Serve this Simple Tomato Cucumber Salad as a side dish at your next summer BBQ! It’s refreshing, full of garden-fresh produce and incredibly quick and easy to make.
I whip this up for my family on a weekly basis once we start harvesting cucumbers and tomatoes because it’s one of our absolute summer favorites! The easy homemade vinaigrette makes it feel extra special.
I know. Tomato Cucumber Salad. Not exactly revolutionary.
But, come on. I’m not a trend setter. I’m not revolutionary. I pin fashion posts from 2012 and identify with the mom in Young Sheldon.
Ahem. And I’m still a couple of years away from the big three-o.
So, in short: This tomato cucumber salad is exactly where my happy place is.
I can grow everything I need myself (I mean, not the olives for the oil. I also don’t make my own vinegar. But apart from that… 😉).
Look my tomatoes:
Anyways, this salad. It’s so basic and old and un-trendy that it feels insanely comfortable to me.
Also, it’s just plain delicious. And on a hot summer day? There’s nothing better than serving a simple grilled meat and a fresh salad for dinner.
I make this tomato cucumber salad at least once a week from July to September, that’s how much I love it.
Best of all?
It is so easy to throw together.
I mean, should I really be calling this a recipe? That’s the question I’ve been asking myself for the last four years, as I’ve been contemplating posting it.
Ultimately, I have decided that it can indeed be called a recipe, because it has a list of ingredients and a few small instructions and well. There are recipes for trail mix out there, so why not a simple salad?!
Plus, I already shared things like this Caprese Pasta Salad, which is admittedly just as little of a recipe as this one. So, I felt it was time to give the old tomato cuke combo a spot in my corner of the internet.
How to Make a Tomato Cucumber Salad
Now here is the point you can laugh at me for making such a big deal about this salad. Because this is how you make it:
- Chop the tomatoes and cucumber
- Toss them in the dressing
What! This is what summer cooking is all about. Being lazy. Being simple. Enjoying the time with your favorite people, eating from the abundance of summer fruit and veggies, and just making memories.
It won’t hurt if one of your kids’ biggest memories of summer is eating the same salad over and over again, trust me 😉
So now let’s look at those beautiful tomatoes and cucumbers in action:
1. Chop the veggies
It’s a good idea to generally keep all the veggies roughly the same size when you chop them up. It’s also a good idea to chop them small enough to be considered bite-size for your youngest dinner guest.
Just saves you extra work at the table later.
2. Place in a bowl with the dressing
Now comes the hardest part of this recipe: Adding the sliced and diced veggies to a salad bowl without dropping them all on the kitchen floor.
Been there, done that.
But this time I didn’t mess it up, ha! Celebrate the small wins.
To be very transparent for a minute here, I would usually just whip up the dressing in the salad bowl and then add the veggies and toss it all.
But because I do this food blog thing here for a living (what!) I kicked my butt into gear and shook up the dressing in a separate jar.
I mean, for the elusive pouring shot 🤷🏻♀️
By the way, it’s just my white balsamic vinaigrette with a chopped red onion added. See, told ya I’m all about laziness when it comes to summer cooking.
And then just toss and serve!
I will say that this salad is best served right after you mix the veggies with the dressing. Both the cucumbers and tomatoes give off a lot of water once they’re in tough with the dressing/salt so you’ll end up with a pretty watery salad if you leave it standing around for long.
We love it as a side for grilled lemon garlic chicken or steak, but it’s also delicious with a sandwich for lunch.
Either way, THIS is summer in a bowl.
And don’t let anyone tell you it’s not appropriate to make it several days in a row. Because it totally, absolutely, positively is.
Get the printable recipe for this Tomato Cucumber Salad here:
Simple Tomato Cucumber Salad
Ingredients
- 1 large cucumber, diced
- 1 pound tomatoes, sliced (I used a bunch of different colors and sizes)
- 1 recipe white balsamic vinaigrette with 1 chopped red onion added
Instructions
Toss all ingredients in a bowl and serve immediately.
