Popping in today with a PSA that the recipe for Cucumber Tomato Salad with BEST EVER Italian Vinaigrette exists, and you should be making it as often as possible before the sun sets on summer, and the fresh tomato, cucumber, and basil bounty that comes along with it!
For almost every single dinner growing up my Mom made an iceberg lettuce salad (tell me you grew up in the 80s without telling me you grew up in the 80s.) Once summer rolled around though, she’d swap a head of iceberg for this fresh side dish recipe made with the cucumbers, tomatoes, and basil she grew in her garden.
We ate it with dinner 3-4 nights a week and I’m happy to report the tradition is alive and well in the here and now. I serve this stunning yet simple side dish to my crew multiple times a week in the summertime.
It’s a fresh and healthy way to dress up any ho hum dinner!
Raid your garden or the Farmer’s Market for fresh, local cucumbers, tomatoes, and basil then chop them up, toss into a bowl, and drizzle with a generous amount of my BEST EVER Italian Vinaigrette. It’s as simple as that.
Gwen calls this “Mama Dressing” by the way, which makes me so happy I could cry. I also have no shame in telling you that I eat my bowl of Cucumber Tomato Salad with a spoon so I can savor every last drop of the dressing mixed with the juices from the tomatoes.
MMM!!!
Cucumber Tomato Salad Dressing
You can of course use store-bought dressing for this Cucumber Tomato Salad recipe, but my homemade Italian Vinaigrette is a stunner, and super easy to whip up.
Reader Trish says: “I am totally loving this dressing. My life feels oddly incomplete if I don’t have a batch already mixed in the fridge and awaiting my next salad. ”
#RELATABLE! Feel free to make this vinaigrette up to two weeks ahead of time. Here’s what you’ll need:
- Neutral tasting oil: I recommend avocado, grapeseed, or canola oil for the vinaigrette, versus extra virgin olive oil, which can overpower the other ingredients.
- White wine vinegar or Red wine vinegar: either option provides a nice, sharp tang to the vinaigrette.
- Apple cider vinegar: cider vinegar is a little more mild than red wine vinegar and adds a nice, puckery flavor.
- Dijon mustard: this helps emulsify the vinaigrette.
- Minced shallot: shallots add a mild onion flavor to the dressing.
- Fresh garlic: I LOVE the hint of garlicky flavor finely minced fresh garlic adds to this dressing!
- Honey: helps to balance out all the flavors. You could use real maple syrup or granulated sugar to keep this dressing and side dish vegan.
- Dried herbs and seasonings: salt, pepper, dried oregano, and dried marjoram add lots of craveable flavor.
Choosing Your Tomatoes and Cucumbers
Mostly I use a regular cucumber and vine-ripened tomatoes to make this salad, but feel free to use whatever you like best.
- Cucumber options: If using a regular cucumber, peel, slice, then seed the cucumber before chopping. If using an English cucumber (like in these photos) there’s no need to peel or seed before slicing or chopping. You can slice Persian cucumbers (the little mini cukes!) into coins. Again, no need to peel first.
- Tomato options: Vine ripened tomatoes are great in this recipe, and I like to seed those first. Other delicious options are roma tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, grape tomatoes, or heirloom tomatoes.
Side Dish for Simple Dinners
In the summer I tend to make less “recipes” for dinner – meaning I grill or saute a protein, or make spaghetti — so having a simple side dish full of veggies I don’t have to think too hard about is always nice to have in my back pocket. I know you’ll love this dish for the exact same reason. :)
Try this Fresh and Healthy Salad
How to Make this Recipe
Start by making the Best Ever Italian Vinaigrette. Trust me when I tell you that this stuff is better than anything you’ll find at the store!
To a mason jar or small bowl add the dressing ingredients: oil, vinegars, Dijon mustard, minced shallot and garlic, honey, and dried herbs and seasonings. Shake or whisk to combine.
I like to make the vinaigrette at least a couple of hours before eating so the flavors have time to meld, though it will keep well in your refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.
Next, peel, seed, and dice a regular cucumber, and then seed and chop vine-ripened tomatoes and add to a large bowl. Tear or thinly slice (aka chiffonade) fresh basil leaves and add to the bowl as well. Here’s how to chiffonade fresh basil leaves:
- Nest basil leaves into each other to form a “boat”
- Roll the leaves into a cigar shape
- Thinly slice
Transform this Salad
As written, my Cucumber Tomato Salad is simple, unfussy, fresh, and flavorful. That said, it makes a great base to be added to or enhanced. Try any of these tasty ideas:
- Add mini mozzarella balls (also called “pearls”)
- Add a diced avocado
- Use fresh herbs like chives or fresh dill instead of/or in addition to basil
- Give it a Mediterranean spin by adding kalamata olives and crumbled or cubed feta cheese
- Add toasted bread cubes (here’s how to make them!) to make Panzanella salad
- Add thinly sliced red onions to make a Cucumber Tomato Onion Salad
Last step is to pour the Italian Vinaigrette over the tomato-cucumber salad, season with a little more salt and pepper to taste, then scoop, serve, and devour. I hope you love this fresh and summery side dish – enjoy!
More Summery Salad Recipes
- Gluten Free Potato Salad
- The BEST Pasta Salad
- Napa Sweet Corn Salad
- Chicken Caesar Pasta Salad
- Marinated Vegetable Salad
- Sweet Corn Caprese Salad
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Cucumber Tomato Salad with BEST EVER Italian Vinaigrette
Description
Cucumber Tomato Salad with BEST EVER Italian Vinaigrette is the perfect side dish for any summer meal! Quick, fresh, and delicious.
Ingredients
- 2 cucumbers, peeled, seeded and chopped
- 4 vine-ripened tomatoes, seeded and chopped
- handful fresh basil, torn or sliced
- For the Italian Vinaigrette:
- scant 1 cup neutral-tasting oil like avocado, grapeseed, or canola oil (do not recommend EVOO)
- 1/4 cup red wine or white wine vinegar
- 2 Tablespoons apple cider vinager
- 2 Tablespoons minced shallot OR 1 teaspoon dried minced onions
- 1 clove garlic, pressed or finely minced
- 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon honey
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/4 teaspoon dried marjoram
Directions
- For the Italian Vinaigrette: Combine all ingredients in a jar with a tight fitting lid or a small mixing bowl then shake or whisk to combine. Can be made up to 2 weeks ahead of time.
- Add cucumbers, tomatoes, and basil to a large serving bowl then drizzle with Italian Vinaigrette, season with extra salt and pepper, and serve.
Notes
- Feel free to use an English cucumber - no need to peel or seed first.
- Romas are great in this salad too - use what is in season, growing in your garden, and/or looks great at the Farmer’s Market.
This recipe is courtesy of Iowa Girl Eats, http://iowagirleats.com.
How long can you keep just the extra vingarette in the refrigerator?
I know you say don’t use EVOO, but have you ever used light olive oil? It’s supposed to be flavorless, and I’ve successfully used it in other salad dressings that called for it…just wondering what your take is!
I just made the Italian vinaigrette… it is so good! I couldn’t stop licking my fork! haha
Can you use red wine vinegar? I have all the ingredients except white wine vinegar & hoped it was as good with red wine vinegar substituted.
For sure, that’d be just fine!
You look great. Family looks great, Your recipes are still great! Have a great day!
I hope you don’t mind I added this to Sparkpeople.com as I have been using the vinaigrette a lot!! Adding the recipe and giving you credit then measuring how much I use easier way to keep track of my calories.
[…] Italian Vinaigrette by Iowa Girl Eats […]
[…] The Recipe can be found HERE […]
[…] The Recipe can be found HERE […]
I just made the best ever pasta salad for a potluck this evening! I really liked it, and I made a couple of adjustments to the dressing, too – finely diced red onion instead of shallot and no bell pepper. Love the tip to use dried minced onion – I’ll try that next time!
[…] The Recipe can be found HERE […]
If the tomatoes and cucumbers aren’t very firm, I sometimes pat them with kitchen towel to get excess water off. Removing the liquidy/seedy part of the tomatoes helps as well – or use cherry tomatoes instead. Might get tricky if the tomatoes and cucumbers are very ripe though…
We love marinated salads so I make them in various ways with various vegetables. My hubby totally freaked out on this salad! I was worried it made too much and some might eventually be thrown out after leftovers. Boy was I wrong! There definitely will not be any left to throw away. I did add some chopped red onion and after tasting the vinaigrette I added about 1/4 cup of red wine vinegar only because we are used to strong vinegar marinades. That Vinaigrette is to die for! It took about half a jar. We prefer Roma tomatoes (used 6) unless you have true garden fresh and I don’t bother to remove the seeds from them but probably would fresh garden tomatoes. I will refrigerate the other half to make another salad next week! This will be made a lot no doubt. LOVE IT!! Thank you Kristin for another YUMMY recipe!!
This looks delicious! I saved it so we can take a batch of it when we go camping next weekend. :-)
I had to pause for a moment from eating this salad right now to come here and say that, yes, this is THE BEST Italian dressing ever!!! I could drink it, it’s so good! And so easy to prepare, which makes it a million times better! Thank you so much for sharing my new go-to dressing recipe :)
Yessss, so glad you agree! Thanks for the great feedback, Nikki!
This may be a stupid question, but is there a reason why you don’t just use an English Cucumber, rather than de-seeding a regular one?
Not stupid at all! They are usually $2+ at my store so I save money by seeding regular ones myself. You could use either!
This looks so good! Will definitely be trying this out soon!
xo, Skylar
http://www.styledbyskylar.com
Why do you seed the cucumbers? I’ve seen you do this before, but I’ve never known anyone else to do it. I developed an allergy to cucumbers after my daughter was born, so I’ll be admiring this dish from afar…..because I so miss cucumbers. I can still eat pickles though (oh body, you’re so weird) so it’s not a total loss!
I deseed both cucumbers and tomatoes because I don’t want the dressing to get watered down. You could leave both intact if you don’t want to deseed.
Can you leave the salad dressing on the counter or does it need to be refrigerated?
I refrigerate it.
Growing up my dad used to make what he called marinated salad which was tomato, cucumber, onion and italian dressing. So good. Can’t wait to try your italian vinaigrette!