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!
Cucumber Tomato Salad
Ingredients
- 1 long English cucumber sliced
- 2-3 large tomatoes diced
- ½ red onion sliced
- 1 tablespoon fresh herbs parsley, basil and/or dill, optional
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
- salt & 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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This salad was excellent. I did not have an English cucumber on hand but I did have regular cucumber that worked just as well. Quick, simple and delicious, what more could you ask for. Thank you for sharing this. I will be making this again.
Absolutely no flavor at all, even after adding all herbs and salt and pepper. Had to add bottled salad dressing ☹️
Hi Debi, we definitely recommend adding the tablespoon of fresh herbs for some added flavor, and depending on the herbs you are using you can always increase the amount to help with the flavor. I find dill to have a strong flavor so I would add that for sure! Hope that helps!
How much salt and pepper do you think?
We like to start small and add more if necessary. So I would start with ¼ tsp and see what you think, you can add more to meet your preferred flavor.
Excellent! Thank you! I used cherry tomatoes because it was what was on hand. Turned out great.
Made this twice! It’s a keeper!
Leftovers were served on a bed of mixed greens.
This is my favorite salad to make for my wife
Love this salad my mom made a version of this salad but she added about an1/8 to a 1/4 cup of sugar
both ways are good but hubby likes it with the sugar, so I just dived it up and he has what he wants and I have mine without the sugar. =D
P.S. I can always find something yummy on your website and I use your recipes a lot. :) Thank you
Thank you so much! Glad you are enjoying our recipes.
I threw this recipe together because we had a warm day and Mom and I were bored with our usual lunch choices. I had regular salad cukes, tomatoes, and red onion on hand, red wine vinegar and olive oil…..had to use dried dill, parsley, and basil, but in a pinch, they worked! This is MOST DEFINITELY one of those “we WILL make this again” recipe! Light and healthy, yet flavorful and filling. Not a basic, boring salad, for sure!
Could use baby plum or cherry tomatoes.
Both types will work in this recipe!
Delicious! Thank you
Very tasty. Easy to make. Used garden fresh vegetables and herbs.
Made this tonight! It was perfect! Added a bit of parmesan cheese as I had a bit leftover.
Thanks for sharing this recipe! Will make this many more times!
This salad is so simple to put together and really delicious! Made a double batch, next day we had pita and hummus sandwiches. Yum, thanks for sharing!
Great idea, Meg! That’s a delicious way to enjoy the leftovers.
Simple and delicious. I added some fresh mozzarella cubes.
Love your recipes;use them quite often.. Thank you for sharing your recipes..Delicious!!! would it be ok to use “zesty Italian”salad dressing with the cucumber salad
Thanks Deb! We love sharing them with you. If you prefer zesty Italian dressing I think it would be delicious.
This salad is very refreshing and tasty. Used my cucumbers from the garden and tomatoes. I also had feta crumbles and it was delicious. Thanks for sharing your recipe
This works with my tastes. Fresh basil and parsley from the yard. I make my own red wine vinegar, which isn’t hard if you drink red wine ;-) I do make more of the dressing than it calls for.
This is perfect. Cold, crisp, satisfying & simple.
I added a packet of Truvia! Outstanding and unbelievably delicious!
This is my “go to” summer salad! I am a senior single so easy to make for one person. I visited my daughter and her family last week and they were gifted fresh tomatoes and a cucumber from the other grandmother’s garden. We needed to use them up quickly so I made this salad with the ingredients they had on hand – white vinegar, canola oil, salt and pepper. They were so surprised with with this super simple summer salad and that it was delicious as is! I’m back home and used your recipe since I have all the ingredients. Hard to wait for it to “chill”.
So great that you always have the ingredients on hand to make this salad. It’s a simple and tasty summer salad, one of our favorites too Rebecca!
Delicious