What Is Shepherd Salad?
Shepherd salad or Coban Salad, as it gets its name, is an appetizing and easy-to-make salad prepared with the most basic ingredients that a shepherd can have in his saddlebag. Its most basic ingredients are olive oil and lemon to sweeten with tomatoes, onions, hot peppers, cucumbers, and parsley, which are called “shepherd's scarce". One or two of the hot peppers can be selected as hot peppers and join the salad.
It is essential that the salad is prepared immediately and eaten without waiting. Chopping the ingredients smaller and enriched with chopped walnuts and pomegranate sour completely changes the identity and region of this salad and turns it into “Gavurdağı salad”.
This super simple recipe will liven up your tables with its desirable taste, especially in summer.
What to Eat with Turkish Shepherd Salad
Shepherd salad is a variety of salad that is often preferred, especially in summer. Grilled chicken, meat, kebab, and meatballs are among the dishes where shepherd salad is most consumed together. The most beautiful harmony next to the grill, which have a different taste understanding than the embers on the grill, is with salads that integrate with the onion, especially when catching the great flavor of grilled chicken. the portion of the salad is also large. At dinner, where there are meatballs and potatoes on your table, a shepherd salad with finely chopped ingredients can form an indispensable point.
Apart from that, it's almost impossible to catch the flavor without the salad with it, no matter what kind of fish it is. The shepherd salad - fish relationship, which is rich in lettuce, is among the two important nutrients of winter evenings.
In addition to all above, besides rice, pasta, soup and many other dishes, Turkish shepherd salad goes great.
How to Make Turkish Shepherd Salad Dressing
The dressing in this shepherd salad is quite simple. There are two main ingredients that are important: lemon juice (freshly squeezed) and olive oil. Without these two, the shepherd salad is not complete. In addition, other ingredients such as vinegar and pomegranate molasses, which are optional ingredients, can be used. Especially as you consume the pomegranate molasses dressing of Gourmet212 next to the Turkish shepherd salad. The amount of ingredients for dressing depends on your personal taste.
Turkish Spices for Shepherd Salad Recipe
Salads may not be the first food group that comes to mind when it comes to spices, but when you think about it, we actually use spices heavily in salads. The best spices that go with Turkish shepherd salad are:
Rosemary: mixed with lemon and vinegar and salad dressing can be made. It brings the flavor of olive oil to its peak. If the shepherd salad is to be eaten together with meat, it creates a very good integrity of flavor.
Mint: gives salads a breath of fresh air. Mintis one of the most used spices in salad.
Sumac: it is one of the indispensable spices in the Turkish shepherd salad. It goes very well with pomegranate sour. When combined with onions, it works miracles. Sumac is the sine qua non of shepherd salad, which contains vinegar, tomatoes and onions.
Basil: Goes very well with salads where ingredients such as tomatoes and cucumbers are found . It is one of the salad spices that fascinates the eater with its own unique smell and taste, Therefore, you can use fresh basil if you want to differentiate your Turkish shepherd salad.
Related Recipe: Best sauce for homemade pasta
Origin of Turkish Tomato Salad with Cucumber
As mentioned in the first paragraph, Turkish shepherd salad got its name from the simple ingredients found in the shepherd's saddlebag. In past times, a village would usually have a shepherd, and everyone entrusted their cattle to him. The people in that village gave the shepherds some of the food they produced in return, which are wheat, flour, vegetables, fruits, molasses, dairy products, etc. Although there are still people who pay their shepherds with such food, today it is a more valid method to pay with money.
Food that the shepherd receives from the villagers usually consists of vegetables which is a main components of the shepherd salad. These vegetables are grown in the village garden and the bread is made by the women in that village. The shepherd at lunchtime prepares a quick lunch with these ingredients. Sometimes this easily chopped Turkish shepherd salad is accompanied by a little cheese or olives, nothing more. The name shepherd salad derives its name from here.
Doesn’t make any sense. These cups were also called “ayran cups” in the region. Unfortunately, we do not find these containers today. In fact, in most parts of Thrace, we also find that it is sweetened with vinegar due to its eating habits. While olive oil is used for sauce around Tekirdağ, while in Çanakkale, sunflower oil is used in other parts of Thrace.
More About Turkish Shepherd
A Turkish shepherd is usually called a person who bears all the responsibility for a herd of sheep, goats and cattle that are entrusted to him, but sometimes belong to him. The duties of the shepherd consist of caring for the feeding, health, reproduction of animals, making their medicines and forty. They wear seamless, sleeveless, and a felt top called aba, which they take on their shoulders.
The living conditions of the shepherd vary according to each season. Although in harsh weather conditions during winter, the entire herd remains closed because it must be in the corral, in the summer part of the herd grazes in the meadows next to the farm, while part spreads in the mountain pastures, and the shepherd watches them along with the sheepdog. Whether he stays on the farm or goes up the mountain with the herd, the shepherd must guard the animals at all times with his dog, provide their care, help the animals that give birth, milk them, of course, in the meantime maintain his own needs.
