This week I have been talking about how much I love Charleston, South Carolina. After spending a few days there I remember just how much I love the food. A few of my favorite places serve this cucumber salad when you sit down and look over your menu. Hominy Grill on Rutledge and Jestine’s Kitchen on Meeting Street come to mind. We had a bridal luncheon at a cute restaurant in Isle of Palms and a few of my friends ordered a side of cucumber salad but it came to the table in a creamy buttermilk dressing. That is just not right! The cucumber salad that I know and love is in a sweet and tart vinegar based dressing. This salad is cold and refreshing. It takes about 5 minutes to put together and keeps well in the fridge for a few days. I find myself grabbing a cuke everytime I open the fridge.
Some recipes say to peel the cucumber and well, we all know that I am lazy. I really like cucumber peel, but if you are so inclined, please peel your cucumbers. This is a perfect side dish for a picnic, barbecue, or just to keep around to snack on.
4 cucumbers (I used one large English cucumber)
1 small onion sliced thinly (red or white)
1 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup water
3/4 cup white sugar
2 Tablespoons chopped fresh dill
salt and pepper to taste
Put the vinegar, sugar, and water in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Set aside to cool.
Slice the cucumbers and onions. Add them to a bowl with the fresh dill. The dill is what makes this salad so good.
Generously season with salt and pepper.
Pour the cooled vinegar mixture over the cucumbers.
Give it a stir and put it in the fridge until cold. Marinate for at least an hour.
These are best eaten ice cold out of the refrigerator. They are so refreshing on a hot day. Obviously they can be eaten at room temperature also, but eating them ice cold out of the fridge brings me back to my days of living in the South. Who am I to break tradition?
Ingredients
- 4 cucumbers (I used one large English cucumber)
- 1 small onion sliced thinly (red or white)
- 1 cup white vinegar
- 1/2 cup water
- 3/4 cup white sugar
- 2 Tablespoons chopped fresh dill
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Put the vinegar, sugar, and water in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Set aside to cool.
- Slice the cucumbers and onions. Add them to a bowl with the fresh dill. The dill is what makes this salad so good.
- Generously season with salt and pepper.
- Pour the cooled vinegar mixture over the cucumbers.
- Give it a stir and put it in the fridge until cold. Marinate for at least an hour.
My mom makes this same salad, except she uses rice wine vinegar and almost no sugar. We do make a cucumber salad that has a sour cream dressing as a nod to our Eastern European roots. Buttermilk just seems weird though.
this salad looks and sounds amazing…great side dish to all kinds of meats….I will definitely try it!
After tasting this the other day, I was hoping you would share the recipe. I had some on a tuna sandwich…..YUM, YUM!
I love how simple and fresh this salad is!
Maybe a silly question, but can you even taste the vinegar? I can’t stand the stuff, but I once had a salad at someone’s house and it sounds like this might have been it. It was just as you described it.
you can taste the vinegar, but it is also pretty sweet. It might be the perfect recipe to try to challenge your taste buds.
I have made this before, but without all that sugar. I use more like 1/4 cup. I want to make this RIGHT NOW.
My mom used to make the sour cream cucumber salad that Deanna mentioned. Dang. I haven’t had that since I was a kid . . .
I like the sweetness of the dressing so I stick with the tradional southern way of making it. I could eat this every day.
Thanks Bree. I bookmarked the page and will come back to it one of these days to give it a try.
What a refreshing looking cucumber salad. Beautiful colors and presentation. xo
This was awesome. I made it with my mom tonight for a light, summery, crunchy salad/side. Great job!
so glad that you liked it!
I made this tonight with a few changes. I cut the sugar down to 1/2 a cup, and only used 1/2 a cup of vinegar, and also added tomatoes. No dill as I couldn’t find any fresh. It was just sweet enough to satisfy my sweet tooth, but not so sweet as to be overpowering.
I think next time I would go ahead and do the whole amount of vinegar, and cut the sugar down a bit more, but it was definitely good. Thanks again for sharing!
Think I’ll substitute the sugar with splenda and see what happens. Looks pretty yummy!
Let me know how it goes.
Sounds good (with less sugar). I wonder what other herbs would work well? I don’t have dill, but I do have Thai basil, and I have oregano, which I love with cukes.
basil sounds good. Chives might be good too.
I made it with the 3/4 c sugar and it was too sweet for my fiancee and I – I guess that part is more of a personal preference. My mum made this when I was growing up but she would cut the cucumbers into paper thin slivers. Thanks for reminding me about this great summer salad.
I LOVE this recipe, Bree! I use it to make pickles on a regular basis… in fact, I will likely never buy pickles at the store again! Thanks!
ps I use Splenda with the recipe (and all of my baking) and it’s great!
I am glad that you like this recipe. I love it. I made bread and butter pickles that other day that were crazy good. Can’t wait to share those.
I have been making this alot lately. One of those recipes that I use to have a lot when I was a kid but for some reason, it fell to the wayside later in life. Brings back good memories of summer picnics and family reunions.
I am happy to hear that you making it again. I am glad that it brings back happy memories.
Addicting! This is my second time to make this this summer! I’m packing it in little mason jars for a picnic on the beach tomorrow — it will so refreshing!
I love these, I cannot wait to get some cukes from the farmers market. Perfect for a picnic on the beach.
Bring on the summer, as I will definitely be making this.
I have an abundance of lemon cucumbers from my garden. I think I will try this recipe with them.
Jealous! We really missed having a garden this year.