Salad-e Shirazi

The Ingredients Cucumber – normally crisp Persian cucumbers are used, but if you can’t find them (I rarely can) use an English cucumber instead, it has fewer seeds and thin skin so you don’t need to peel the cucumber. Tomatoes – pick a variety of tomatoes that are firm, not too juicy, too seedy, or over-ripe. I usually go for Roma, Campari, or salad tomatoes. Onion – red, white, or yellow. Dried mint – crushed dried mint is what’s used in Shirazi salad. If you can’t find it, you can easily make it by dehydrating some mint leaves and crushing them with your hands. You can substitute dried mint with half a cup of fresh chopped mint leaves. For the dressing, use extra virgin olive oil, lemon or lime, salt, and pepper. Parsley – not a typical ingredient in traditional Persian salad, but I like to add it.