Shopska salad (Bulgarian salad)

The most well-known product of Bulgarian cuisine. During the early communist times in Bulgaria, the regime wanted to create a "local" cuisine impressive enough to woo foreigners that visited the country. Some dishes were created by the hired chefs and were usually named after certain areas and regions of the country. Many of these dishes were salads, but somehow only the Shopska salad survived the era. After you taste it it will be obvious why so. The combination of flavors is no-brain simple, finger-snapping-ly fast to assemble and drop-dead delicious :).

Last year: Mushroom and baby corn soba noodles (vegan).
Two years ago: Truffle potato mash and Salată asortată (Romanian assorted salad) (raw vegan).
Three years ago: Baby making and no cooking :).





Ingredients (serves 1):

• 150  g tomatoes, diced
• one small cucumber, diced
• 1 red bell pepper (raw or roasted, roasted is obviously tastier), diced
• 50 g sirene (white briny cheese similar to feta), crumbled
• 1/4 of a red onion, diced
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 2-3 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped

Chop the tomatoes, cucumber, red bell pepper and red onion into appropriate pieces (the onion the smallest dice, the rest a bit bigger etc). (Reserve some thin red onion wedges for decorating, if you want).

Mix them all with the olive oil and transfer to a serving bowl. Top with the crumbled cheese and some chopped parsley. Also use some reserved red onion to decorate, if you saved any. 

It's done, dig in! :)