Turkish salad with a delicious dressing is very simple to make. Serve with shish or doner kebabs, pan-fried chicken or steak. Mixing a little sumac with the red onion helps to soften any rawness.
*Post updated May 2026
Liven up meals with this easy, vibrant and delicious salad. Turkish salad, also known as Coban salad (Çoban Salatası). Go all fancy and make a Turkish salad for your next BBQ!
What is a traditional meze?
Mezze is a selection of small savoury dishes usually served alongside drinks.
A variety of cold or hot small dishes usually include meat, cheese, olives, dips, bread and vegetables.
Is it mezze or meze?
Mezze ('zz') or meze(one 'z') in Greece - known as tapas in Spain and antipasti in Italy.
Additions to Turkish salad can include feta
Ingredients - Turkish salad dressing
- extra virgin olive oil
- cider vinegar
- pomegranate molasses - tart, tangy and sweet at the same time 😋
- red pepper flakes
- lemon - juice only
- sea salt
A quick word on red pepper flakes
Red pepper flakes are made with different varieties of peppers, and they are sweet in taste. Chilli flakes are hot since they are made only from chilli peppers.
Turkish salad ingredients
- baby tomatoes
- cucumber
- green bell pepper
- 1-2 green chilli peppers - of course, you can leave these out altogether if you don't like heat
- red onion
- fresh parsley
- sumac - don't be tempted to leave this out, it is delicious!
- olives - optional
Gather and prepare your ingredients
Put the diced onion into a medium-sized bowl and sprinkle it with the sumac - this will tone down the harshness of the raw onion.
Add the rest of the salad ingredients to the bowl along with the salad dressing and mix everything together.
Try to leave for at least 15 minutes before serving, if you can.
This salad would go well served alongside my Chicken Shish Kebabs.
Leaving any salad with a dressing for a little while before serving gives it time for the flavours to develop.
Have you tried this recipe? Please leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ star rating in the recipe card below!
Turkish Salad Recipe
A quick and easy Turkish salad recipe you can whip up in minutes.
Ingredients
- 1 red onion - cut into small dice
- 8-10 baby (grape) tomatoes - halved or quartered depending on their size
- ½ of an English cucumber (hot house, I believe they're called in the US) - deseeded and cut into small dice
- 1 green bell pepper (capsicum) - deseeded and cut into small dice
- 1-2 green chilli peppers, medium heat (optional) - deseeded and thinly sliced
- a small handful of fresh parsley - leaves only and chopped
- 2 teaspoons sumac
- a few black pitted olives - optional
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
- 1-2 teaspoons pomegranate molasses (or to taste)
- ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- ½ of a lemon juice only - or more, to taste
- a pinch of sea salt - to taste
- Combine the dressing ingredients in a small bowl, mix thoroughly, then taste and adjust the seasoning as needed.
Instructions
- Put the diced onion into a medium-sized bowl and sprinkle it with the sumac, and leave for a couple of minutes - this will tone down the harshness of the raw onion.
- Next, add the remaining salad ingredients to the bowl.
- Stir the salad dressing, then add it to the salad. Gently mix everything to coat.
- It’s best to let it sit for 15 minutes before serving so the flavours have time to develop.
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Jan