Crisp cucumber, onion, and tomato - pair with creamy avocado and a tart and savory vinaigrette in this Easy Cucumber Tomato Onion Salad. Garnished with fresh dill, this bright salad is perfect for your next summer barbecue.
Jump to:
Growing up my mom would slice a fresh cucumber from the garden and put them in a Tupperware bowl with white vinegar and salt and pepper. We loved eating those vinegary cucumber slices.
This salad is a modern take on that classic dish. We've amped up the flavor with a homemade vinaigrette and added lots of yummy seasonal veggies. It's great to serve in the summer and takes almost zero time to make!
Looking for more cucumber recipes? You're going to love our Watermelon Cucumber Salad and Cucumber Sandwiches recipes. Did you know you can even make a refreshing Cucumber Limeade? It's so good in the summer!
Ingredients
I love all of the fresh ingredients in this dish! You'll need:
- Cucumbers: You can use any cucumber you prefer! From your regular old cucumber to crispy Persian cucumbers or seedless English cucumbers. Avoid cucumbers with blemishes, soft spots, yellowing, or easily bent.
- Avocados: Make sure to choose ripe (but not overly ripe) avocados. A ripe avocado should yield to firm, gentle pressure, but shouldn’t feel overly soft or mushy
- Roma tomatoes: A flavorful tomato that works great in this salad. You can also use heirloom tomatoes, or even grape or cherry tomatoes.
- Red onion: The best onion for salads for its crisp texture. It can have a bit of a bite. Soak your onions in cold water after slicing them if you want a slightly milder flavor.
- Fresh dill: For the ultimate fresh flavor don't use dried dill. You can easily swap it for other fresh herbs such as basil, mint, tarragon, or any combination you enjoy.
- Rice vinegar: This mild vinegar adds a nice balance of acid to the simple cucumber dressing but you can use any vinegar you enjoy. Apple cider vinegar has a similar mild flavor while red wine vinegar is a bit stronger.
- Olive oil: My favorite oil for making a healthy cucumber salad.
- Seasoning: The dressing is simply seasoned using season salt, onion salt, garlic salt, black pepper, and dried oregano.
How to Make Tomato Cucumber and Onion Salad
Here's a look at the simple steps to make this marinated cucumber salad.
- Step 1: Chop your veggies. You can do this one of two ways - chop everything into large chunks. Or dice everything into smaller pieces. Both are delicious. For these pictures, I chopped everything large. Smaller pieces make this more of a chopped salad consistency.
- Step 2: Make the salad. Combine all the avocado, tomatoes, cucumbers, and onions in a large bowl.
- Step 3: Make the dressing. Combine the oil, vinegar, onion salt, garlic salt, season salt, black pepper, and oregano in a blender jar Blend until the dressing is emulsified
- Step 5: Dress and Chill. Toss the dressing with the veggies and refrigerate for 30 minutes before serving.
Pro Tip: Use a Titan peeler for the easiest veggie pealing of your life! One of my FAVORITE kitchen tools.
Expert Tips
- Choose Fresh and Ripe Produce: You want all your veggies to be very fresh for the best outcome. If possible try to buy them close to the time you are making the salad.
- Cutting the Vegetables: Small or large it doesn't matter but make sure you cut all the vegetables in similar-sized pieces.
- Add a Protein: Turn this into a heartier salad by adding a can of drained and rinsed chickpeas or white beans. It would even be great with cooked quinoa added.
- Add Greens: For a more traditional style of salad, you can add your favorite leafy green such as kale, spinach, or mixed greens.
- Make It Cheesy: It's even better with a tangy cheese added! Try it with goat cheese, feta cheese, blue cheese, or even a milder cheese such as mozzarella.
- Chill Before Serving: Give it 30 minutes in the fridge with the dressing before serving. It will taste much better -- I promise!
Serving Suggestions
This cucumber salad recipe is really a crowd-pleaser and is absolutely perfect for a potluck, cookout, or any type of gathering. Here are a few ideas for inspiration.
- Serve it as a side dish with Lemon Lime Chicken, Grilled Shrimp Kabobs, or the Perfect Steak!
- For cookouts, it's great paired with this grilled potato salad or Instant Pot potato salad!
- Don't forget a summery dessert like this strawberry shortcake.
Recipe FAQs
While you want to make it at least thirty minutes ahead of time this salad is best enjoyed freshly made. You can store leftovers for up to 2-3 days but the vegetables will continue to soften the longer they sit. For best results add the dressing no more than 1-2 hours ahead. You can prep the tomatoes, onions, and cucumbers ahead of time and then add the dressing and avocado closer to serving.
More Summer Salad Recipes
Don't Be Shy!
If you’ve tried this cucumber onion tomato salad recipe or any other recipe on the blog then don’t forget to rate the recipe and leave us a comment below. You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest to see what else we’re getting up to! And don’t forget to pin this recipe to save for later.
Tomato Cucumber Onion Salad
Equipment
- Titan Peeler
- Blender
Ingredients
- 3 large cucumbers pealed and sliced
- 2 large avocados sliced
- 3 roma tomatoes cut into wedges
- ¼ red onion sliced
- ¾ cup seasoned rice vinegar
- ¼ cup olive oil
- ¼ teaspoon oregano
- ¼ teaspoon garlic salt
- ¼ teaspoon onion salt
- ¼ teaspoon season salt
- pepper to taste
Instructions
- Combine cucumbers, avocado, tomatoes, and onion in a large bowl.
- In a blender, combine vinegar, oil and seasoning. Blend until well combined.
- Toss dressing with veggies.
- Chill in the fridge for 30 minutes prior to serving.
Notes
- Choose Fresh and Ripe Produce: You want all your veggies to be very fresh for the best outcome. If possible try to buy them close to the time you are making the salad.
- Cutting the Vegetables: Small or large it doesn't matter but make sure you cut all the vegetables in similar-sized pieces.
- Add a Protein: Turn this into a heartier salad by adding a can of drained and rinsed chickpeas or white beans. It would even be great with cooked quinoa added.
- Add Greens: For a more traditional style of salad, you can add your favorite leafy green such as kale, spinach, or mixed greens.
- Make It Cheesy: It's even better with a tangy cheese added! Try it with goat cheese, feta cheese, blue cheese, or even a milder cheese such as mozzarella.
- Chill Before Serving: Give it 30 minutes in the fridge with the dressing before serving. It will taste much better -- I promise!
Nutrition
Paula says
Idk if it was a Typo or not but my DAUGHTER also called tupperware, tubberware lol.
AMBER says
THIS WAS SO HEALTHY AND REFRESHING! ONE OF MY GO-TO'S NOW!
Laura Anna says
I'm looking forward to making this shortly! It looks delicious!