Cucumber Tomato Salad is an easy to make, light salad. This simple salad is made with crunchy cucumbers & juicy tomatoes and enhanced with slivers of pickled red onion. It’s juicy, crunchy, refreshing and pairs wonderfully with all your summer meals. Serve it with your everyday dinners or as a snack.
While this salad is perfect just about anytime of year, I love it most in the summer when cucumbers and juicy tomatoes are abundant!
MAKING CUCUMBER TOMATO SALAD
English cucumbers or Persian cucumbers work best for this salad. They have almost no seeds and a thin skin. If you only have regular cucumbers at home, peel and scoop out the seeds before using!
This salad doesn’t need much, the simple dressing allows the flavors of the vegetables to shine and keeps the salad light and fresh. A splash of lemon juice and a dash of olive oil with salt and pepper goes a long way.
I like to use pickled onions to this salad rather than raw onions as they are sweeter in flavor and have a beautiful color. If you don’t like or eat onions, feel free to leave them out.
Combine all dressing ingredients (per recipe below). Cut cucumbers and tomatoes and toss with the dressing. I love using a combination of fresh cilantro in this salad. Alternatively, you could add fresh mint or parsley.
SERVING IT
If you’re making this salad ahead of time you can reserve the dressing until your ready to serve.
I like to let it sit for at least 15-20 minutes before serving so all the flavors infuse together.
VARIATIONS
You can add your favorite ingredients to this salad and make it as fancy as you want. Start with the basics of this recipe and add in avocado, feta, mint, sweet peppers, boiled chickpeas or olives. The options are endless!
- 1 long English cucumber
- 2-3 large tomatoes
- 10-12 picked red onion slices
- 2 tablespoon fresh cilantro; finely chopped
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- zest of one lemon
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper; freshly cracked
- Lightly peel the cucumber and cut into small bite size pieces, add to a large bowl.
- Cut the tomatoes into the same size pieces as the cucumber and add to the bowl.
- Add the rest of the ingredients in the bowl and toss well.
- Refrigerate at least 15 minutes before serving
Enjoy,
