Easy Cucumber Salad

This cucumber salad is unbelievably simple to prepare, yet flavorful and elegant. With a mix of cucumbers and onion, it’s a healthy salad recipe that’s sure to be a hit during the spring and summer months!

If you’ve perused my sweet and smoky beef brisket recipe, you’ve seen a sneak peek of this cucumber salad. Whenever I’m eating a hearty meat dish like that brisket, I always try to balance it with a light salad. And always something green.

In fact, eating this cucumber salad before a big meal will help you to to digest that big meal. That’s because greens, herbs and vinegar help stimulate the body’s digestion and natural enzyme production.

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It’s the concept of digestive bitters, in whole food format. And it’s why salads (usually ones with bitter greens) have historically been served before a main course. Centuries old wisdom to keep the gut in good working order!

How to Make this Cucumber Salad

Okay, so here’s how you make this cucumber salad. If you don’t already have a mandoline, I highly recommend one. Not only because it makes this salad easy breezy, but it’s an all-around kitchen time-saver when you need to slice things.

After you slice your cucumber, which literally takes one minute, sprinkle on a little salt to help pull the water and moisture out of the cucumber. Cucumbers are moisture-rich, which makes them a great cooling vegetable, but you also don’t want a soggy salad.

Once your cucumbers have mixed with the salt for a bit, you should notice some liquid dripping out the bottom of your colander. Wash and drain the cucumbers, then add them to a salad bowl along with some thinly sliced red onion (which takes 10 seconds on the mandoline), sliced scallion and fresh dill.

Once everything is in your salad bowl, all that’s left is to add the dressing – which is a simple combinations of vinegar and honey. That’s it.

An easy cucumber salad that’s perfect for summertime and all your outdoor barbecues and festivities. Enjoy!

For more healthy salad recipes:

• Broccoli Salad
• Watermelon, Cucumber and Feta Salad
• Melon Mozzarella Salad
• Grilled Peach and Burrata Salad
• BLT Salad with Avocado and Sprouts
• Lentil Salad with Cucumber

Watch this quick video of my Cucumber Salad recipe:

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Cucumber Salad

Yield: 4 servings

Total Time: 20 minutes

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 0 minutes

A classic cucumber salad with cucumber, onions and dill that’s simple to prepare and delicious. Watch my quick video above to see how easy it is to make!

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Ingredients

• 2 large English cucumbers, thinly sliced
• 1 tbsp kosher salt
• 1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
• 1 scallion, thinly sliced
• 2-3 tbsp fresh dill, chopped
• 1 1/2 tbsp champagne vinegar (or white wine vinegar)
• 2 tsp honey
• pepper, to taste

Directions

1. Add the sliced cucumber to a colander and toss with the salt. Set the colander in your sink or on top of a plate, as the salt will pull liquid from the cucumbers. Let this sit for 20 minutes, then rinse the cucumber with cold water.
2. Add the drained cucumber to a salad bowl along with the red onion, scallion and fresh dill. Stir together the vinegar and honey in a separate, small bowl, then pour on top of the salad.
3. Garnish with pepper and additional fresh dill leaves.

Lisa's Tips

I use this mandoline for slicing up the cucumbers fast and easy! And these glass mixing bowls are my favorite and used in almost all my recipe videos.

Nutrition Information

Yield: 4 servings, Serving Size: 1/4 of recipe

• Amount Per Serving:
• Calories: 45.2
• Total Fat: 0.2g
• Saturated Fat: 0.1g
• Sodium: 5.1mg
• Carbohydrates: 10.9g
• Fiber: 2.1g
• Sugar: 6.6g
• Protein: 1.3g

All images and text ©Lisa Bryan for Downshiftology

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Recipe originally posted May 2017, but updated to include a video.