Italian Cucumber Salad

Italian cucumber salad is an easy and delicious salad with crunchy bite of cucumber and a perfect blend of flavors. This makes an excellent quick side dish.

This Italian cucumber salad with tomato is so good and delicious with crunchy bites and a simple vinaigrette dressing and a flavor of fresh herbs. These are delicious and scrumptious with a strong blend of flavors.

Apart from the taste, this is one of the healthiest options to add to the diet. Cucumber has numerous health benefits as well.

Cucumber - Benefits

Keeps the body hydrated - Cucumber is one of the healthiest vegetables. This has a lot of water content and hence this helps in keeping the body hydrated. For this reason, this is especially recommended for summers.

Helps to keep us healthy - This is rich in antioxidants. The antioxidants prevent the accumulation of free radicals and hence prevent the risk of many dangerous and chronic diseases.

Helps in keeping gut-healthy - High fiber and water content help to flush out toxic and unwanted materials from the body. So this also helps in keeping the gut healthy.

Promotes weight loss - By keeping the body hydrated, it impacts the metabolism of the body as well. With good metabolism, the body digests food in a better way with lesser calorie intake (cucumber is low in calories).

There are a lot more nutritional values and health benefits of cucumber. Read them here.

Which cucumber is best?

For the salad, we need crunchy bites of cucumber. For crunchy bites, I leave the skin on the cucumber. So I love English cucumber for the cucumber salad. These come with dark green skin and the skin is thin but adds a nice crunch to the salads.

You should avoid the type of cucumber with thicker skins which may be bitter and hard also. So if you are taking such cucumbers, you need to take the skin off.

Cucumber and onions both add crunchy bites to the cucumber salad.

Tips to make the best Italian Cucumber Salad

Cucumber is a watery fruit with 96% water in it. It might turn soggy when you add dressings to it and it may also dilute the dressing with the natural water it has, So to avoid that, give some salt treatment to the cucumbers.

After dicing the cucumber, add a little salt to them and mix thoroughly. Let it sit for up to 20 minutes or so. This will help in releasing the excess moisture from the cucumber. Remove the cucumber from the bowl and place them on a clean plate. Wipe the cucumber with a clean kitchen towel or napkin. And then add the salad dressing to it. This way the cucumber will soak the flavor of vinaigrette better.

Second, always choose the best cucumber for your salad. Cucumber with thin skin is recommended than thick skin cucumbers.

Ingredients you will need -

Cucumber

Red Onions

Tomatoes (optional)

Fresh Flat Parsley Leaves

Few Basil leaves

Red Wine Vinegar

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Dried Oregano Herbs

Salt & Pepper

Paprika (Optional)

How to make the Italian Cucumber Salad?

To make the cucumber salad, dice the cucumber. Then add salt to them and allow them to sit for 20 minutes to take out excess liquid from them. Then place them on a clean plate and wipe with a kitchen napkin.

Then dice the tomatoes, red onions, parsley leaves, basil leaves and place them in the mixing bowl. Add the cucumber.

In a small jar, add red wine vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, minced garlic, oregano, salt, and pepper. Close the lid of the jar and shake for 15 - 20 seconds till it's mixed. You can also use your blender or food processor to blend them nicely. In such a case, add your herbs to it too.

Then pour the sauce over the diced cucumber, tomato, onion. Toss well to combine.

What to serve with it?

You can serve this salad as a side with any pasta, soups, etc. Other than Italian cuisine also it can pair up with quinoa dishes, rice items, etc.

Leftovers?

Leftovers don't stay well and are crunchy, unlike the freshly made ones since they release a lot of water. And this dilutes the dressing flavors. Also, it makes the veggies soggy by losing the crunch of fresh veggies.