This quick and easy Creamy Cucumber Salad is the perfect cool and creamy summer side dish! It features sliced cucumbers coated with a sour-cream dressing and fresh dill.
Summers in the south are hotter than Satan’s armpit. So, for me, that means adding some cool and refreshing sides to summer mainstays like ribs, pulled pork, and anything on the barbecue. Coleslaw, corn salad, and other things like this AMAZING Creamy Cucumber Salad recipe are just the ticket.
The cool and creamy flavors pair well with any of those quintessential summer bbq, potluck, or picnic main courses. And, this cucumber salad recipe really does help to keep you cool, too! Plus, this dish gets extra points because it’s crazy easy!
What cucumbers are best for cucumber salad?
I’m really a big fan of using Kirby cucumbers for these types of salad recipes. They’re also called pickling cucumbers. I just prefer the flavor and texture of them for this recipe.
If you can’t put your hands on some, don’t worry. Simply substitute in a couple of the larger slicing or English cucumbers you can easily find in the fresh vegetable section of the grocery store. Those will work just fine.
How long is cucumber salad good for?
This cucumber salad will keep in the refrigerator for a day or so, but keep in mind that the longer it sits, the more the juices in the cucumbers will seep out into the dressing. This excess liquid could make for a watery salad, so be sure to stir the cucumbers and sour cream dressing again before serving.
If you plan on storing this cucumber salad for longer than a day, I might suggest storing the sliced cucumbers and dressing separately until ready to serve.
How to Prevent Runny Cucumber Salad:
One thing of note here on the prep: Cucumbers are something like 95% water. To remove some of that moisture, you’ll need to salt them. The salt draws a little excess moisture out. This is an important step if you want to ensure you don’t end up with runny dressing.
BUT, if it’s something you’re going to eat immediately and probably won’t have any leftovers, you can skip this step if you wish. This short video gives you a little more detail. Just note that in this recipe, there’s no need to rinse the excess salt away after the cucumbers drain.
Recipe Card
Creamy Cucumber Salad
Ingredients
- 3 to 4 Kirby pickling cucumbers
- 2 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt (divided)
- 1 cup sour cream
- 3 tablespoons white vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon sugar
- 1 small clove garlic (minced)
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill
Instructions
- Peel and thinly slice cucumbers. Sprinkle them with 2 teaspoons of kosher salt and place them in a colander in the sink. Allow the salt to draw out the excess moisture for about 30 minutes.
- Make the dressing by combining, the sour cream, remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt, vinegar, sugar, garlic, and fresh dill and mix well.
- Once the cucumbers have drained, shake off the excess moisture and combine them with the dressing in a large bowl. Refrigerate until serving.
Notes
Nutrition
* If nutritional values are provided, they are an estimate and will vary depending on the brands used. The values do not include optional ingredients or when ingredients are added to taste. If calorie count and other nutritional values are important to you, I recommend grabbing your favorite brands and plugging those ingredients into an online nutritional calculator.
AMY
Staceyyyyy!!!!!!! This tastes PERFECT! Thank you so much for this recipe! Our family will make this for years to come!
Hey, Amy! I’m so glad to hear that you loved the recipe! It means a lot to know it’ll be a family favorite!
Barb
Oh my gosh! I have the biggest smile on my face right now! I have that exact same bowl (it was my Mother’s) This bowl is always used for cucumber salad cuz that is what she used it for 🙂 Her recipe is very similar to yours.
That’s so sweet to hear! 😊 It’s awesome that you have such a special connection to the bowl and your mom’s recipe. Thanks for sharing that with me!
Bill
I add thin sliced sweet onions and salt them along with cukes and press all with a weighted plate – a must for crisp texture.
Thanks for the tip, Bill!@
Birdie L Jones
Absolutely enjoyed this Cucumber Salad.I can’t wait to introduce it to my extended family.Friday Night Fish Fry will be great.
Perfect for the fish fry! I hope everyone else enjoys as well!
Sheila
Great way to make but we add onions to our creamy way too. We also add the green lid Rice vinegar instead of white vinegar and use mayonnaise instead of sour cream.
On the regular way not creamy I just add zesty Italian dressings to mine and they stay fresh in the fridge for a long time unless they get eaten faster.
Yum! Sounds great!
Angelika
I grew up with this type of Cucumber Salad in Germany. It’s a standard where I come from. We actually let it sit and thin out the solid sour cream a little. Other than that, it’s exactly the same and yes lots of pepper and dill! I’m still in search of the elusive Japanese Cucumber Salad, the slightly sweet one.
ooooo! That sounds good!
Carrie
Easy, great tasting side – for dinner of a potluck. I used the Kirbys but didn’t really see a difference in them. I did drain the cukes, first time trying that. Tasty
Thank you so much Carrie! So glad you liked it!
SUZANNE
AWESOME SALAD FOR HOT DAYS HERE IN MICHIGAN, TOO!!!
Such a good, simple recipe!
Jerry
How bout onion, can we add sweet onion also?
Absolutely!
Rick Judd
I love this as a side dish, except SUGAR. Don’t we eat enough of this as it is?
I find this a great dish without the sugar. And as a couple of people
stated , lots of black pepper.
I guess it’s all a matter of opinion, Rick. But I definitely agree with the black pepper on this one.
john geilenberg
want recipe for creamy-cucumber-salad?
Are you asking for a recipe or are you asking me if I want a recipe?
Dayna G.
One of my favorite meals was to put this cucumber salad over warm mashed potatoes! My mom could stretch the $ using veggies from our garden. Try it!
Super interesting, Dayna. I’m not sure I’ve heard of that. 🙂
Joan in VA
Hubby is on a salt-restricted diet. I’ll skip having the salt draw the moisture. But, the rest is good.
It’ll be just as delicious!
Cheryl Meyer-Smith
I am not a big lover of dill, any suggestions ?
I think it’ll be just fine to leave it out.
Rita
This looks great! Our cakes are not ready to pick yet but I will make this when they are. I LOVE your Amish Pyrex bowl. My mom had the same exact set when I was growing up. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks! It seemed like the perfect bowl for this recipe. 🙂
J B
Thanks for the video and showing the results after salting. I was impressed and never realized that much moisture was in the vegetable, such as eggplant.
It’s pretty neat. Glad it was helpful.
Winnie Mom
This is my recipe too. I do add a good bit of black pepper to mine when I make these for just my family. Sometimes will use 1/2 mayo and 1/2 sour cream. Always a winner when I take these for potluck. I also use the same recipe but adding a bit more vinegar for my my coleslaw dressing. So versatile.
Thanks for sharing
Sounds great! I do love them with pepper too.