 ( actually no Macedonian agreed to this) and this is why they claim it to be theirs.
I must remind my Bulgarian friends that the very language they speak was created by kiril and Metodija in my historical home town of Ohrid, your welcome my fellow Bulgarians.
The salad may be everywhere on the Balkans but it is Bulgarian, from Shopluka, the region around the capital’Sofia.
We are “cousins” as my fathers’ people were from Albania! We claim Baklava! Hahahahaaaaa………! Glad you are getting to visit your homeland and family. I have “pinned” this recipe and look forward to making it soon!
Shopska salad is definitely invented in Bulgaria. Just google it. And with a name like yours it is highly unlikely that you will accept any such assumption. What is your origin my little darling? Macedonian?
Yep, everything according to you guys is Bulgarian… everything according to Greeks is Greek, according to Serbs is Serb, and so on and so forth. Gotta LOVE the Balkans and its toddler “everything is mine!” mentality.
My little darling? You don’t get speak to me that way – your tone is very disrespectful. And YES, I AM Macedonian. Very proud Macedonian. You are going to deny me that, as well? Because that would be racist. Macedonophobia is alive and thriving.
Psssh! SHOPSKA is a Balkan’s thing. We can all claim it!
According to your so called Wikipedia, the “Shopska” salad is invented in Bulgaria to represent the flag of Bulgaria that was adopted in 1879. That is completely wrong ! I personally own a picture taken in the year of 1854 that portraits regional foods on a dinner table and on the same picture is the same “Shopska salad that we eat today. So can you please explain to me how on earth did you managed to invent the “Shopska” salad to represent the colors of your flag even before you invented your own flag. In addition to this “Shopska” is named after the word “Shop” or “Shopje”, “Шоп”, “Шопје” and it is the same as “Siki” and “L’ski”, and is a word which means “mountain savage man that is uneducated and have absolutely no culture and no manners what so ever and his primary occupation is shepherd”. The “Shops people” were not tribe and they did not had any nationality markings, instead it is only a “Word” that even today is used in conversation in some places around the “Osogovo” mountains. So tell me again how can someone from Varna or Burgas own the exclusivity rights to say that “Shopska” salad is a Bulgarian salad that is invented to represent the colors of the flag of Bulgaria ? I am a historian by the way.
Rating is for the recipe. And I love YOUR history and love of your culture, Katerina! Now for Radlosav…..you can take a big bite of shut the heck up! Rate the recipe!!!! We don’t care about your opinion!
Thank you so much! I am very glad you enjoyed it! 🙂
I honestly don’t care where this recipe “came from”….I’ve now made it about 5 times and we love it! Thanks for the awesome recipe!
I don’t think you should waste your time on the trollers. Definitely don’t take any of them to heart. You posted a recipe for a fantastic salad (which I ate every second day in Budapest – homemade & offered in any/all restaurants – ) and it is just scrumptious. Thank you. Let them all claim it. You know what you know. It’s like Pavlova … The Australians, the New Zealanders, the Brits and others – still argue over where it originated. Wherever it was … it’s also delicious. ☺️💐
Thank you so much for your kind words! I’m very happy you loved it! 🙂 🙂
As a bulgarian, I know that this particular salad was INVENTED in Bulgaria.
But let’s just take a look in Wikipedia:
”
Though the salad’s name comes from the region called Shopluk, in fact, it was invented in the 1960s as part of a tourist promotion.
…
At the time, leading chefs from Balkantourist invented Dobrujan, Macedonian, Thracian and several other salads with similar names, which were associated with different ethnographical regions.
…
Because the area of Shopluk is divided among Bulgaria, Serbia and Macedonia, chefs in Macedonia and Serbia began later to contest the Bulgarian origin of the salad.
”
If you know something different, and can prove it, you can change the text in Wikipedia, I think.
So, let’s take this a step further… Just 3 days ago, a Serb was on here telling me the exact same thing, except in his little paragraph, it was the Serbs that invented it… Go troll someone else’s site. And you’re using Wikipedia as a credible source?
Stunningly epic response!
BTW. I ate this EVERYDAY in Bosnia (Banja Luka) in 1996, whilst serving as a British Soldier. I don’t care where it’s from. It’s DELICIOUS!!!
Lx
Let’s go even further with this.
This is for Mo..
BEFORE any of that land that your mentioned was divided illegally (mind you) where external western governments drew imaginary lines with big fat red felt marker on a paper map; Macedonia existed, and was one WHOLE place, one ethnicity, one name called Macedonia, one ancient language written about in the Homeric poems, one FAMOUS King Aleksandar of Makedon, and one ancient culture. This is simply fact, and not weighted on something as insignificant as the illegal politics of the last century.
If you don’t believe me Mr. Mo the Bulgarian, just look at ANY bible of ANY sect of Christianity, and please tell me what countries are mentioned inside the Holy scripture.
Go ahead. I’m waiting.
Mic drop.
Hi, I`m Turkish and we have a very smiler cuisine.. We call this salad as `spoon salad` we eat it with a spoon because, we don`t want to waist the tomato juice!!! And I love very much your BOREK… You know pastry with cheese, spinach, beef, leek…..Do you have some recipes for borek pls. Thanks for all delicious ones….
Hi! Spoon Salad sounds like my kinda food!! 🙂 I love this salad so much. I am in Macedonia currently visiting family and I’ve had Shopska just about every day! 😀
I don’t have a recipe for Burek on my blog, however, I do follow this recipe for those times when I crave it: http://www.skopjeinfo.mk/hrana/1610910178/originalen-recept-za-burek Make sure to hit the “translate” button on Google. 🙂 This recipe uses ready made fillo sheets which makes it perfect for those lazy Sunday mornings! hehe
Hi, thank you so much for the burek recipes… I`ll look…I`m jealous you`re having great foods there…Have fun….
My daughter is over there now staying with the grandparents! My husband is so silly, he thinks I am actually going to endure a 10 hour flight with a 3 year old solo to go pick her up.Trying to avoid that convo at ALL COSTS. LOL Safe travels or as we say Sreken Pat!
Now that it finally got hot in Chicago this is what we will be eating for the remainder of the summer-pure bliss!
And I read somewhere that alcohol can make it worse! Better off drinking chamomile tea :-/
Yaaay! Have the most awesome time with your family, Kate! I’m definitely there with ‘ya on the flying part—hate, hate, haaaate it! So yeah: definitely ask for that tequila! LOL.
This salad. Ummm literally cannot even control my drooling. You loaded it up with seriously all the THINGS! Whichever country it really belongs to definitely knows their salad stuff! Pinned. 🙂
I ate this at every meal in Bosnia. It soooooo good!! Pinned!