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Creamy Cucumber Salad – just like Grandma made! This recipe is made with fresh cucumbers, red onions, fresh dill, and a handful of other ingredients for a side dish that everyone will love. The perfect salad for picnics, potlucks, or summer grilling!
What is it about summer that makes me want to eat all the salads? Not just because they’re light and summery and the perfect addition to any meal… but because summer produce is my absolute favorite. And to me, there’s nothing more summery than fresh cucumbers!
I love sprinkling them with salt and pepper, eating them in salads, and adding them to sandwiches for an extra bit of crunch. And I especially love them in this Creamy Cucumber Dill Salad!
There’s something nostalgic about it – it’s a recipe that’s been around forever and a dish that most of us have probably enjoyed at family get togethers at one point or another.
It’s simple, yet it’s packed with so much flavor. Between the crunchy cucumbers, the creamy dressing, and the fresh dill, this salad truly is no-fuss in every way. Plus, it’s the perfect side dish for so many meals, from Steak Bites to Pan Fried Chicken to our favorite Blackened Salmon recipe.
what you’ll need for this recipe
Cucumbers – I used regular slicing cucumbers, but you can feel free to use English, Persian, or any variety you enjoy. It’s also the perfect way to use up all your fresh garden cucumbers.
Onion – Onion adds delicious flavor and extra crunch to this salad. I used red onion for its milder flavor and the beautiful color it adds to this salad.
Sour cream – Sour cream is the main ingredient in the creamy sauce. I used regular full fat sour cream but you can feel free to use a lower fat variety or substitute plain Greek yogurt.
Vinegar – Vinegar gives this salad a bit of acidity. I used regular white vinegar, but you could also substitute golden balsamic or white wine vinegar.
Fresh dill – Fresh dill weed pairs well with cucumbers and gives this salad the most deliciously fresh flavor. I added 2 Tablespoons minced fresh dill.
Sugar – 1 teaspoon granulated sugar adds a delicious hint of sweetness to the cucumbers. Omit the sugar if you prefer.
Salt & garlic powder – 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder give this salad just the right amount of extra flavor.
What Kind of Cucumbers for Cucumber Salad?
Feel free to use whatever kind of cucumbers you’d like in this recipe. Many people prefer English cucumbers in salads, since they tend to be sweeter and have fewer seeds than regular cucumbers. You can also use Persian cucumbers, which are smaller and tend to be sweeter and crunchier.
how to make Creamy Cucumber Salad
Slice the cucumbers and onion. Cut the onion into thin slices using a sharp knife or mandoline. Wash the cucumbers, then cut them into thin slices also and pat them dry with paper towels to absorb any excess moisture.
Make the sauce. In a medium mixing bowl, combine the sour cream, white vinegar, minced fresh dill, granulated sugar, salt, and garlic powder. Stir until combined.
Add the cucumbers and onions. Add the sliced cucumbers and red onion and toss gently to coat.
Garnish & enjoy! Garnish with additional fresh dill and fresh black pepper as desired. Serve immediately or cover and chill before serving. Store leftovers, covered, in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
make-ahead & storage tips
This salad tastes best when it’s made at least 1 hour in advance and refrigerated to let the flavors combine. If you’d like to make it even further in advance, just slice and store the vegetables separately, then toss with the dressing just before serving. This salad will last up to 3 days stored in an airtight container in the fridge.
Recipe Variations
- Use any type of cucumber you have on hand
- Peel the cucumbers instead of keeping the peel on
- Substitute white or green onion OR chives
- Add chopped fresh tomatoes or avocado
- Add baked salmon for protein
- Substitute another fresh herb in place of the dill (e.g. fresh mint, parsley or basil)
- Add 1-2 Tablespoons of mayonnaise to the dressing
- Add a squeeze of fresh lemon juice
- Substitute Greek yogurt for the sour cream
More Cucumber Recipes You’ll Love
If you have an abundance of garden cucumbers… I’ve got you covered! These are some of our favorite cucumber recipes we know you’ll love!
Creamy Cucumber Salad
Ingredients
- 3 cups thinly sliced cucumbers
- 1 cup thinly sliced red onion
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1 Tablespoon white vinegar
- 2 Tablespoons minced fresh dill
- 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
Instructions
- Cut the onion into thin slices using a sharp knife or mandoline. Wash the cucumbers, then cut them into thin slices also and pat them dry with paper towels to absorb any excess moisture.
- In a medium mixing bowl, combine the sour cream, white vinegar, minced fresh dill, granulated sugar, salt, and garlic powder. Stir until combined.
- Add the sliced cucumbers and red onion and toss gently to coat.
- Garnish with additional fresh dill and fresh black pepper as desired. Serve immediately or cover and chill before serving. Store leftovers, covered, in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
- Garnish with fresh ground pepper.
This salad looks amazing! I can’t wait to make it!
I tried it, so good 😊
Made the Cucumber and onion salad tonight, really good 👍 but Cucumbers have a lot of water 💧 in them. I should have salted them and drained before making like I usually do! 4 stars anyway…😉😊
Cucumber salad is my favorite!!
Made this tonight as a side dish with dinner. We have so many pickling cucumbers right now out of our garden (but not enough to can pickles) and I’ve been trying to find recipes for salads to use them all. This was perfect! It was a huge hit!! A new GO TO recipe for our family! Thank you! So easy to make too!
P.S. I subsituted green onions right out of our garden as well! SUPER YUMMY!
Yay! So glad you enjoyed it! I bet it would be delicious with green onions 🙂
Very good. Followed the recipe except I used a tsp of dried dill as I didn’t have fresh dill..
Delicious! Had to use up a bag of mini cucs I had forgotten about. I didn’t have onions but followed everything else. Cannot believe how easy this was. Thank you for sharing ❤️
Thanks for the feedback! Glad you enjoyed it!
This looks so good! A perfect cool, fresh dish for hot summer days!
A delicious cucumber salad
Seriously craving this salad right now! Looks so tasty!
My type of salad for the next bbq summer party!
Oh this looks so refreshing for summer BBQs!
I love this recipe and now I’m going to make it using the variations. Thank you for reminding how much I love this recipe.
Do you think you could substitute plan Greek Yogurt for the sour cream? I’m discovering it because it is a free food on Weight Watchers.
Yes. I made it tonight with fat free green and it was delicious.
My brother hates cucumber, but this sounds pretty good. I think he will love this dish when i make cucumber salad follow your recipe. Thank you!
It looks so yummy! cant wait to try it. awesome recipe thanks all about it
Cathy, this looks so good! I love cucumbersalad. I’ll have to try this out sometime soon. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks, Olga! Hope you enjoy!
Сathy, this looks amazing! Thank you, I will try this right away)
Cathy, this looks wonderful! I’ll try it today. Thank you for sharing!
Сathy, thanks a lot for sharing! Very tasty salad . My son will love it!
Wow Cathy you make an awesome recipe! This is very healthy that fits to my diet plan. You are right it is very classic and new dish. I am sure that our appetizer will enhance with this salad on a side dish.
I made it and it was creamy and delicious! It went well with instant pot spaghetti . My family loved it. I didn’t have fresh dill so I put the dry one and it was perfect. I printed it out and put in my recipe binder to message again and again.
This one is a keeper.
Made this today using half yogurt half mayo, it is delish..thank you
Has anyone in this comment section actually TRIED this cucumber salad? Just wondering if anyone likes it and if there are any tweaks to make it even better! All comment say they WILL try it, but none say they did make it. Odd.
I literally made it four hours ago and just tasted it. The verdict? Don’t waste your time. Sour cream and dill did not create the favor I was expecting. It’s actually pretty gross.
I was thinking the same thing! Everyone is saying how it looks good and they want to try it…..but hardly any people who have made it. I like to know beforehand if there’s any tweaks that’ll make it better before I make it
I made it and I love this salad! I use more dill and I add lemon zest. Yums.
Absolutely love it! The creamy sauce taste like what you’d put on a gyro lol. Next time I’m adding tomatoes too 🙂
I’ve made it several times and it is really good. I leave the skin on. My only suggestion is to add a little more vinegar
OK..I just made it for dinner and the vote is TEN STARS!!! Fantastic..the only thing I did different was used real maple syrup instead of sugar. mmmmmm
Made this for Easter potluck this year. Everyone loved it!! From now on I won’t make cucumber salad any other way.
Wondering if English cucumbers (unpeeled) will look and taste as well.
Made this for a bbq the exact recipe and it was delicious..i used a salad spinner just to get rid of a bit of excess water from cukes just cuz i made quite a few hours i advance. Was SO GOOD!!
Just made it. Awesome ! I left out the garlic powder. Next time I will use Greek Yogurt. Thanks for a tasty simple recipe.
It’s easy to make this, just 15 minutes, looks so creamy , great salad for summer.
This looks fresh and yummy, cucumber is my favorite, will give it a try. thanks.
As a diabetic, it frustrates me to no end to see sugar being added to these “easy” recipes. Sugar is highly overrated in my opinion, and eating so much of it is why our rate of Type 2 Diabetes is skyrocketing, along with not being as active as we used to be. (When you purchase store bought items, such as peanut butter or spaghetti/pizza sauce, look at the ingredients. They all contain things like: fructose corn syrup, cane sugar, sugar, high fructose corn syrup. Our bodies were not designed to handle this much sugar, and it’s in EVERYTHING that is prepared ahead of time, even deli items like potato salad,).
Linda, I have diabetics in my family too so I just made it with Swerve (an erythritol based sugar alcohol) that is not supposed to affect blood glucose. Try it with the Swerve, it’s very light and refreshing. But of course you are right, too many of our recipes and foods have added sugars and our health is suffering as a result.
Then don’t put sugar in it.
I made it and it was delicious. If anyone is worried about the sugar content, please understand there is only 1 teaspoon of sugar in the entire recipe. If sugar is a concern and you’re planning on eating the whole thing in one sitting, just adjust the recipe.
I am type 2 and with only 1 tsp of sugar.. it didn’t affect my numbers at all. It’s very healthy actually and is something I am able to actually enjoy. Thank you for the recipe!! Only thing I did was half the vinegar so my stomach won’t get upset 🙂
Why did you even comment , that was nothing about the salad. So leave the sugar out. The salad is ten stars.
Eh, no one in my house liked this cucumber salad.
Linda Hansen, while I realize managing a diabetic diet is frustrating and analyzing labels for added sugars is wise, chastizing the author for 1 tsp of sugar in a recipie filled with garden goodness (and proteins which partner well to help in the digestion of carbs) and that represents exactly the sort of diet Americans should be consuming to avoid Type 2 is a bit thoughtless.
To the author and audience, the recipie was great. I substituted 1/2 the sour cream with greek yogurt and it tasted wonderful. A nice change from the Asian cucumber salad I usually make… With the bumper crop I have coming, this will be a “go to” recipie for the summer.
I just use salad dressing, sugar, vinegar, salt/pepper and add onions. Couldn’t tell you how much, as I’m a taste the flavor and throw in more or less type of cook. Lol I love it, but not crazy over sour cream. Idk if I’ll like it. The yogurt idea sounds interesting.
I hear you…there are different ways to make the dressing. If you try the creamy version, let me know how you like it 🙂
Love the simplicity of this. Made it as written but also like how I can adapt it and substitute herbs I have on hand and it is still refreshing. I like how the dressing has very little sugar. I usually make with salmon as an accompaniment. Thanks!
Yum! I am such a cucumber salad fan. Thanks for the shout-out for my Green Bean Summer Salad too!
Great recipe!
Instead of adding salt to the recipe, I put the sliced cukes in a bowl with salt to draw the water out for 1/2 hour, then gently squeeeeeeezed those little slices to wring out a bit more water. 🙂
*I also try not to add sugar to recipes and Swerve has a great alternative, so I only used 1/2 the sugar substitute to sugar called for in the recipe and added a bit more vinegar (cause it reminded me of my Grandma’s!). Thank you for posting!!
I loved this salad! So fresh and simple. I made a slightly larger batch but still followed the recipe and personally wouldn’t make any changes. Yum!
Not a huge cuke fan but a neighbor gave me one so I did a quick search and discovered your recipe. I used ranch dressing, sub-ed balsamic vinegar, added halved cherry tomatoes, and only had dried dill weed so used a teaspoon of that. Oh… Sweet Vidalia onion instead of reds because that’s what I had.
THIS IS AWESOME!!! Just finished a second batch. My only complaint is having to wait a few hours before eating it. Why you do that to me?
Second batch now, used red onions.
Next batch, going to try yogurt instead of ranch dressing. And by then I’ll think of something else to change to give me an excuse to make it again.
This is a winner! Thanks so much for sharing.
Thank you!
Why do some people make negative comments when someone post a recipe on line?
If you have health issues, or other problems, then son’t add the sugar, or whatever ingredient is listed?
Not everyone is diabetic, and I’m sorry for those who do, but why punish the OP by negative comments.
If the recipe does not suit you then simply move on!
Very simple.
BTW, this recipe is DELISH! Thank you for sharing with us 🙂
I made this last week to go with some pierogies. My family really enjoyed it. I had been looking for a salad recipe that wouldn’t be out of place next to something like pierogies, while at the same time using up some dill I had in the fridge, and this seemed like that sort of salad to me.
I didn’t change anything significant about it, but the vinegar I used was apple cider vinegar, I used a couple scallions instead of onions, and I added some diced tomato. It seems like a pretty forgiving recipe where amounts needed are not exact. It tasted really good with lunch the next day, too. I liked it so much I’m making it again to go with tonight’s dinner of, well, pierogies.
You just brought back a lot of memories for me here. My grandmother used to make a very similar salad to this. I can’t wait to try your version.
Made this and loved it, but the next day it was foamy and frothy. Is that normal?
That can happen with cucumber salads, yes. Mix it up and it tastes the same 🙂
A+++ This was Excellent. We both loved it. Soo refreshing and crisp and delicious. A perfect summer salad on a hot day. It will be a regular at our table.
Thank you soo much for sharing your recipe.
Much Gratitude
So glad you enjoyed it! 🙂
I grew up making this. The recipe is pretty straight on to our Czech version. The trick is tasting the final product and either adding more vinegar or sugar to balance until it’s to your taste. I use apple cider vinegar in mine because I always have it around. I wouldn’t add the salt next time. Pretty good!
We loved this! Made it with buffalo grilled chicken, it was the perfect compliment. My favorite part is where you listed Kroger sour cream in the ingredients list. We recently moved to northeast Ohio from Kentucky and I miss Kroger terribly lol
aww, yes Kroger is a staple in WI. 🙂
This recipe tastes exactly how my Mom use to make this. She has passed away and I never could get it to come close to her recipe, this one does. The first time I made it I followed the recipe to a T, it was very good, even better the next day. This time I halved the sugar and made it the night before, DELICIOUS! Love this, Thank You so Very Much!!
This makes me so happy to be able to bring back those memories 🙂 Thank you for sharing!
I just made this and it’s hanging in the fridge and I have all I can do not to devour the bowl after trying a bite. It’s so pretty with the red onions too!
Super tasty! I did salt & drain the sliced cukes for half an hour. They were fresh from my garden, and super juicy. Next time, if they’re fresh, I think I’ll drain them a little longer. Used yogurt, worked well.
Well said Lizzy!!!
My Polish grandmother used to make a salad like this. Not surprising that it would go well with pierogi! One thing she did that wasn’t mentioned in this recipe is to dehydrate the cucumbers for a little while (put them in a colander with salt for an hour and then pat dry), but that step isn’t necessary for a good salad! I was looking to this recipe to remember proportions for the sauce, and it did not disappoint!
Wow,it looks delicious. Thank you for sharing. I will try to make this salad for my family. I believe my family will like this very much. Love so much.
Wow, your recipe is so amazing. I have never known this recipe. Thank for sharing. I will share this recipe for my friends and my family. I think they love it too.
That’s so great!!! Your share is very awesome. I love cooking too. Thank you.
Made this today, and it was great. The onions added a extra subtle flavor to the salad. I have made this salad for years, but without the onions.
I made this with English cucumbers and dried dill (twice what’s called for because we love dill) and it turned out incredible! Will definitely be making again.
Happy to hear it!