Cucumber Salad With Herb Garlic Vinaigrette

Cucumber Salad

Cucumber is probably one of my most consumed vegetables. They make an appearance in many of my salads – from Greek Salad and Ottolenghi’s Middle Eastern Chickpea Salad to epic Asian salads like Thai Beef Salad, exploding with spicy tangy lime flavours. I serve them the classic South East Asian way – cut into wedges and served plain on the side of foods like Nasi Goreng (Indonesian Fried Rice) and Thai Fried Rice. I cut them into sticks to serve with Hummus. And yep, I munch on them whole when I’m on the run! So, it’s about time I started sharing some salads starring my favourite vegetable. 🙂 And here’s a classic one for you – a refreshing Cucumber Salad with a Herb & Garlic vinaigrette.

Herb & Garlic Dressing for Cucumber Salad

It’s a super simple side salad, as many of my Side Salads are (and should be, in my opinion!). The thing that makes this Cucumber Salad so tasty is a terrific Herb & Garlic Dressing which adds tang and flavour to the juicy, crisp cucumber.

Type of Cucumber to use

This Cucumber Salad works equally well with long cucumbers (Telegraph / English cucumbers) or the more common standard cucumbers (called Lebanese cucumbers in Australia). The difference between the two is that the long cucumbers are not as watery / juicy inside so they have a slightly more intense cucumber flavour. It’s useful when you don’t want the natural juiciness of cucumbers to water down the flavour in a salad when you munch your way through it. For this particular Cucumber Salad, either will work. Use 2 long ones, or 3 to 4 standard cucumbers.

How to make it

Nothing complicated on the making part of this Cucumber Salad – shake dressing in a jar (the best way to make dressings, a vigorous shake makes the vinegar and oil emulsify really well which makes the dressing thick and cling to the vegetables). Slice cucumbers pretty thinly (not too thin, we want crispiness in this salad), then toss it all together.

You will find that the dressing doesn’t cling to cucumber as well as it does leafy greens. That’s just life – cucumbers are naturally slippery! If you want a dressing to coat cucumber well, try this Creamy Cucumber Salad (with a tangy lemon yogurt dressing) or German Cucumber Salad.

What to serve with Cucumber Salad

Though this is a year round salad in my world, it is in particular a summer staple. It’s made for hot weather!! Think – BBQ’s, picnics and gatherings with friends. Because it’s so refreshing, it pairs equally well with rich foods like roasts as much as it does lighter food like fish, prawns/shrimp and chicken dishes. I particularly love serving it with salmon – in fact, after photographing it, I serve it on the side of this Honey Lemon Glazed Salmon! – Nagi x