German cucumber salad is a low carb, healthy side dish that takes only a few minutes to make. Gurkensalat is basically just thinly sliced cucumbers and onions with fresh dill in a simple oil and vinegar mix. Make this German cucumber salad recipe and use up cucumbers quickly!
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What is Gurkensalat?
Gurkensalat is a German Cucumber Salad that usually uses a creamy dressing, however, oil and vinegar based ones are also common.
My husband has a very strong German heritage so this weekend, we had friends and neighbors over for an Oktoberfest party. This German cucumber salad recipe was the perfect side dish to go with our grilled Bratwurst and all the delicious side dishes provided by our guests.
Like this German cucumber salad recipe? Try these healthy salad recipes, too:
Healthy Quinoa Salad Recipe with Spinach and Apricots
All you need to do is slice up cucumbers and onions, add a simple oil and vinegar mix and stir in a ton of chopped, fresh dill. The resulting Gurkensalat is full of flavor, nice and crunchy, and absolutely delicious! If you are looking for more Oktoberfest recipes, you should definitely check out my homemade pretzels with beer cheese!
How do you prepare cucumbers for this Gurkensalat recipe?
The key to making this German Cucumber Salad Recipe is toslice your cucumbers very, VERY thin. Some recipes I saw called for using a mandolin but I don’t own one so had to make due with a sharp knife.
Should this German cucumber salad use yogurt?
There are several variations of this recipe online and some of them add sour cream or yogurt to the dressing recipe to make it creamy. We chose to leave that out to give it a slightly lighter texture and it turned out delicious.
Both gurkensalat recipes seem to be popular. If you prefer a creamy cucumber salad, add about 1/2 cup of sour cream or Greek yogurt to your dressing before pouring over the cucumbers.
How long can you store cucumber salad with dill?
How longdoescucumber salad last? Well, not really all that long. For the freshest flavor and texture, eat this up the day you serve it. This cucumber salad has a shelf life of about three to four days in a sealed container in the refrigerator. It will, however, get a bit watery.
This cucumber salad recipe is unbelievably simple to prepare so if you can, make it up fresh when you want to eat it, rather than planning on leftovers. Check out Germanfoods.org for more authentic German recipes.
German Cucumber Salad Recipe
What is Gurkensalat? It is a simple cucumber salad recipe with fresh dill on slivered onions. Perfect summer salad recipe or healthy side dish for the family. Healthy salads are great for backyard BBQs, too. If you are looking for easy cucumber recipes, try this one!
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Have too many cucumbers?
Did you know you can add them to your next detox water recipe?
Diane Hoffmaster
Diane is a professional blogger and nationally certified pharmacy technician atGood Pill Pharmacy. She earned her BS in Microbiology at theUniversity of New Hampshire and has worked in cancer research, academics, and biotechnology. Concern over the growing incidence of human disease and the birth of her children led her to begin living a more natural life. She quickly realized that the information she was learning along the way could be beneficial to many others and started blogging and freelance writing to share this knowledge with others. Learn more about her HERE.
Sprinkle them with a couple of pinches of salt, toss to coat, and let them rest for about 30 minutes. Pat them dry with a paper towel and proceed with the recipe. You can go a little lighter on the salt than the recipe calls for since you'll have already seasoned the cucumbers a bit in this process.
Crisp and creamy cucumber salad makes the perfect summer side. This old-fashioned recipe combines thinly sliced sweet onions, cucumbers, dill, garlic, and mayo for an unbelievably delicious make-ahead dish. Try your hand at MHudson's family recipe for the tastiest cucumber salad ever.
In this recipe, I call for English cucumbers, the variety that often comes wrapped in plastic at the grocery store. They have very thin, delicate skins, so there's no need to peel them. If you can't find English cucumbers, Persian cucumbers are a great substitute.
The solution: The standard recommendation for ridding watery vegetable such as cucumbers of unwanted moisture is to salt them. The salt draws out the liquid from the vegetable because of the natural tendency of salt water solutions to equalize when mixed together.
Add 1 Tbsp of sugar and 1 tsp of salt to the cut-up cucumber. Mix and let it sit aside for 30 minutes; this will help the cucumber stay nice and crunchy. After 30 minutes, dump out all the excess liquid.
"When storing cucumbers, you want to prevent moisture loss while also preventing rot, which can be tricky," Trimble says. To do this, she advises giving cukes an airtight "second skin" by wrapping them in plastic or beeswax wrap to slow deterioration.
Cucumbers are crunchy and cool with just some vinegar, salt, and pepper. But added dill or chopped fresh basil will elevate this simple cucumber salad to something just a bit more interesting. I like adding a mix of regular basil and Thai basil (the one that tastes somewhat licorice-y).
Cucumbers consist mostly of water, and they also contain important electrolytes. They can help prevent dehydration in hot weather or after a workout. For people who do not enjoy drinking water, adding cucumber and mint can make it more attractive.
1 consists of cucumbers which are fairly well colored, fairly well formed, not overgrown, and which are fresh, firm, and free from decay, sunscald and from damage caused by scars, yellowing, sunburn, dirt or other foreign materials, freezing, mosaic or other disease, insects, cuts, bruises, mechanical or other means.
A few favorites include 'Beit Alpha,' which is grown for its sweet flavor and exceptionally thin skin. 'Suyo Long' is a seedless, mild-flavored variety from northern China that grows about 18 inches long. 'China Jade' has striking yellow-green flesh and long, thin-skinned fruit.
Striped Armenian is one of the sweetest cucumbers. It has small seeds and thin skin. Though it looks like a cucumber, it is actually a melon—a species of Cucumis.
A cucumber's bitterness is caused by cucurbitacin, a bitter chemical that protects the plant from predators. Usually, cucurbitacin stays in the stem and leaves, but it can work its way into the fruit. A cucumber's bitterness is caused by cucurbitacin, a bitter chemical that protects the plant from predators.
When you salt cucumber pieces or slices and let them sit for 30 minutes in a colander, the salt draws out excess moisture which then drains away. This means that the cucumber will release less water into whatever dish you're adding it to, such as tzatziki, tabbouleh, Greek salad, or potato salad.
Once you've washed and wrapped them, the best way to store cucumbers is in the crisper drawer (a.k.a. produce drawer) of your fridge, set on high humidity with the fan closed. High humidity helps the ethylene-sensitive fruit retain moisture and keeps it from wilting.
If you want to keep cucumber slices in the fridge but are finding that they become soggy and lose their freshness too often, then try infusing them in lemon and salt. Both lemon and salt work together to keep cucumbers firm for a longer time!
About this method: To keep cucumbers extra crunchy, Epicurious touts this method: Wash them, thoroughly dry them, wrap them in a dish towel or paper towel, place them in an unsealed plastic bag to allow some airflow, and place them in the crisper drawer.
Introduction: My name is Van Hayes, I am a thankful, friendly, smiling, calm, powerful, fine, enthusiastic person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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