Here is a secret for you. I HATE cucumbers. That probably leads you to the thought “Well, then why would you make cucumber salad?” The thing is I know that other people like cucumbers. AND more importantly than that, I know that people are always looking for new salad recipes or just veggie recipes in the summertime. Especially recipes for gatherings! There is a never ending need for those in the summer.
Even though I am not a fan, I do think that cucumbers are a great summer vegetable that really do well in salads. My Husband could sit there and eat a whole sliced cucumber with Italian dressing quite happily. Personally I cringe at the idea. But hey, thats just me and cucumbers. As you can probably guess, I didn’t taste this salad so I can’t tell you exactly how great it was. And neither did my Husband for that matter. Although he does like cucumbers he doesn’t like anything creamy. My Father-in-Law was visiting at the time and he did have multiple servings of this salad so based on that I am going to say that it was a good recipe. Not to mention that it is Cooks Illustrated of course!
So if you are looking for something new to dress up your cucumbers or to bring to a party, this is a good one! Especially if you have an over abundance of cucumbers from your garden lying around.
Oh and do NOT skip that step calling for salting the cucumbers!! Yes, it is tedious, but it is absolutely necessary. Cucumbers have a TON of water and the salt helps draw that out. If you don’t salt them, then all that excess water is going to be released in the salad, making it runny and watered down. Yuck!
- 3 cups cucumbers (2 lbs), peeled, halved lengthwise, seeded and sliced ¼” thick
- 1 small red onion, sliced very thin
- 1 Tb salt
- 1 cup sour cream
- 3 Tb cider vinegar
- 1 tsp sugar
- ¼ cup minced fresh dill
- Toss cucumber and onion with salt om colander and set over large bowl or in sink. Weight cucumbers with gallon-sized zipper-lock bag filled with water; drain for 1 to 3 hours. Rinse and pat dry.
- Whisk remaining ingredients together in medium bowl. Add cucumbers and onion; toss to coat. Serve chilled.
Adapted from ”The New Best Recipe” By Cooks Illustrated
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
All your website pictures and recipes are awesome, Laura. Congratulations on your work!
Thanks Sunny!! : D
I also sometime cook dishes with ingredients that I don’t like myself, but the significant others do. I find it especially useful when I do a detox, then I am not tempted to eat them
. But in case of this recipe, I love cucumbers. So I’ll take this salad! It looks gorgeous and it probably tastes wonderfully refreshing!
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I hope you get a chance to visit and to share some of your delicious posts with our viewers. It would be a pleasure to have you on board
I would love to- I’ll check it out! Thank you.
Thank you for a great creamy cucumber salad idea. Great low carb dish. I did have to improvise a bit. I made a single serving (just to test the recipe out) using half a large cucumber. 1/4 cup sour cream and 1/4 cup mayo. Chopped up some lemon thyme and rosemary from my potted herb garden. Chopped up the red onion and made a dressing that I took to work and let the flavors marry until 11am (my lunch time). I sliced up the cucumber and put it in the dressing. It was absolutely delicious! I did had some chicken to make it a meal. I’m making it again for lunch later this week. Will probably just add 1 tablespoons of mayo next time. I was soooo full. I was good to go until my early dinner at about 3pm. You Rock!!!
So glad to hear you had such success!!
In the cucumber salad, could u substitute mayo for sour cream?
Oh, I am sure that would work well!