A simple cucumber and onion salad that combines flavors of sweet onion and tart vinegar to create a beloved, quick and easy recipe.
Need a quick, simple, easy, but delicious side dish? This is the one for you! Often times when we think of quick and easy, that means that quality and flavor suffer. But, with this delicious Simple Cucumber and Onion Salad, that’s just not the case. Every time I make this stuff, I end up eating about half of it before supper time. It’s kind of like potato chips… once you start munching, you look down and WHOOPS! Half the bag is gone.
What is cucumber salad?
Primarily a summer side salad, cucumber salad consists of thin slices of fresh cucumber as the anchor with sweet onion typically added in. Then it is coated in a dressing – usually a vinaigrette or creamy dressing, like sour cream or even ranch. (Find my creamy version here.) Typically an acidic ingredient is added in, like vinegar or lemon juice. Some like to add herbs and spices, like dill, garlic, or parsley.
Cucumber salad is popular during the heat of summer and the height of harvest season for cucumbers. The refreshing, crispy, cool features of the cucumber salad make it a great pairing for backyard barbecues and potlucks. Bonus, it’s also relatively healthy when it comes to nutrition!
Recipe Variations
Red Onion – For a little more zing and spice in your cucumber salad recipe, consider replacing Vidalia onions with red onions.
Apple Cider Vinegar – If you need to lower the acidity or want to make your salad sweet, apple cider vinegar is a great alternative to white vinegar.
Herbs – You really can dress up this salad and add more flavor by adding in all kinds of herbs and spices. Dill and parsley make great additions to this recipe. Just be sure to add a little at a time so you don’t over do it. This cucumber salad is already filled with flavor so you want to be careful not to make the taste too overpowering.
Ranch – Maybe you want a creamier version of this cucumber salad. No problem! Simply replace the vinegar, water, sugar, salt, and garlic with 1/2 cup of your favorite ranch dressing.
Cucumbers – I love this recipe made with Kirby or pickling cucumbers, but English cucumbers work as well.
Recipe Card
Simple Cucumber and Onion Salad
Ingredients
- 5 or 6 small pickling cucumbers (you can use 2 or 3 English cucumbers if that’s all you can get your hands on)
- 1/2 medium Vidalia or other sweet onion
- 1/2 cup white vinegar
- 1/2 cup water
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Peel the cucumbers and slice to your liking. Peel and slice onion. Combine in a large bowl.
- Combine vinegar, water, sugar, salt, and garlic and pour over cucumbers and onions.
- Allow to sit at least an hour before serving. Sprinkle with black pepper (optional).
Nutrition
Please note:
If nutritional values are provided, they are an estimate and will vary depending on the brands used. 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.
How big of a deal is it to use yellow onions versus Vidalia onions?
Yellow onions will work just fine, they just won’t be as sweet as the Vidalias.
Very well explained. I can’t wait to try it.
Hope you’ll enjoy!
Yep, I grew up in Ohio and when cukes were on, this was on the table at every meal. Sort of a “relish”. Salty, Tart and a little sweet. You could leave them out if you wanted or put them in the fridge. Also had “Mush” melon in cool spears in a glass container too. That is Appalachian for Musk Melon or cantaloupe. When in the hills of Ohio, WV and KY Mangoes are not a South American fruit but a bell pepper.
I’m from SE Ohio, live in MI, ugh
Oh yep to every thing ya said
And about the mango too!
I miss having a garden.
Hi Stacey
A cute story on the ever popular cukes and onion salad. Had a dear friend in high school and we did everything together and the boys we dated were good friend too. Anyway we had a sleepover and my friend tried to explain to her mother about the cukes and onions that my Dad had from his garden and made into the sweet and sour salad. Well her mother brought us a big bowl of cukes to snack on so we took our forks and stabbed a few and when we put them in our mouth,…..😝 her mother had marinated them in PURE apple cider vinegar. OMG the stuff burned my mouth, nose, and gut. And I nearly lost my breath…I was totally unprepared for a mouthful of pure vinegar. After she left we giggled 😏 about it but we could not eat 😜them. Hugs to all! 🙋
PS..I do love these in the summer and my recipe is almost the same as yours Yum!!
Oh no!! 🙂
I really liked your variations to the recipe but try it the way we make it. Use real mayonnaise, stevia, and rice vinegar(with the green lid) salt and pepper to taste. We put cucumbers, onions and sometimes half cherry tomatoes with it but most of the time just cucumbers and onions. My Mom likes to eat it just like that and sometimes I do too but most of the time I add them in a salad.
Sounds good! I do have a creamy version, but it has sour cream instead of mayo. Thanks for sharing.
Talk about memories! As a child, my mother kept these in the refrigerator(ice box to her) all summer, refilling when needed. Even the container took me back to childhood 🩷
Thanks, Debbi!
Excellent AND simple!
Two of my favorite words!
Just like my Grandma’s. 😍
No greater compliment than that! Thanks!
A taste of Summer time for your mouth! Love it!
Thanks, Theresa!
The only thing I did differently was add end of season grape tomatoes. It was delicious! I had no left overs.
I will make this again
Thank you so much!
Love capturing the fresh peach flavor! Used to use Jam in a Jiffy but the 3 min cook time makes sure there’s no grainy Ed’s and still preserves that just picked deliciousness!
Can you make it with less sugar? It’s like candy!
When it comes to making jellies and jams, changing the sugar measurement can sometimes cause the recipe to fail.
This sounds similar to my mom’s recipe but she added tomatoes and i think a little mayo because I remember the sauce/dressing being white does this sound familiar to anyone?
Hmmm are you thinking about the sour cream version?
https://southernbite.com/creamy-cucumber-salad/
This is so addictive!
And absolutely NO calories…lol
Absolutely delis!
Thank you so much!
delish made some tonight goes well with any thing on a hot summer nite
I definitely agree!
Today I was looking for an Instant pot recipe for a whole chicken and thought about cucumbers. I’ve been searching for my grandma’s recipe, but she passed away at 105; Mom used to make it, but now she’s in a nursing home with dementia; my oldest daughter made it, but she passed away from covid in November 2020, and at 74 now I couldn’t remember all of how to make it. Thanks so much for posting it to jog my memory; now with the last of this year’s Iowa cucumbers I am finally going to be able to satisfy my hunger for a childhood flavor!
I’m so sorry to hear about your mom and daughter, Georgette! You’re in my prayers.
I use apple cider instead of white vinegar, but I have never used garlic, I will have to try that.
Hope you’ll enjoy it!
I have tried it. Amazing salad! Thanks for share my friend
Thanks!!
Love making these and I can easily eat them all. I include slices of bell pepper and rings of banana peppers in my mix. My mixture is usually 3 cups of vinegar, sugar and water with 2 large Vidalia onions and about the same of cucumber sliced.
Yum! Thanks for sharing your variation!
This is the second time this week I made them. Just happen to Google the recipe and fall on this one and it’s perfect and simple. And it’s everything I always have in the pantry!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!!
I am 77 and have been eating this since I was probably 3 or 4 years of age. I omit the garlic only because garlic is not a favorite item. Floating tomato slices works well in this recipe or cutting cherry tomatoes in half.
Now don’t shake your head when I tell you about this sandwich:
Two slices of white bread covered with Hellman’s mayo.
Pile on the drained cucumber and onions recipe.
A glass of sweet tea to wash it all down.
That is summer time living!
Sounds pretty amazing to me!
Stacey— You are the man. I have fixed so many recipes that you have made and posted. There t
Thanks so much, Joyce!!
1st. Thank you for posting this recipe. I have had them both creamy and regular. You can also use French onion dip instead of just sour cream.
2nd. I came from a Swedish family and we put sugar on our garden sliced tomatoes. Store bought tomatoes are not as good as home grown tomatoes. You may want to try sprinkling a little sugar on a tomato you buy at the farmers market and sliced. I like them with salt or sugar. I always put a little sugar in my chili to cut the tomato acid. Another trick my Swedish grandmother taught me
Thanks for posting recipe
Mj
Thank YOU for all these great tips!
Mj we’re two of a kind! Just stumbled onto this and I too, must have some Swedish in me! I eat sugar on my sliced tomatoes, sugar and dill pickle juice in our chili, salt on my watermelon, salt and pepper on my mushmelon…AND we eat our cucumbers with french onion dip!! How bizarre, yet so common we are!!
Yummy yummy delish.
Thanks!
Honey Child – I have been making this exact recipe since 1955. Everyone loves it. Try this on for size – use the same wet ingredients vinegar, lemon juice, onions, Splenda, salt and pepper and a little oil mix well. Throw in iceberg lettuce chopped up. My Mom was from Germany and this was always her go to salad – Yum Yum
That sounds AMAZING!!
Simplest is best! And it perfectly recalls just the way I’ve loved this salad all my life. This summer: cucumbers fresh from the garden (ah…that scent when peeling them is out of this world!) and onions from my CSA box. This is just the essence of summer. Thank you, Stacy!
I couldn’t agree more! In other new, can we get a real cucumber scented candle?
My memory was using young green onions just beginning to make a bulb with fresh Cukes both from our garden on the farm!
Served in a small bowl as a treat with fresh vegetable. Like many of you I didn’t find it written down, so I’m grateful for the input. I will pass this along to my two sons and six grandchildren.
Thank you!
Sounds great! Sure hope you’ll enjoy!
We call this stuff “Bellyache” where I come from: Sioux City Iowa. More vinegar then water. Enough to put your mouth in a twist. LOL
Yum!
I made this Saturday and they are amazing. My local grocery has cucumbers 2/$1f so I’m going back and get more!! I love your blog!!
Thanks, Marylou! So glad you enjoyed it!!
Both the cuke and onion and the creamy cuke salad favourites of mine as well. As many others have said, I grew up with these all summer long. Long before global marketing made us expect to have fresh veg in season or out of season we only had cucumbers in the summer – unless they were pickled, and then they were pickles! In spite of living in the UK for 30 years l still consider myself an Iowa ‘girl’. I tend to think folks consider anything they grow up knowing as part of wherever they grew up. Don’t think it matters if someone considers something a Southern thing, or a Wisconsin thing or even an Iowa thing. The Important thing is that once again you’ve brought back all the good memories that went along with that dish. Even better right now because I’ve been moved to share some of these with my British husband -adding to our collective international diet.
Love this comment so much! Thanks for sharing, Linda!
I loved your recipe for the pickled cucumber and onions. This is how my late husband loved them. I kept him a jar mixed up in the fridge each week. He ate some with his lunch every day. During the summer months.
I want to try the cucumber salad, but I am one of those people that cannot stand the taste of sour cream. Do you think I could mix the ingredients with a little mayo? Have any of your followers tried making it this way? Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Love your recipes! Just made the chicken spaghetti and my grown grandson loved it and wanted the recipe. For all of you who have not tried it, make it, you will love it!
Thanks, Gran! I love that chicken spaghetti! So glad y’all did too. I definitely think you should try the salad with the mayo, if sour cream isn’t your thing. I would start with a few tablespoons and just add it until you get it to a consistency that you like it.
Oh my goodness, Stacey, I thought this was a new post. It’s been awhile since you turned 30! Haha. I was going to say not to worry about not doing anything wild and crazy in your 20’s. It’s quite an accomplishment for you to have bought your first house at such a young age. Your adventures with your family, humble though they may be, are more than good enough. 😉 I make something similar to your cucumber and onion salad but I use mayo with most of the other ingredients and no water. Yours looks so very yummy though, with the vinegar in there. I’m going to try it!
Ha! I always worry about sending out old posts for this very reason! I’ve been in my 30s for quite some time now!
One of .my favorites. Yum. Grew up eating this, and I am 87. Also sometimes I just slice the cukes and onions and pour over some bottled Italian dressing. Also very good that way. Yum. Now I am wishing I had some cucumbers. Love your site!!
Thanks, Louise!
I have eaten this salad since I was a kid, my father always made it and we were not from the south, he was very very English. Where ever the origin, I had misplaced my dads recipe and thank you oh so much for having it. I looked in my fathers old cooks books, to no avail. Suffered a TBI so couldn’t remember. You bring back some memories I have lost thank you Carol
Thanks so much, Carol! I hope you’ll enjoy this nearly as much as your Dad’s!
So simple and yet so good try it you will love it
Thanks!!
PLEASE tell me where you got that glass dish. I have some like it that have been in my family since I can remember. I’m just wondering if you know their origin. Like maybe they came with a new refrigerator YEARS ago.
I wish I could tell you, Rose! I bought that one at a thrift store several years ago. 🙂
It is possibly a Federal Glass Refrigerator Dish. I have some that were my grandmothers. I remember them from when I was very young so they have been around for a while. I am 64… just for reference.
Adding sugar to cucumbers and onions, may be what makes them “Southern”. My (New Jersey born) father’s recipe wasn’t written down as it was made “to taste”. He used a jar, thinly sliced cucumbers and onions, cider vinegar, fresh ground black pepper and minced garlic (dried worked well). He layered black pepper and garlic between a fairly thick layer of cucumbers with an equivalent layer of onions, until the jar was full. Then he filled the jar with cider vinegar. They were good in an hour and better overnight. The “marinade” could be used again. My (Southern born) husband preferred them with water in 1/4 of the jar, so I’d make two jars. His family just used sliced cucumbers and onions with either white or cider vinegar.
Love all these variations! Now I’m craving some!
Stacey: I’ve made this type of side dish for many years. I learned it from my sweet Aunt Mary (Mom’s eldest sister). I’ve switched it up a bunch and like our friend above, I use a bout 1/2 apple cider vinegar to the white. I also add a 1/2 teaspoon of salt and some caraway seeds. And sometimes I use red onions. My trick to keep the cukes under the brine (always in a wide-mouth Mason or similar jar) is to put a small glass ramekin on top of them (to hold them down) and place a piece of wax paper inside the lid. Then I screw the lid on tightly. I let the jar sit upright for 24 hours, then turn it upside down (place it in a plastic bowl in case ANYTHING DRIPS) for another 8-12 and they are READY!
I meant to say “1/4 teaspoon of salt and 1/2 teaspoon of sugar” And sometimes I substitute rice wine or champagne vinegar for the apple cider vinegar. I add water too; gotta get that sweet/sour balance just so! ;o)
Great tips here, Paul! Thanks for sharing!!
Stacy, this may sound nuts but check out the book “Eat right for your Blood Type”. Each blood type tolerates different foods and maybe tomatoes are one you cannot tolerate. My nephew can stand sweet potatoes and low and behold his blood type cannot tolerate sweet potatoes.
Just a shot, check it out.
Very interesting! I’ll look into that! 🙂
I hope y’all are using a mandolin (with the safety cover) to slice up those cucumbers! It’s a quick and EZ way to accomplish this chore. I got my mandolin from an uncle who did nearly all the cooking for his family of 6. He’s gone now, but his mandolin is in constant use! ;o)
LOVE this salad. My grandmother and mother made this often during the summer harvest. I didn’t know there was an actual recipe for it. 🙂 I want to try the sour cream sauce mentioned above. My question…Is it possible to CAN this recipe…? I’m hoping for a good cucumber harvest this year. 🙂 And would love to can this if possible.
I’m not a canning expert, Esther, but I would imagine it could be canned.
Now that I’m over 50, suddenly I am trying to recreate recipes that I grew up eating, but were so simple my parents &grandparents never wrote down the recipe (all sadly deceased). My Dad used to make this to eat with fresh grown purple hull peas, string beans, & or bunch beans instead of the home made pepper sauce he also made. And yep, I grew up in northern Mississippi.. This recipe sounds like what I remember Daddy making! Yum.
Isn’t that the truth!? We don’t really think about those recipes until the folks who made them are gone. Well, hopefully this will be close to your father’s recipe. Enjoy!
My mother used to make this. I grew up eating it every summer when the cucumbers were ripe. If you get a an onion that has a fiery after bite, Run the sliced onion under hot tap water and drain. The fire is taken out of it.. Then add to the salad.
Great tip! Thanks, Julia!
OMG!!! :O I didn’t think anybody else ate this!!! My grandmother used to make this when we were kids. Sliced onions with cucumbers, salt, pepper and vinegar. Hands down so good and simple. Is this a southern thing haha?
I think it is quite Southern, Denise! 🙂
Iowa knows this as a summer staple and has as long as I remember — I am 80 years old — so no — not a ‘southern’ thing
Actually, it can certainly be a “Southern” thing. Just because you eat it in Iowa, doesn’t make it not southern. We eat Philly Cheesesteaks across the country, but that doesn’t make them not Philadelphian. There’s no sense hanging around if your intent is to be rude.
I always wilt my cucumber slices.. at least for 30 minutes. with salt and water to cover.. My grandmother and Mom always made them that way…
I certainly so that with a creamy sauce, like with my Creamy Cucumber Salad, but not wit this version. I think I should try it! https://southernbite.com/creamy-cucumber-salad/
Now who is being rude Stacey.
There are more than 30,000 comments on SouthernBite and if you find the one comment where I’m defending the work that I spend countless hours and thousands of dollars every month to provide recipes for folks for free rude, then call me rude, Trish.
I have eat C & O’s all my life. Literally since I was big enough to chew and this is the recipe. Only thing I do a little different, I heat the vinegar, water, sugar & salt. It tends to let the cuc’s & onions take on that taste a little stronger. Thanks for the recipe it reminded me I need vidalla’s!
🙂
I haven’t tried your recipe yet, but it sounds delicious! I found your recipe while looking for a salad I had many years ago which had thinly sliced cucumbers, white onions sliced thinly, half & half,cider or white vinegar, a little salt and an amount of sugar I would guess to be about a rounded tablespoonful. It may not be all that healthy, but it was delicious served chilled with a nice summer meal! It was quite refreshing. It probably compares with the recipe someone sent in with the sour cream in it. The recipe I tasted was marinaded for several hours prior to serving if not overnight. Thanks for allowing me to share. Please let me know if you have heard of the recipe I am looking for. Libby M. lam7100751@gmail.com
Thank you for sharing this recipe. I have made this quite abit and each time I have to find one on the internet 😀 I finally
wrote it down and I am sending this to my mom and sister. I first ate this recipe in 1975, by a couple elderly women that took me under their wings and taught me to cook and some of their old recipes. 😀 thank you for sharing
Candis
Well, Canids, I’m so glad you found it! I hope you and Mom and Sister will enjoy it! Thanks for taking the time to send me a note!
Thanks for sharing a great recipe! Delicious.
Thanks, Nick!
We are being invded with cucumbers right now. I made this the other night for dinner WOW!!! I was afraid the sugar would be too much but it was really good. I grew up on Sour Cream Cucumbers and this is a close 2nd. Thanks for this recipe.
Wonderful! I’m so glad you enjoyed it. It’s one of those things that when I start eating it, I can’t stop. Good thing it’s not fattening!
we grew up eating this ,my children; adults like this to.
This recipe is what my late husband loved only leave off the garlic and add lots of black pepper. During the summer months would have to make both this and my grandmothers recipe for Cucumber Onion Salad
5 or 6 small pickling cucumbers sliced and peeled, vidalia onion sliced. Put both in bowl filled with cold water and salt added making a strong salt solution. Let sit about 30 minutes. While this is soaking combine 1/2 cup (or more if you like) sour cream, 1/4 cup vinegar and 1 rounded Tablespoon sugar. Rinse and drain cucumbers and onions. Put dressing over mixing well to cover. Add black pepper to taste. Chill to enhance flavors.
Either recipe is definitely a summer must to make.
That sounds wonderful! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks so much for posting your “alternate version”. This is the version I have been unsuccesfully searching for!
The minor tweaks would be: to use a mandolin to slice both the cucumbers (which do NOT have to be peeled, if sliced VERY thin) and RED onions.
I also like to sometimes use a light sour cream.
This creamy sweet/tart version is SO GOOD that I have to double the recipe, or there won’t be enough to serve, as I can’t stop “sampling” it. ;>)
Wonderful! I’m so glad you found it and are enjoying it!
That is how we make it, with the sour cream! NO garlic. Apple cider vinegar instead of white because it’s not as astringent. But the best kept secret is……. a pinch of nutmeg. Trust me on that one. No one can figure it out and I’ve never told anyone that before. Darn…I let out the family secret. Oh, well…it’s just us. 😉 Use it in both recipe versions.
And if Mom was so inclined she would put this over salted and peppered sliced tomatoes. YUM!!
It’s like Fire & Ice w/o the Fire!!! I love it cause I can’t eat tomatoes!! I am off to make this. Thanks & big southern hugs!!
You got it! I don’t do tomatoes either! Let me know how it turns out!
You don’t eat tomatoes??????? What about BLTs? Oh, yikes. I consider tomatoes one of the foods of the gods.
Janice – I don’t eat raw tomatoes. I know, I know… how could I!?!? LOVE them cooked. Just can’t do them raw. It’s really the only food hang-up that I have. I’ve tried so many times to force myself to like them, but I just can’t do it! I want to, it’s just not in the cards for me.
Summertime tomatoes, sliced paper thin, layered about 3/4 inch thick, salted and peppered, on white bread with lots of Miracle Whip. Only way I can eat them. Can’t bite into a thick slice, but a pile of thin ones is perfect.
Well, youngin’, 30 is a baby you are just getting a good foothold on life so don;t over think it all. Trust this 60 year old Southern Lady. Bein’ wild is somethin you spend time soooo regretin’ seen it to much. Wisdom comes with time and while not the brightest bulb in the pack. I am am neither the dimmest. You have a good head on your shoulders and you are quite right cookin for people is the finest and I seem to cook for an Army on a regular basis but the fun of that is with just two of us I share food with so many and that too is a pure delight. I love feedin’ people and love sharin as well works out perfectly. So young man you just keep on and share the joy of cookin’ because real fellowship happens then with others and that my dear is a two way gift. By the way I make my cucumbers and onions much the same way you do but add a solid pinch of savory and Beau Monde to it a bit more Beaumonde with some chives and dill . People lose their minds…funny huh. Ya all have a good year there is so much more to come. Life gets richer in more ways than I can count . Be Blessed
Thanks so much, Pamela!
Ditto raw tomatoes are the only ones I can’t get down either yuck ;0)
I want to like them so badly!
A BL (no Tom) on toast with Mayo‼️ Ummm good.
One of favorite summer sandwich’s is Tomato, lettuce, mayo, and onion served on
plain white bread. Yum. Yum
Gregor
Yum! Love it with the onion!
LOVE IT !!!
This is great! I substituted 2 pkgs splenda for sugar added a teeny pinch of dill and put in mason jar for hubby.. Grin..hes happy. Lol 2 thumbs up. Thank you for sharing