No, not a Greek salad, but a Bulgarian salad made the No. 1 spot on the survey of food website, TasteAtlas. In fact two Bulgarian salads made the top 10.
1 - Ovcharska salad
2 - Shopska
The greek salad, 'dakos' with tomato, feta and olive oil on a hard rusk, came in at no.3 and the classic Greek salad (country salad, horiatiki) was at no.8.
All this from the greek news website in english, greekreporter.
Hardly worth noting really. Salads just need a bit of imagination and some fresh ingredients. I looked up these Bulgarian salads and they are worth a try. Shopska is the simple version of the other. The Ovcharska looks darn tasty though to eat it at its best you surely need the traditional cheese and like everything, you need to be there sampling the local atmosphere.
Ovcharska Salad......
Thanks to barcafe.bg
And what's in it?
- Tomatoes chopped
- Cucumber chopped
- Green pepper or baked red pepper. I'd use red peppers from a jar
- Onion sliced
- Pickled mushrooms. Not sure about these. I'd probably put some sliced mushrooms in vinegar. Or maybe lightly fry some
- White bulgarian sirene cheese. Here I'd use feta. Grated or crumbled. Or maybe I'd just grate my favourite yellow cheese
- Chopped ham. Looks like thick chunks
- Hard boiled eggs chopped
- Salt to taste
- Parsley
- Apple cider vinegar
- Olive oil
- 5 olives for decor
Put it all in a big bowl and mix up with the oil and vinegar
Bulgaria is one of our neighbours, on the northern border with Greece. I follow a couple of blogs written by English expats who have built houses in Bulgaria. The best is
auntiebulgaria.com
Claire Rushton is a British writer. She and her husband moved to Bulgaria to grow vegetables, collect cats and live a slower life. Hers is another fascinating and well written blog. She is a vegan and has a load of really tasty dishes, Bulgarian and otherwise. But her blog is not only food. She writes about real life in Bulgaria with humour and without using incomprehensible Bulgarian words.
She's also on Instagram as
auntie_bulgaria
Posts
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That looks like a mighty substantial salad!
ReplyDeleteFor a large Bulgarian family after a day in the fields lol
DeleteI just looked at the auntie Bulgaria.com blog. It's very good. Thanks for telling us about it Linda. I have drank Bulgarian wine. I believe it's very cheap over there? We shop in you know where in Ireland. German garden centre and supermarket and beer providers is a clue.
ReplyDeleteWe've had cheap Bulgarian wine and beer. Not bad at all. The German market has a better choice though.
DeleteF works with a Bulgarian woman who reckons the main difference between horiatiki and a bog standard Bulgarian salad is (same ingredients) but the Bulgarians chop it all up into smaller pieces. That winning salad looks like the entire meal all chopped up together. We will check out the blogs (might learn something we can impress Mira with).
ReplyDeleteOther countries around here have a similar bog standard salad. I liked this one because of the ham, eggs, grated cheese instead of a block of feta and those mushrooms. I'd probably add beetroot and corn too.
DeleteI'm sure k will stick to his horiatiki but I will be branching out.
I can't even think of salads at the moment. My brain is being fried on this heat. And we have to go to Argos tomorrow. I hope I survive!
Any salad is great when the heat is on
ReplyDeleteI live on salads during summer. It’s harder in winter. Which is probably why I tend to get a bit lumpier lol
Might have to check out aunties blog
Hot as a furnace today. Don't even want a salad!
DeleteWhen I boil eggs for a salad, I peel them and place them in cold water with a splash of vinegar and half a teaspoon of Turmeric. By lunchtime they are beautiful yellow colour which with the green of Lettuce and the red of Tomato is quite stunning.
ReplyDeleteNow there's a clever idea . I'll try it
DeleteI'm not surprised they came up tops, kiwi food in comparison is quite boring, I like the clean idea of meals, lots of salads and veges.
ReplyDelete