Creamy Cucumber Salad with lots of fresh dill is such an easy side dish that you’re going to want to make it constantly once you try it!
If you’re looking for that classic creamy cucumber salad with lots of fresh dill, you’ve found it! This is a Ukrainian dish that I learned from my Ukrainian Baba, but it seems to be made in a lot of other places too. It takes less than 10 minutes to make and only needs 5 ingredients. This creamy cucumber salad is a wonderful cold side dish for dinner, or it makes a wonderful potluck dish to take to a party.
Scroll down to read more about how it all comes together or click here to jump straight down to the recipe.
Ingredients
There’s some flexibility with the ingredients for this cucumber salad recipe. What you definitely need is a cucumber, sour cream, and fresh dill (plus a little salt).
When my Baba used to make this, and when my mom makes it, she adds white vinegar and a little sugar. I never liked it that way as much, so I’ve listed them as optional. I tend to add more salt but skip those two ingredients when I make it for myself.
I really just like the salty-creamy with the fresh crunchy cucumber and the bright dill. The onion I only add sometimes. You can also add a clove of minced garlic. That gets it almost like a tzatziki flavor going on. When I’m in the mood for a cucumber salad that has more onion and/or garlic, I will often make this Cucumber Onions Salad, or Cucumber Mint Salad that has onion and lime in it instead. All cucumber salads are good though, so play around and find your perfect combination.
Making Cucumbers Less Watery For Salads
If you’re planning to eat this salad without an hour of making it, you don’t have to do anything special to the cucumbers.
However, If you’re making the salad ahead of time, you’ll want to reduce the wateriness of the cucumbers by draining the water out of them. You can do that by scooping out the seeds where most of the water is. Then slice the remainder and blot the slices dry. Here are more details about how to make cucumbers less watery for salads, and there’s a video there too showing you how.
Keeping Cucumber Salad Creamy
Whether you’ve drained the cucumbers or not, sometimes the salad can end up watery after it’s been in the fridge for awhile. It’s just because there is a lot of water in cucumbers. But don’t worry, there is a way to fix that watery salad!
What you’ll do is take the salad out of the fridge and don’t stir it. Stirring it will mix the water into the dressing, and we want to leave it behind. Instead, use some tongs to transfer the cucumbers and whatever is clinging to them to another bowl. If there’s a lot of dill and/or onions left in the liquid, scoop those out with fork or slotted spoon and add them to the cucumbers. Then stir some sour cream into the cucumber mixture, 2 tablespoons at a time. When the cucumbers are nicely coated in creamy sauce again, taste them and then add more salt to taste. You can add vinegar and/or sugar if it needs that also.
More Side Dish Recipes
If you love easy salads and quick veggie side dishes, check out all of our Vegetable Recipes here. I’ve linked to some of my faves for you here too:
- Brussels Sprouts Slaw
- Delicious Roasted Summer Squash
- How To Cook Whole Zucchini
- Air Fryer Roasted Carrots
- Zucchini in the Air Fryer
- Stuffed Summer Squash
Podcast Episode: Making Creamy Cucumber Salad With Dill
Listen to me explain briefly about how to make this recipe, with some great tips along the way, by clicking the play button below:
Listen to more Recipe of the Day episodes here.
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Creamy Cucumber Salad with Dill Recipe
Creamy Cucumber Salad with lots of fresh dill is such an easy side dish that you’re going to want to make it constantly once you try it!
- Prep Time: 8 minutes
- Cook Time: 0 minutes
- Total Time: 8 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
- Category: Side Dish
- Method: Mix
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 2 tsp. white vinegar (optional)
- Pinch of sugar (optional)
- 1 medium English cucumber, 1/8-inch slices*
- 1/2 small onion, finely sliced
- 1/2 cup fresh dill fronds
Instructions
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In a large bowl mix together the sour cream and salt. If using the vinegar and sugar, add those as well.
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Stir in the cucumber, onion, and dill. Serve.
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Notes
*If you’re making this salad ahead of time, it’s best to drain the cucumbers of some water so that the salad doesn’t get watery. To do so, split the cucumber in half lengthwise then use a spoon to scrape out the seeds (that’s where most of the water is). Then slice the cucumber halves. Arrange the slices on a couple of sheets of paper towel and put more towel over top. Press lightly on them to extract some liquid. Then proceed with the recipe. If your salad still ends up watery, or if you didn’t do this step and end up with watery salad, don’t worry. There are instructions in the article above under the heading “Keeping Cucumber Salad Creamy” for how to remove that water from the salad and make it creamy again.
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