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Ovcharska Salad

Name: Ovcharska Salad
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 30 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Bulgarian
Ingredients: 400 g Ripe tomatoes; 250 g Cucumber; 150 g Red bell pepper; 60 g Onion; 150 g Cooked ham; 120 g Kashkaval (yellow cheese); 150 g Cremini mushrooms; 3 piece Eggs; 100 g Sirene (Bulgarian brined white cheese); 15 g Flat-leaf parsley; 40 ml Extra-virgin olive oil; 15 ml White wine vinegar; 5 g Fine sea salt; 2 g Ground black pepper

The shepherd's salad: a shopska with ham, yellow cheese, mushrooms and egg piled on. A whole meal in a bowl, and the reason nobody orders a main course after it.

Prep: 20 min
Cook: 10 min
Difficulty: Very easy

About this dish

Ovcharska means shepherd's, and the name is a joke about appetite rather than a claim about shepherds: this is the salad you order when a salad is not going to be enough. It is built on the shopska — the same tomato, cucumber, pepper and onion underneath — and then loaded with everything a Bulgarian kitchen keeps cold: ham, kashkaval, mushrooms, boiled egg. The pickled mushrooms are the traditional touch and the one most often skipped abroad, which is a pity, since their sharpness is what stops the whole thing tasting like a sandwich filling.

Gluten-free
Not vegetarian because of Cooked ham
Contains dairy because of Kashkaval (yellow cheese), Sirene (Bulgarian brined white cheese)

Ingredients

4servings

400gRipe tomatoes
250gCucumber
150gRed bell pepper
60gOnion
150gCooked ham
120gKashkaval (yellow cheese)
150gCremini mushrooms
3piecesEggs
100gSirene (Bulgarian brined white cheese)
15gFlat-leaf parsley
40mlExtra-virgin olive oil
15mlWhite wine vinegar
5gFine sea salt
2gGround black pepper

Instructions

Hard-boil the eggs for 9 minutes, cool them under running water, peel and cut into quarters.
10 min
Tip: Cool them fast and completely. A warm egg on a cold salad sweats, and the water it leaves thins the dressing.
Chop the tomatoes, cucumber, pepper and onion as you would for a shopska and spread them over a wide plate.
6 min
Tip: A wide plate, not a deep bowl. Everything else goes on top in visible sections, and a bowl hides the arrangement that is half the dish.
Slice the ham, kashkaval and mushrooms and arrange them over the vegetables in separate areas.
4 min
Tip: Separate areas rather than tossed through. Ovcharska is served composed, so each person can take the proportions they want — and the ham does not colour everything pink.
Whisk the oil, vinegar, salt and pepper and spoon it over.
2 min
Tip: Dress the vegetables underneath, not the toppings. Oil on kashkaval just sits there; oil on tomato becomes part of the salad.
Grate the sirene over the top, add the egg quarters and finish with parsley.
3 min
Tip: Two cheeses is not an error: kashkaval is there for richness and sirene for salt, and they are doing different jobs.