Side dishes on an Iranian food table If you ever go to a Persian restaurant or have food with an Iranian family chances are that you'll find quite a lot of side dishes. These can be different food to food, based on how they taste when eaten along with the main dish. 1. Yogurt (ماست) One of the most favorite side dishes that is often served with rice is yogurt. Yogurt is cold and smooth, a spoon of cold yogurt feels really good in mouth after some hot rice. Some mix some mint and little pieces of cucumber with it to make it taste even better. 2. Tursu / Pickles (ترشی/خیارشور) Tursu is pieces of specific kinds of vegetable kept in vinegar for a rather long time. There are lots of different kinds of Tursu which their main difference is the types of vegetables used in them. Along with all different Tursus, there are two specific kinds of them: pickles which are little cucumbers kept in water-salt solution often without vinegar which turn dark green, and Sir-Torshi which is basically garlic kept in vinegar for 6 months up to 7 years which tastes incredible; specially with fish. 3. Olive (زیتون) Olive is a popular side dish, specially with kebab. But olives are rarely used without being soaked in special sauces. There are a ton of different recepies on how to "marinate"(!) olives. Often involving soaking the olives in powdered walnuts and olive oil. 4. Sabzi Khordan/Leaf vegetables (سبزی‌خوردن) It is a salad-like mixture of uncooked vegetables. Contents are different from place to place and from family to family based on the traditions, availability of the vegetables and the taste of family members, but it usually contains a mixture of radish, scallion, chives, basil, parsley, cress, pennyrile, coriander, bell peppers, and tarragon. You may pick some with each bite of food you take. With some dishes, specially dizi and kebabs raw cut onion are served too. 5. Salads (سالاد) There are two kinds of salads that are really popular, lettuce and Shirazi. Both are really simple salads. Lettuce salad is pretty much like caesar salad without the chicken. And Shirazi salad is little cubic pieces of cucumber, onion, and tomato with a mixture of vinegar, verjuice, and lemon juice with a pinch of salt. 6. Naan (نان) Naans are big flat bread that is the main substitute for rice in Iranian dishes. (Rice is a rather big part of the most Iranian dishes) We make sandwiches with whole pieces of it or make small bites with smaller pieces.