Cucumber Salad
The beauty of this salad is that it is easy to make as much or a little as you want! You can also pre-cut the cucumber, dill, and onion the day before and just add the dressing right before serving. The colors are beautiful together, and the crisp cucumber makes it the perfect Summer salad!
Feel free to slice or dice your ingredients any way you like. Just note that once you add the dressing the vinegar will start to chemically cook your veggies. That means that your cucumber will start to get soft and release it's water. So if you choose to dice your veg you will want to add your dressing at the very last minute to ensure the salad retains it's crunch. Use any kind of cucumber that you wish. English cucumbers are often long and thin so you can cut them in rounds and still have bite-sized pieces. I do like the softer skin and the visual texture that their skins add to the salad. I usually cut large cucumbers into half circles and leave my onion thin, but long so that anyone who objects to onion (or the amount) can easily pick it aside. I would recommend sticking with the red onion since it has a milder flavor and the color contrast with the green cucumber makes it a visual treat as well!
Fresh dill is paramount! This salad does not work without it--don't sub it for dry dill. Once again, the best dill is at the farmer's market and you know it is fresh if it is super fragrant!
The dressing is SUPER easy because, I confess, we take a short-cut and use our favorite bottled vinaigrette! We enjoy Brianna's French Vinaigrette dressing and add our favorite vegan mayo (Hampton Creek's Just Mayo) to give it a creamier texture. I do not really measure things out, I just add vinaigrette to a little mayo until it reaches the consistency that I am looking for (roughly 2:1). So if you want a creamier dressing use more mayo. Often I would just add the dressing to the last of the mayo in the mayo jar and shake it up! No need to scrape the mayo jar and now my dressing is in a resealable container.
Not only is this easy, fresh salad great as a side dish it is also great on sandwiches and burgers! I have even thrown it in the blender and made tangy, cool cucumber shooters (a great way to use up a salad that has gone softer than you intended)! If you garnish it just right your friends will be really impressed by all the trouble you went to!
Cucumber Salad
PREP TIME 10 | COOK TIME NA | TOTAL TIME 10
Servings: 6
Category: Salad
Cuisine: Salad
Ingredients
Cucumber 3 medium, sliced into bite-sized pieces
Red Onion 1 small, sliced into thin strips
Fresh Dill 1 small package, coarsely chopped
Mayo 1/4 cup
Vinaigrette 1/2 cup
Instructions
Slice the cucumbers into small rounds, or bite sized pieces. Cut your onion in half so that you can cut it into thin strips. Pull the leaves off of the dill plant and coarsely chop.
In a medium sized bowl toss the cucumbers, onions and dill until well combined.
In a small bowl, combine the mayo and vinaigrette. Stir until smooth.
When ready to serve, pour the dressing over the salad and stir until evenly coated. Serve as a side salad, or sandwich topping and enjoy!
Notes
Again, I don't usually measure ingredients when making my salads. So these are rough estimates of what you will need.
