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This Turkish shepherd salad is a traditional mix of cucumber, tomato, olives, and feta cheese with lemon juice and olive oil: an easy summer salad!
Have you ever tasted something you’ve been thinking about ever since? Such was the case with this shepherd salad! The first time Alex and I tried this traditional Turkish salad was in Isla Mujeres, Mexico, of all places.
The food was so delicious at a sweet little Mediterranean restaurant we visited that we had to return just to get another taste! Since then, we’ve been dying for cucumbers and tomatoes to be in season so we could try out a shepherd salad recipe. Here’s how to make it at home!
How to make shepherd salad
Nothing is more refreshing on a steamy summer night than a cucumber and tomato salad punctuated with salty feta and briny olives – at least in our opinion! There are lots of variations on shepherd salad, but we wanted to mimic the simple, straightforward flavors we remembered.
Parsley is the most traditional of herbs to add here, but we remembered a milder flavor of oregano. We tend to prefer oregano over the bite of parsley, which can sometimes overwhelm other flavors. Feel free to use whatever you prefer!
Here are the basic steps of how to make shepherd salad:
- Peel 3 cucumbers, seed them, and chop them into bite sized pieces. (Or use English cucumber, which doesn’t need to be peeled or seeded.)
- Chop 4 Roma tomatoes and slice or dice 1 red onion. Chop 1 handful fresh oregano.
- Mix everything together in a bowl with 3 tablespoons olive oil, the juice from 1 lemon, 1 handful Kalamata olives, salt and pepper, and a splash of white wine vinegar.
- Top with feta cubes or crumbles. Let stand for 5 minutes, then dig in!
More cucumber salads to try
We can’t seem to get enough of cucumber salads, and it seems like each nation has their own version. Along with this Turkish shepherd salad, there are so many varieties of cucumber salads. Here are a few standouts:
- This classic Greek salad is very similar to shepherd salad.
- This German cucumber salad features thinly sliced cucumbers and onions in a vinegar dressing.
- A Thai cucumber salad uses Thai curry paste, cashews and cilantro.
- This Mexican-style cucumber avocado salad features tomatoes, lime and cilantro.
What other cucumber salad recipes do you know of? Let us know in the comments below!
Dietary notes
This shepherd salad recipe is vegetarian and gluten-free.
Shepherd Salad (Easy & Delicious!)
This shepherd salad is a traditional mix of cucumber, tomato, olives, and feta cheese with lemon juice and olive oil: a perfectly easy summer salad!
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 0 minutes
- Total Time: 15 minutes
- Yield: 4-6 1x
- Category: Salad
- Method: Raw
- Cuisine: Turkish
Ingredients
- 3 cucumbers (or English cucumbers)
- 4 Roma tomatoes (or 2 large tomatoes)
- 1 medium red onion
- 1 handful fresh oregano
- 1 cup Kalamata olives
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- Juice from 1 lemon (about 3 to 4 tablespoons)
- 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 splash white wine vinegar
- 8 ounces feta cheese
- Fresh ground pepper
Instructions
- Peel the cucumbers; cut them in half and use a spoon to scoop out the seeds, then chop them into bite-sized chunks (you can skip peeling and seeding for English cucumbers). Coarsely chop the tomatoes. Dice the onion. Chop the oregano.
- In a large bowl, mix the cucumbers, tomatoes, onion and oregano with the Kalamata olives. Mix in the the olive oil, lemon, fresh ground pepper, and kosher salt. Add a splash or two of white wine vinegar. Taste, and add more salt or pepper if desired.
- Crumble or cut feta cheese into chunks, then add it to the salad. Let stand for 5 minutes to meld flavors, then serve.
Looking for more salad recipes?
Outside of this Turkish shepherd salad, here are a few more of our favorite salad recipes:
Let us know if you have any questions!
How excited was I to see this was a rift on the salad on Isla, I was searching for a recipe because I am obsessed with the salad there!
jajaa..i looked at this and instantly thought “Guatemala-Pana”…funny that urs was isla mujeres (where i used to teach, actually!!)…such a simple salad that one wouldn’t associate with either of the two!
This is indeed the traditional Greek salad. We love to eat that for lunch. Just the salad or sometimes we add some Turkish bread with lots of olive oil. This is sooooo nourishing.