Easy Cucumber Salad

This cucumber salad recipe is crisp, tangy, and cool, tossed with onion and fresh dill in a quick vinegar dressing. It’s the easy summer side you’ll make on repeat!

Here’s one of my favorite summer side dishes that’s packed with flavor and fits almost any diet: my cucumber salad! It’s simple and punchy, with a vinegar-based dressing that packs in sweet and tangy flavor.

I grew up with this salad on the BBQ table, and if you did too you know why it’s so great (right?). It has the perfect summer vibe for just about any occasion: summer cookouts or pitch-ins, lunches, or an easy make-ahead side dish you can keep in the fridge for dinners all week. Thin coins of cucumber and onion marinade in a sharp, sweet-salty vinegar brine, and if just keeps getting better over time!

5 Star Reader Review

“Super-delicious!!! I made this tonight with the Cajun Salmon and Easy Lemon Orzo. What a great combo. It was a big hit with my husband. Definitely cooking all of these again very soon. Thank you.” -A.M.

Ingredients You’ll Need

This cucumber salad recipe is actually more like quick-pickled cucumbers and onions than a salad (similar to this German Gurkensalat). While we love a creamy cucumber salad, the vinegar-based cucumber salad is our preference. It’s so easy, holds up well over time, and has incredible flavor. Here are the ingredients you’ll need:

English cucumbers: Look for the long, thin English cucumbers that come plastic-wrapped in the grocery store.
White onion and red onion: I like using both to get the bright color of red and the mild flavor of white.
Fresh dill: It’s best with fresh herbs, but you can substitute dried dill here and it’s still fantastic.
White vinegar: Make sure it’s white vinegar (not white wine vinegar); it has a piercing straightforward flavor that’s the signature of this salad recipe.
Granulated sugar: A bit of sugar balances the acidity.

The Best Type of Cucumber for Salad

To me, this is the single most important thing about cucumber salad. The best type of cucumber to use is an English cucumber, aka Persian cucumber or seedless cucumber. It’s got a much better texture and flavor compared to a standard cucumber.

English cucumbers are long and straight, with a thin, bright green skin with ridges. The seeds are very small and the flavor is sweet and mild. Because of the thin skin and small seeds, it doesn’t need to be peeled or seeded before eating. You can find English cucumbers next to the standard cucumbers in the produce section: it’s sold with a plastic covering to protect its delicate skin.
Standard slicing cucumbers are shorter, with thick, dark green skin and very large seeds. The thick skin and seeds can be bitter, so they’re often removed when cooking.

Want to use standard cucumbers? You can substitute the same weight of standard cucumbers here and it will taste great too! Make sure to slice them very thinly, or you can peel them if you’re sensitive to the bitter flavor of the skin.

Tips for the Best Cucumber Salad

Got your cucumbers? Here are a few tips for making this cucumber salad recipe, the ideal summer side dish for cookouts, pitch-ins and more! Here’s what to know:

Use a mandolin for easy slicing. A mandolin is a slicing blade that makes it easy to cut vegetables uniformly. If you’ve got one, it makes this salad recipe a breeze! Make sure to wear the protective gloves that come with the blade to prevent injury.
Don’t have one? Use a chef’s knife to cut the cucumber as thinly as possible.
French cut the onions. Cut the onion from the root end to stem end to make the most attractive-sized pieces (here’s a video).
Refrigerate for 1 hour. You can eat this salad right away, but it’s best after 1 hour of refrigeration. This chills the salad and softens the vegetables.

What to Serve With Cucumber Salad

This refreshing summer cucumber salad is of course a perfect pairing for anything rich, smoky, or grilled as a cool, crunchy contrast. Here are a few of my favorite pairings:

Grilled proteins: It’s made for grilled chicken thighs, grilled salmon, chicken burgers, or veggie burgers
Seafood dinners: One commenter said it’s great with Cajun salmon (I must try it!).
Cookout spreads: Set it alongside my dill pickle potato salad and classic corn salad for the full picnic lineup.
Sandwiches: Spoon it next to a focaccia sandwich.
Mezze plates: It’s great in Mediterranean spreads with loaded hummus and baked feta.

Storage and Leftovers

This cucumber salad recipe is great for making in advance and holds up well in the refrigerator. Store cucumber salad for up to 7 days refrigerated. It tastes even better after a few days of refrigeration. Use it for side dishes all week long!

Cucumber Salad Variations

There are lots of variations on this theme! Here are a few more cucumber salad recipes:

Creamy: Try my Creamy Cucumber Salad with Sour Cream
Juicy: Add fruit like Watermelon Cucumber Salad or Tomato Cucumber Salad
German: Go for my family’s German Cucumber Salad (Gurkensalat)
Cheesy: Add cheese for Simple Cucumber Feta Salad
Green: Grab Edamame & Cucumber Salad

Dietary Notes

This cucumber salad recipe is vegetarian, vegan, plant-based, dairy-free and gluten-free.