Creamy Cucumber Dill Salad
Thin cucumbers in a cool sour-cream dill dressing — the deli side that loves grilled anything.
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Join HomecookedIngredients
- 2 Cucumber
- 100 g Sour cream
- 2 tbsp Dill
- 1 tbsp Red wine vinegar
- ¾ tsp Salt
- ¼ Red onion (optional)
- ½ tsp Sugar (optional)
Method
- Slice the cucumbers into thin rounds with a sharp knife or mandoline.
- Toss the cucumber slices with the salt in a colander and let them weep for 10 minutes, then pat them dry.
- Sliver the red onion as thinly as you can manage.
- Whisk the sour cream with the vinegar, sugar, and chopped dill in a large bowl until smooth.
- Fold the dried cucumbers and slivered onion into the dressing and chill briefly so the flavors meld.
- Serve the salad cold beside anything off a grill or griddle.
Nutrition per serving
Estimated from ingredients; varies with exact portions and brands.
About Creamy Cucumber Dill Salad
Creamy cucumber dill salad is the cool, tangy side that shows up at American cookouts, deli counters, and Midwestern potlucks, a close cousin of the German and Eastern European cucumber salads that immigrant kitchens carried over. It is defined by thin-sliced cucumber dressed in sour cream sharpened with vinegar and a little sugar, with fresh dill doing the aromatic heavy lifting. Unlike a vinaigrette-based cucumber salad, the sour cream gives it body, so it eats more like a light, spoonable dressing clinging to each slice than a crisp toss.
The taste is creamy and cooling with a clean acidic snap from the red wine vinegar, a whisper of sweetness, and the grassy, slightly anise note of dill; slivered raw red onion adds a sharp edge that keeps it from going flat. The technique that makes this version worth the twenty minutes is salting the cucumbers in a colander first and patting them dry — that step pulls out the water that would otherwise thin the dressing into a puddle, so the salad stays thick and the cucumbers keep some bite. Served cold, it is the reflexive partner to anything off the grill: burgers, sausages, grilled chicken, or a piece of salmon, where its coolness cuts through char and fat.
Creamy Cucumber Dill Salad: frequently asked questions
How many calories are in Creamy Cucumber Dill Salad?
One serving of Creamy Cucumber Dill Salad has about 58 calories, with 2g of protein, 7g of carbs, 3g of fat and 1g of fiber. These are estimates based on the ingredient amounts in this recipe and will vary with your exact portions and brands.
Is Creamy Cucumber Dill Salad gluten-free?
Based on its ingredients, Creamy Cucumber Dill Salad has no gluten-containing components, so it's naturally gluten-free — as always, check that any packaged ingredients you use are certified gluten-free to be safe.
Is Creamy Cucumber Dill Salad dairy-free?
Not as written — it uses Sour cream. Swapping it for a plant-based alternative makes it dairy-free.
How long does Creamy Cucumber Dill Salad take to make?
About 20 minutes start to finish, but only around 12 of those are hands-on — the rest is cooking time. In the Homecooked app the timers and parallel steps are sequenced for you so the hands-on part feels even shorter.
Do I need every ingredient to make Creamy Cucumber Dill Salad?
The core ingredients are essential, but you can leave out red onion, sugar — they're optional and mainly there for extra flavor or finish.
How many servings does Creamy Cucumber Dill Salad make?
This recipe makes 4 servings. In the app you can scale it up or down and the ingredient amounts adjust automatically.