I love this creamy cucumber salad made with fresh dill, our simple yogurt dressing, and onions! This tzatziki-inspired summer salad is super simple to make and tastes incredible.
This creamy cucumber salad recipe, inspired by our tzatziki sauce, has been on repeat lately. It’s super simple to make, goes with almost anything, and, thanks to the Greek yogurt, is healthy!
See this easy cucumber salad recipe for a vinegar-based salad, or try our chopped cucumber tomato salad!
Key Ingredients
- Cucumber: I prefer thin-skinned cucumbers like Hot House or Persian varieties for this salad. Garden cucumbers are okay, too, but I peel and remove most of their seeds beforehand since they often have thicker skins.
- Yogurt: I use full-fat plain Greek yogurt for my homemade cucumber salad dressing. Icelandic-style yogurt is a good substitute as long as it’s a thicker variety. If you’d like, you can use sour cream instead, which will give you a more German-style cucumber salad.
- Vinegar and Lemon: I enjoy adding both red wine vinegar and fresh lemon juice to my dressing. They really enhance the overall flavor of the salad.
- Garlic: Since fresh garlic is a key ingredient in tzatziki sauce, I add a small clove to this salad for that extra kick.
- Dill: Dill is a must-have in my cucumber salad! I prefer fresh dill, but dried dill works just as well (I’ve included substitution tips in the recipe).
- Onion: I love the pop of color that red onion adds to this salad, but feel free to use any onion you have on hand.
How to Make Creamy Cucumber Salad
When making cucumber salads, I always salt my cucumbers. Think of it as a quick marinade for the cucumbers. Salting makes cucumbers taste better! We do the same thing with tomatoes (see our bruschetta recipe or this cherry tomato salad).
To do it, toss your cucumber slices with salt in a colander. After 30 minutes, rinse the cucumbers and shake them mostly dry. While you wait for the cucumbers, make the dressing, which also benefits from some extra time.
For the tzatziki yogurt dressing, combine Greek yogurt with garlic, red wine vinegar, lemon juice, dill, and lots of black pepper. Season with a pinch of salt, then set it aside while the cucumbers sit. Since the dressing contains garlic, the extra 30 minutes give the garlic a chance to flavor the dressing.
Since we love cucumber and onion salads, we throw in sliced red onion. Like garlic, onion adds flavor, so we add the sliced onions straight to the dressing. This way, while the cucumbers are salting, we take full advantage of the time to infuse as much flavor into the dressing as possible.
When the cucumbers are ready, toss them with the dressing and onions. You can serve the salad immediately or let it sit in the refrigerator for a day. As the salad sits, it becomes more flavorful, but the cucumbers soften. We’re not too worried about that, but it is something to remember.
Easy Creamy Cucumber Salad
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My creamy cucumber salad recipe features cucumbers tossed in a creamy, tzatziki-inspired yogurt dressing. Salting your cucumbers for 30 minutes before assembling the salad draws out excess moisture, intensifying their flavor. I highly recommend it!
You Will Need
1 ¼ pounds cucumber, sliced (2 medium)
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt, plus more as needed
3 tablespoons thick plain Greek yogurt, we use full-fat
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
Juice from 1 lemon wedge
1 teaspoon finely minced garlic (1 small clove)
1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill or 1 teaspoon dried dill
Fresh ground black pepper
1/2 cup sliced red onion (1 small onion)
Handful fresh dill and or mint leaves, for serving, optional
Directions
1Add the sliced cucumbers to a colander and toss with 1/2 teaspoon salt. Set them aside for 30 minutes in the sink or place them over a bowl to drain.
2Meanwhile, make the cucumber salad dressing. In a large bowl, stir the yogurt, red wine vinegar, lemon juice, garlic, and chopped dill. Season with a pinch of salt and a generous amount of black pepper.
3Stir the onions into the yogurt dressing, then set aside until the cucumbers are ready.
4After 30 minutes of salting the cucumbers, rinse them with cold water. Shake off excess water then add to the dressing.
5Toss the cucumbers until coated in the dressing. Taste, then season with additional salt and pepper, if needed.
6Serve with more fresh herbs scattered on top. Serve or keep refrigerated for up to 2 days.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- Mint is excellent in this salad. We especially love adding torn or whole mint leaves to the salad before serving.
- The combination of red wine vinegar and fresh lemon makes the salad more interesting, but you can use one or the other if that is all you have.
- As the salad sits, the cucumbers release some water, which may slightly thin the dressing. This is perfectly fine, as the cucumber water adds another layer of flavor. If the dressing becomes too thin, stir in another spoonful of yogurt before serving.
- The nutrition facts provided below are estimates. We have used the USDA database to calculate approximate values.
Both the cucumber salads are simple and delicious and cool on a hot day. Since I was restricted by certain ingredients I prepared the creamy one with yogurt and lemon juice and made a pouring sauce with a generous bunch of mint leaves instead of dill added a little oil and ground black pepper and poured it over the cucumbers and onions before serving and dotted with more mint leaves. I had to puree the ingredients first to make a smooth sauce.
Lovely, and ideal for the hot weather ahead!
Made this tonight and served with a spicy pasta dish. Very good and toned down the spicy hot of the pasta
So glad you gave it a try, Debbie! Thanks for coming back.
Love the dressing! I didn’t have fresh garlic so I used granulated garlic. I used Lambrusco wine vinegar because that is what I had. I also used green onions for the same reason. I will definitely be getting a purple onion on my next trip to the store. I will stick with my vinegar though.