WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS: Cucumbers and red onions are a great salad combo: The cucumber gives the salad some heft and juicy crunch, while the bite of red onion serves as a great foil to the cucumber’s subtle flavor. In this recipe, we added peppery sliced radishes and brought everything together with a creamy, lemony dressing. All too often, creamy cucumber salads suffer from limp, flimsy slices of cucumber swimming in a diluted dressing. Here we found that laying the sliced cucumbers on a paper towel–lined baking sheet, instead of the more typical step of salting them, dried them out sufficiently while keeping them crisp. Marinating the onions in vinegar before we added them to the salad tamed their raw strength, and the thick, sour cream–based dressing resulted in a creamy never watery cucumber salad.
SERVES: 4 to 6
TOTAL TIME: 35 minutes
INGREDIENTS:
- 3 cucumbers, peeled, halved lengthwise, seeded, and sliced thin crosswise
- ½ cup thinly sliced red onion
- 3 tablespoons cider vinegar
- ½ cup sour cream
- 3 tablespoons chopped fresh mint
- 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
- ½ teaspoon sugar
- Salt and pepper
- 6 radishes, trimmed and sliced thin
INSTRUCTIONS:
- Spread cucumber slices in single layer on paper towel–lined baking sheet and refrigerate for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, combine onion and vinegar in bowl and let stand for 20 minutes.
- Whisk sour cream, mint, lemon zest, sugar, and ½ teaspoon salt together in large bowl. Add cucumbers, radishes, and onion-vinegar mixture and toss to combine. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve.
