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Cucumber salad served in a styled dish.

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Cucumber salad

Yield
4 servings

Thin, cold cucumber slices in a sweet-sour dressing with red onion and dill. It teaches two moves you'll use again and again: salting a watery vegetable so it stays crisp, and taming raw onion in vinegar.

Ingredients
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Ingredients

Servings
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Batches and reset

4 servings · US measures · 1 batch

Batching

Make one batch in each serving bowl of about 3 quarts; for a larger yield, use a second bowl. Salting and chilling times and cues do not multiply with ingredient quantities.

Original recipe: 4 servings.

Extra salt, vinegar, sugar and water are to taste and excluded from the base nutrition scenario. Fine salt is the selected salt. Nutrition is incomplete because the salt left on the drained cucumbers and the mass of chopped dill are not established.

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Before you start

  • Read through the recipe before you start. Gather the knife or mandoline, cutting board, colander and bowl, serving bowl, whisk, towel, wrap or lid, slotted spoon and the measured ingredients.

Directions

1

Read and gather

For the whole recipe

Read through the recipe and gather the equipment. Use the ingredient lines to prepare and measure everything, slicing the cucumbers into even rounds so they salt evenly. If you use a mandoline, keep the hand guard on. Everything is prepared and measured before you start salting.

2

Toss the cucumbers with salt and let them drain

For each bowl of salad

Toss about 1 3/4 lb English cucumbers with 1/2 tsp fine salt in the colander set over the bowl. Let them sit until a slice bends in half without snapping and liquid pools underneath, about 20 to 30 minutes.

3

Whisk the dressing and soak the onion

For each bowl of salad

Whisk about 1/4 cup cider vinegar, 2 tbsp cold water, 1 tbsp sugar and 1/4 tsp black pepper in the serving bowl until no sugar grains sit on the bottom. Stir in about 1/2 cup red onion and let it soak in the dressing while the cucumbers finish draining. The sugar is dissolved and the onion is coated.

4

Press the cucumbers and chill them in the dressing

For each bowl of salad

Press the salted cucumber slices firmly with your hands, without crushing them, to squeeze out more liquid, then pat them dry in the kitchen towel. Taste a slice: it should taste seasoned, not salty; if it tastes salty, rinse the slices quickly under cold water and pat them dry again. Toss them with the dressing and 2 tbsp fresh dill, cover, and refrigerate until a slice tastes cold, about 15 minutes.

5

Toss, taste and adjust

For each bowl of salad

Toss, then taste a slice with some onion. Aim for bright and sour first, then sweet. If it tastes flat, add fine salt to taste. If it tastes too sweet, add cider vinegar to taste. If it tastes too sharp, add sugar to taste or cold water to taste. The salad tastes bright, sour and sweet.

6

Toss again and serve

For the whole recipe

Toss again and lift the salad into bowls with the slotted spoon to make 4 servings, topping each with a spoonful of dressing. Keep it cold, and get it back into the refrigerator within two hours (one hour above 90°F). It is crispest the day it is made. The salad is served cold.

About this recipe

Research preview: these details come from our sourced research and haven't been reviewed by our chef yet.

Why it works

Even, thin slices salt and bend at the same rate, and salting pulls water from the cucumbers so they stay crisp and do not drown the dressing. A soak in the vinegar softens the raw onion, and dissolving the sugar before tasting lets you balance sweet and sour until neither wins.

Associated with

American, with Central European cousins

Thin cucumber slices in a vinegar dressing is the basic form; German Gurkensalat may add chives, dill or sour cream, and Chinese, Thai and Korean versions differ. A remark from 1773 about cucumbers dressed with pepper and vinegar shows the vinegar style in Britain.

Taste

  • Sweet
  • Sour
  • Salty
  • Bitter
  • Savory
  • Heat

Cider vinegar leads, balanced with a little sugar., Fresh dill and black pepper over cool cucumber. · crisp but bendy cucumber slices, thin, softened onion · cold

Skill level

Easy

No cooking. The cue is a salted slice that bends in half without snapping.

You'll practice: Slice thin and even, Salt cucumbers to draw out water, Tame raw onion in the vinegar, Balance sweet and sour by taste

Allergens

Allergens: see each line below; check the vinegar label for sulfites.

Check the cider vinegar label for sulfites.

Diets

Vegetarian: Fits as listed Pescatarian: Fits as listed Vegan: Depends on what you buy Dairy: See the allergen lines Egg: See the allergen lines Gluten: See the allergen lines

Occasions

  • Orthodox Great Lent · fits strict fast days

    No meat, dairy, eggs, fish, oil or wine: cucumbers, vinegar, water, sugar, onion and dill.

    Great Lent runs from Clean Monday (Orthodox Pascha minus 48 days) to Holy Saturday; strict days exclude meat, dairy, eggs, fish with a backbone, olive oil and wine, with weekend and feast relaxations. Practice varies by parish.

    Next: March 15, 2027 (expected)

  • Lenten abstinence days (Ash Wednesday and the Fridays of Lent) · fits the abstinence rule

    No meat is listed.

    Abstinence from meat on Ash Wednesday (Easter minus 46 days), Good Friday (Easter minus 2 days) and every Friday of Lent.

    Next: February 10, 2027 (expected)

    Next: February 12, 2027 (expected)

    Next: February 19, 2027 (expected)

    Next: February 26, 2027 (expected)

    Next: March 5, 2027 (expected)

    Next: March 12, 2027 (expected)

    Next: March 19, 2027 (expected)

    Next: March 26, 2027 (expected)

Course: side-dish · Technique: no-cook, chill · Time: 30-to-60-minutes

Serving and keeping

Best served: The day it is made Lifted into bowls with a slotted spoon, each topped with a spoonful of dressing

Make ahead: It is crispest the day it is made and softens by the next day.

Storage: Keep it at 40 °F (4 °C) or below, and refrigerate within 2 hours of setting it out (1 hour above 90 °F / 32 °C). No federal storage time exists for this salad; the time given is for texture.

Leftovers: The slices soften by the next day.

Food safety

  • Scrub the cucumbers with a clean brush under running water before slicing.
  • If you use a mandoline, keep the hand guard on.
  • Keep the salad cold and refrigerate it within 2 hours of setting it out (1 hour above 90 °F / 32 °C).

We make no statement about cross-contact in your kitchen or in packaged ingredients. Check the vinegar label.

Nutrition notes

Almost all of the sodium comes from the salt used to draw water from the cucumbers; pressing and draining the slices removes some of it.

The cucumbers, eaten with their peel, bring vitamin K.

We don't show nutrition claims (like “good source of”) until our legal review is done.

Swap notes

  • sugar · vegan

    Works with changes

    Use: beet sugar or a certified vegan cane sugar

    What changes: No change in taste.

    Not a swap: Honey, which vegans avoid.

  • red onion · buddhist.five_pungent

    Works with changes

    What changes: Leave the onion out; there is no sharp bite.

    Not a swap: Shallot or scallions, which are also onion-family plants.

  • red onion

    Works with changes

    Use: the green tops of spring onions, or chives

    What changes: Milder and greener.; The green tops are the usual low-FODMAP route, but our sources did not confirm their rating.; Keep the cider vinegar modest per serving.

    Not a swap: Shallot or sweet onion, which are onions too.

  • English cucumbers · no English cucumbers

    Works with changes

    Use: Persian cucumbers, or garden cucumbers peeled in stripes and seeded if the seeds are large

    What changes: Garden cucumbers hold more water, so salt them the full 30 minutes; waxed skins taste bitter, so peel them.

    Not a swap: Zucchini, which turns soft and spongy raw in vinegar.

  • cider vinegar · no cider vinegar

    Works with changes

    Use: white wine vinegar, distilled white vinegar (a little less, with a little more water) or unseasoned rice vinegar (skip the water)

    What changes: Distilled vinegar is sharper; rice vinegar is softer.

    Not a swap: Balsamic vinegar, which darkens and sweetens the salad.

These notes don't change the amounts, allergens or nutrition shown for this recipe.

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Recipe url
https://isthebestrecipe.com/salads/cucumber-salad
Name
Cucumber salad
Servings
4
Recipe yield
4 servings
Recipe ingredient
about 1 3/4 lb English cucumbers about 2, washed, ends trimmed, peeled in stripes only if the skin is thick or waxy, sliced 1/8 inch thick, 1/2 tsp fine salt, about 1/4 cup cider vinegar, 2 tbsp cold water, 1 tbsp sugar, 1/4 tsp black pepper freshly ground, about 1/2 cup red onion very thinly sliced (about half a small onion), 2 tbsp fresh dill chopped
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Cucumber salad