Easy Cucumber Salad

This easy cucumber salad is a total classic! I’ve been eating it at restaurants and making it at home all my life.

It’s refreshing and light, perfect for the heat of summer. Low-calorie, low-carb, and by adding in greek yogurt you’re sneaking in protein and calcium.

You have your choice of peeling the cucumber first or chopping the fruit up (yes, cucumbers are fruits!) with the skins on.

You can make the sauce that it marinates in as creamy or as vinegar-y as you would like. When I make this for myself, I like to split the difference and add both the greek yogurt and the rice vinegar. Adding greek yogurt instead of mayonnaise will add protein to the dish and cut out some of the saturated fats found in mayo.

Which Cucumbers are Best?

English cucumbers are best for this easy cucumber salad. They are the easiest to peel and to slice. The English cucumber is a long and wide cucumber and is often found in supermarkets wrapped in plastic. it has a thin skin and minimal seeds. These English cucumbers can get pricey, however, because they do have quite a demand!

If English cucumbers are unavailable, or you’re looking for something different, try the Persian cucumber. Like the English, it has a non-waxy skin that is easy to peel or pleasant to eat. They’re much smaller than other varieties of cucumbers and often have more seeds.

Japanese cucumbers are also a good option for cucumber salad. They are a sweet cucumber that has almost no bitterness or bite to them, and very few seeds.

The Best Way to Cut Cucumbers

There are a couple of ways to cut a cucumber for your easy cucumber salad. I recommend peeling them and then slicing them thinly with a mandolin, but you can always roughly chop them as well. You will also want to slice your onion thinly as well.

The most important thing to remember when cutting up cucumbers is making sure that they will be easy to eat.

Sweating Cucumbers

Sweating cucumbers is actually quite easy. All it takes is a little salt and some time.

After peeling and then chopping or slicing your fruit, set in a colander and add about a teaspoon of salt to the cucumbers. Toss so they are evenly coated. Then just let them sit and sweat.

This is an important step because cucumbers are over 90% water so the salt will extract the unnecessary moisture and will prevent your salad from getting watery later. It will also keep your cucumbers from getting too mushy if you are going to store it in the fridge for a couple of days.

Cucumber Salad

5 from 1 vote

Recipe by Sarah Course: Side, AppetizersCuisine: MediterraneanDifficulty: Easy

Servings

4

servings

Prep time

10

minutes

Cooking time

0

minutes

Calories

50

kcal

Ingredients

• 3 3 cucumbers

• 1/2 1/2 red onions

• 1/2 cup 1/2 plain, greek yogurt

• 1 tbsp 1 rice vinegar

• 1 tbsp 1 fresh dill

• salt and pepper

Directions

• Extract excess water. Wash and peel cucumbers and then slice them as thinly as possible. If a mandolin is available, use that. In a colander, add about a teaspoon of salt and mix it through the cucumber slices and then let it sit in the colander for about half an hour. This process will extract excess water from the cucumber and keep the salad from getting mushy.
• Slice. Thinly slice the red onion and add to your drained cucumber sliced.
• Liquids. Add in your yogurt and the rice vinegar and mix thoroughly.
• Herbs. Stir in the fresh dill. Top with more herbs.
• Season. Taste the cucumber salad and then season with salt and pepper to taste.