In Bulgaria, “shopska salad” is almost like the flag of Bulgarian cuisine. It was created for that very purpose. It has an interesting story. First of all, its colors are red, green, and white, just like the Bulgarian flag.
Even if it is not traditional, it has become such an important symbol of Bulgaria that it has become the subject of jealousy in neighboring countries. Serbia and Macedonia also started to embrace the salad.
So, do you want to know the story of the national salad of the Bulgarians?
Shopska salad (Bulgarian, Macedonian and Serbian) is a cold salad popular throughout Southeastern Europe. This is Bulgaria's most famous salad and national dish, whose colors recall the Bulgarian flag.
Bulgarian historian Stefan Detchev from the University of Giessen tells the story of Shopska salad. The story of the unstoppable rise of shopska salat presented at the symposium on food culture in the Balkans in the late Ottoman Empire, organized by the esteemed Ottoman historian Soraiya Faroqhi, amused us all. The birth of the salad begins with the establishment of the Balkantourist state enterprise, which was established on April 1, 1948, to make Bulgaria the tourism center of the countries behind the Iron Curtain.
A series of recipes were tried at the Chernomorets restaurant on the Black Sea coast, which was intended to develop as a tourist attraction for the countries behind the Iron Curtain during communist rule. One of them is this salad.
So where does the name come from? Petar Doychev, the veteran of Bulgarian tourism, named the salad. He gave this name to the people of the region called Shopi, who live in the mountainous Shopluk region in the westernmost part of Bulgaria. However, the salad originated in the town of Druzhba, near Varna, in the easternmost tip of Bulgaria, and has nothing to do with the Shopi. Proprietary crimson Druzhba tomato, famous for its flavor, and grating cheese, which gives its white color to green cucumbers, were stipulated as a rule in the 1970s.
Other salads
Greek salad or horiatiki salad is a popular salad in Greek cuisine generally made with pieces of tomatoes, cucumbers, onion, feta cheese (usually served as a slice on top of the other ingredients), and olives (typically Kalamata olives) and dressed with salt, Greek oregano, and olive oil.
The most famous of similar salads is the salad known as "Greek salat" in Greece. When a large slice of European Union-registered feta cheese and kalamata olives are placed on it, buy a Greek salad for you. The material is a bit coarse, so to speak, it is roughly chopped, different from the herb type, thyme is added, and plenty of olive oil is poured on the salad, at first glance, the salad makes one say that this is Greece.
Choban salat in turkey
Çoban salatası or choban salad (Turkish for "shepherd's salad") is a salad that originated from Turkish cuisine and Azerbaijani cuisine consisting of finely chopped tomatoes (preferably peeled), cucumbers, long green peppers, onion, and flat-leaf parsley. The dressing consists of lemon juice, olive oil, and salt.
Shepherd's salad is different. Some like it with lemon, some say it suits vinegar. Some make it with spring onions, some cut the onion thinly like a half-moon or even look for red onions. The weed issue is also important. Parsley is the best. So, how long has shepherd's salad been in Turkish cuisine? It's not as old as we thought. Because even though cucumbers and onions have been the original children of Anatolian lands since ancient times, tomatoes and green peppers were introduced to the tables quite late. It took a long time for tomatoes and green peppers, which came to the European continent after the discovery of America, to become widespread in Anatolian cuisine. In particular, the history of the tomato's entry into home kitchens does not go back more than a century; therefore, it is not possible to have a shepherd's salad before. But green salad has always existed since the early Ottoman period.