Creamy Cucumber Salad

Creamy Cucumber Salad is fresh, crunchy and creamy with cucumbers, dill, yogurt or sour cream. A 10 minute salad my grandma made in the Ukraine during the summertime that is perfect for any potluck, BBQ or backyard gathering. Classic cucumber dill salad is vegetarian, gluten-free and is a quick and affordable year round side dish.

Serve this light and refreshing salad alongside any grilled protein – healthy chicken burgers, healthy black bean burgers or even carne asada steak!

Healthy Creamy Cucumber Salad

Creamy cucumber salad screams summer due to its light taste and the fact that cucumbers are at their seasonal peak. In North America we are lucky to make affordable cucumber salad year round, although I do encourage you to try it at least once with some garden fresh cucumbers.

Grandma in Ukraine whipped up all possible cucumber salad variations during July-August while she could. Simple salads containing only cucumbers, with tomatoes, unrefined sunflower oil and white vinegar…similar to this healthy cucumber salad.

This easy cucumber salad recipe is a perfect quick side dish for summer night dinner, poolside BBQ or unexpected company as it takes only minutes to make!

I love simple salads, and this is just one in my ‘rotation’, including this simple cucumber and tomato salad, easy avocado salad, and lemony kale salad. In fact, cucumber is one of my favorite low-cost, year-round salad additions, you can find it within my avocado corn salad, Ukrainian coleslaw, Mediterranean quinoa salad, and spinach salad recipe – just to name a few!

Why This Recipe for Creamy Cucumber Dill Salad Works?

• Simplicity is key and this salad uses only cucumber, dill, Greek yogurt (or sour cream) and salt/pepper.
• Quick to make, only 10 minutes for creamy dill salad yogurt from start to finish. There is no peeling or deseeding of the cucumber!
• Versatile creamy cucumber dill salad with either Greek yogurt or sour cream and you can swap out the fresh dill for fresh herbs that you have on hand, parsley, chives or green onion tastes great!

Ingredients for Cucumber Dill Salad with Yogurt

• Cucumber: These two cucumber varieties are best to choose from when making this creamy cucumber dill salad.

1. English cucumbers. The best part of this salad is that it tastes very good with available year-round and affordable long English cucumber. Its skin is soft enough to avoid peeling. You can find these at the supermarket usually wrapped in plastic.
2. Dill cucumbers would be great during summer months. This is what my grandma used in Ukraine cause that’s the only cucumbers we had in July-August

• Greek yogurt: 2% and higher fat content would be comparable to the creaminess of sour cream but healthier.
• Dill: Fresh dill is the best accompaniment for cucumbers. Please do not use dried seaweed.

How to Make Creamy Cucumber Salad

1. Slice cucumber thinly into half-moon shapes.
2. Add chopped dill, yogurt, salt and pepper.
3. Add yogurt (or sour cream) and stir well. It might appear not enough yogurt but keep stirring.
4. Refrigerate for 10 minutes for best results.

Optional Add-In’s and Salad Variations

• Grandma always used sour cream – we didn’t have yogurt.
• Add thinly sliced red onion.
• Replace half of cucumber with sliced tomatoes, like creamy cucumber tomato salad.
• Fresh parsley, chives or green onion instead of dill.
• Add a splash of vinegar or sugar for more traditional North American recipe.
• Add 1-2 tbsp of mayo for additional tang.
• Garlic powder for a savory garlic taste.
• Ranch flavor – replace the sour cream or yogurt with my healthy ranch dressing.
• Asian cucumbers – try replacing the creamy dressing with Asian salad dressing.
• Cucumber salsa add some chopped jalapenos and use cilantro instead of dill.

Tips for Best Results

• Serve within 10 minutes, best ate within 2-3 hours.
• Not planning to eat it right away? Store ingredients separately, combine a few minutes before serving.
• Deseed cucumber if you are worried that your creamy cucumber salad with greek yogurt will be watery.

FAQs

Serving Recommendations

• Grilled proteins: Delicious with grilled chicken thighs (pictured above) or grilled chicken. Or flavor it up with something like chili lime chicken or check out all of our healthy grilling options.
• Picnic style with Instant Pot corn on the cob, healthy broccoli salad, healthy deviled eggs, and Instant Pot baked beans.
• Make a wrap with a whole wheat tortilla for quick vegetarian lunch.
• Light side dish: Serve with hearty Instant Pot meatloaf and mashed potatoes.
• Easy mid-week meal: With healthy turkey burgers, healthy black bean burgers, healthy chicken burgers, or healthy salmon burgers at a BBQ or for a mid-week meal!
• Pizza night side dish: With cauliflower pizza or sweet potato pizza.

Making Salad with Creamy Cucumbers in Advance

Cucumber dill salad is best consumed within 2-3 hours. Cucumbers consist of 99% water, so as soon as you add salt they start “leaking”. Photo below shows well how dressing becomes more and more runny and cucumbers lose their crunch.

To make ahead, I recommend to refrigerate chopped cucumber, dill and pepper for up to 24 hours. Add salt and yogurt before serving.

Less watery salad tip: Scraping out seeds will prevent the salad from getting watery. No need to do so with small dill cucumbers.

More Cucumber Salads

• Cucumber and tomato salad
• Traditional Greek salad
• Lettuce salad recipe
• Chickpea salad with avocado
• Healthy pasta salad
• Cucumber bites

You might also enjoy browsing through this list of over 50 healthy salad recipes!