Cucumber Tomato Salad is a classic salad, light, cooling, and oh-so refreshing. This easy salad is made with sliced cucumbers & juicy tomatoes and enhanced with slivers of red onion and a tangy vinaigrette dressing.
Serve cucumber tomato onion salad next to grilled or roasted meats or fish, such as marinated beef or chicken kabobs, grilled salmon, or pork tenderloin.
How to Make Cucumber Tomato Salad
When the farmer’s markets start overflowing with juicy garden fresh veggies, I take my cue to make a big bowl of cucumber tomato salad.
- Combine all dressing ingredients (per recipe below).
- Slice all vegetables and toss with the dressing.
I love using a combination of fresh or dried oregano and basil in this salad to bring out its Mediterranean essence. Chopped fresh dill and-or parsley deliver equally excellent herbal notes.
English cucumber is ideal for this recipe. The peels are tender enough that there’s no need to remove them, and the seeds are virtually nonexistent. If you only have regular salad cukes on hand, those are perfectly suitable as well. Just peel them, and, if the seeds seem tough, scoop them out and then slice.
Dressing for Cucumber Tomato Salad
Honestly, this salad really doesn’t need much, a simple dressing allows the flavor of the veggies to shine and keeps the salad light and fresh.
A splash of vinegar and a bit of olive oil with salt & pepper. I most often use red wine vinegar but you can use your favorite (infused oils and vinegars are great here too).
Can I Make it Ahead?
This salad tastes great served cold and can be made ahead. Of course it’s best made the day you’re serving it but you can keep it for a couple of days and drain any juices. Whenever I’m planning this dish and need to get a jump on dinner, I partially prep the tomato-cucumber salad.
- In the same bowl you plan to make the salad, whisk together the wine vinegar, olive oil, herbs, salt and pepper.
- Peel and cut the onion into slivers and toss in the vinaigrette.
- Cover and refrigerate for up to a day in advance.
The onions will stay crunchy while helping the dressing mellow and develop flavor. To assemble the salad, all you have to do is slice the cucumbers and tomatoes, toss with the onion and vinaigrette mixture, and briefly refrigerate before serving.
More Fun Additions
You can have a lot of fun with this recipe, by treating it as a foundation. Go ahead and layer in other fresh and tasty ingredients like crumbled feta, mozzarella balls, avocado chunks or chopped fennel bulb. Got stale bread? Even better, turn this into a Panzanella Salad to make it a meal!
The options are limited only by your own creativity!
Salads with a Cucumber Crunch
- Creamy Cucumber Salad – summertime staple!
- Cucumber Onion Salad – light & refreshing
- Cucumber Avocado Salad – simple 3 ingredient dressing!
- Cucumber Dill Salad – made with a lemon vinaigrette
- Creamy Cucumber Pasta Salad – potluck favorite!
Ingredients
- 1 English cucumber sliced
- 2 to 3 large ripe tomatoes diced
- ½ medium red onion thinly sliced
- 1 tablespoon fresh herbs any combination of parsley, basil and/or dill, optional
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
- salt and black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients in a bowl and toss well.
- Refrigerate at least 20 minutes before serving.
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Salad
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mmmmm, mmmmm so, so good!
secondctime ibmade it, I used cherub tomatoes, Vidalia onion, added cubed zucchini, and dried oregano. This is a great recipe!
Yummy! I am so glad you are enjoying this recipe Maria.
Just started making this recipe 15 minutes ago and hubby could smell it from 20 feet away😋😋. Just add ingredients until it looks and smells wonderful. Marinating in the fridge as we speak.
This is so good! Making it the second time tonight.
I just read the type of tomatoes you use. now – salt and pepper to taste. I/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper? I am not a cook.
I would suggest starting with ¼ teaspoon salt and pepper and adding more to taste.
what kind of tomato do you use?
Beefsteak or Roma tomatoes hold up well in this salad. I would love to hear which ones you use!
Holly knows food !
I’m used to salting cucumbers and letting them sit to get moisture out. This recipe doesn’t need that?
I don’t pre-salt the cucumbers but you certainly can if you’d like.
Haven’t made yet….but know it will be awesome.
Question…what are the amounts of ingredients for serving 16?
Thank you!
Hi Vicky, if you click on “Print, then you can adjust the serving size to 16 and it will automatically update the ingredient amounts for you. Enjoy!
What type tomatoes will hold up in this salad?
Making this for a crowd!!!! Looks so good.
Beefsteak or Roma tomatoes hold up well in this salad. I would love to hear which ones you use!
Yum! Delicious. I’ll definitely be making this again. Crowd pleaser.
I am so glad you loved this recipe Michelle!
Would the potassium value make the kidney overload when tomatoes mixed with cucumber or potatoes? I heard people said both tomatoes and tomatoes are rich in potassium value.
I would suggest talking to your doctor about this.
is it a tablespoon of each spice or a tablespoon in total
1 total tablespoon of fresh herbs. Enjoy Kendra!