5 Ingredient refreshing German Cucumber Dill Salad to serve as a salad side dish during the hotter months of the year.
We call this salad Gurkensalat in German.
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What is Gurkensalat?
Gurkensalat is a super popular summer salad in Germany, Austria and all the surrounding countries.
It goes really well as a side dish at a cookout with grilled meats and roasted veggies.
The word Gurkensalat itself means cucumber salad, Gurke is a cucumber in German.
How to make it?
I use whatever cucumber I can get from my local grocery store. Seedless varieties are preferred.
Step 1
I lightly peel my washed cucumbers for the green peel border effect ( I eat with my eyes too).
Step 2
Then I simply cut my cucumbers into thick slices because I like the crunch.
Germans use a manual vegetable slicer to cut the cucumbers thin. So, the traditional way is to cut your cucumbers into thin slices.
Step 3
For the
The cucumber salad dressing is poured over the cucumbers and I usually do that in advance and not just before serving because I want the cucumbers to take in the dressing flavors.
📖 Recipe
German Cucumber Dill Salad [Gurkensalat]
Ingredients
- 1 large Cucumber
For the Dressing:
- 1 ½ Tablespoon Dill fresh, chopped
- 3 Tablespoon Sour Cream thick creamy
- ⅛ Teaspoon Salt
- ⅛ Teaspoon Black Pepper Ground
Instructions
- Rinse your cucumber well and peel. I semi peel mine to add a border effect to my slices when cut.
- Use a vegetable slicer to cut thin slices of cucumber 9the way it's done in Germany) or cut into thicker slices with a knife (the way I like it).
- Keep the cucumber slices in a bowl for a few minutes. Excess water will come out, which you can discard.
- Mix your rinsed fresh chopped dill into the thick creamy sour cream with the salt and black pepper to create the dressing
- Pour the dressing over the cucumber and mix.
- Serve your cucumber dill sour cream salad cooled as a summer side dish with grilled meat or for lunch with schnitzel or steak.
Nutrition
Variations
There are some of the more common variations of the German cucumber dill salad.
You have the option here to make it the way YOU like it.
- prepared with sour cream and Greek yogurt, mayonnaise, liquid whipping cream (yep they also use high-fat liquid whipping cream)
- cut into super thin or fat slices
- with chopped onion and garlic
- with fresh or dried herbs — Dill is the most preferred choice or also chives, parsley to just name a few.
- with the addition of salad oil and vinegar to the creamy ingredient.
- with the choice of Cucumber varieties and with or
without peel.
I tend to prepare a cucumber salad with sour cream and dill. I think Austrian cucumber salad is usually prepared with liquid whipping cream, while south region sin Germany prepare it with sour cream.
There are regional varieties of Gurkensalat in the German-speaking countries and neighboring countries such as Poland, Czechia and Slovakia.
Tips
Leave the cucumber to sit for a while, that way excess waters will come out, which you can discard before adding the dressing
Another idea is to let the sliced cucumbers drain with some sea salt. The sea salt will help in pulling excess liquids out of the cucumbers.
Then you are left with not adding salt to the dressing.
Keep in mind that the cucumbers will lose water, so if you don't want liquids but a creamy thicker dressing, simply add the dressing before you serve up the salad.
The longer the cucumber slices sit in the dressing, the wetter the dressing will become.
Serving
This particular cucumber salad is served during the summer months. People love to serve it as a side when they sit outside for food or at a BBQ.
It's quite refreshing!
Traditionally in Germany, the cucumber with the dill salad dressing is served with cooked sweet water fish. I.e., pan-fried trout. Green dill herb and fish go hand in hand.
In Austria, you will often see cucumber dill salad dressing served with Wiener Schnitzel, Parsley Butter Potatoes, and Lingonberry Jam.
Storing
If you have leftovers, keep them in an airtight container for up to 1 day. Cucumbers just don't keep too well once sliced.
This salad can get super soggy the longer you keep it sitting in the fridge, so I recommend draining excess liquids.
You can prep the salad in advance. For example, make it the evening before a lunch cookout. Keep it refrigerated.
If you intend to make a larger batch for a BBQ get together or tailgating, I recommend keeping a smaller batch out and the rest in the fridge. Why, because this salad needs to remain fresh. You can always refill it the container with the cooled cucumber salad.
More Cucumber Salad Recipes
- Persian Shirazi Salad
- Lemon Cucumber Mint Water
- Dilled Cucumber Radish Salad by reneeskitchenadventures.com
i have some small garden of herbs at home, i use them for baking foods and as herbal medicines.
I grew up with this salad (two German grandmothers), and this looks pretty accurate. I’m puzzled by your suggestion to serve this with a vegan meal, though, since all the variations you mention depend on dairy or eggs. I have a vegan child; how would you suggest making this for him?
Hi Ellen, you can substitute the sour cream with vegan sour cream in this recipe to make this all vegan for your son. Vegan sour cream can be prepared from scratch by blending cashews with water and lemon juice. Vegan food is poplar among German immigrants in Goa, India (and cashew nuts are abundant there) and that's where I picked that up. Since I'm not just vegan, I didn't think of posting the recipe.
I love this salad. When I first had it in Bavaria, it had paper thin shavings of soft carrot in it too. I'm not sure if that was something mama put in the salad to make it hers. It was good.
Great use of all my cucumbers. Thanks for sharing.
I give you 5 stars for dealing with the previous commenter.
I removed your stars. Please only rate if you have tried the recipe.
It is sad you give us your respites an then we canput it in are own receipt box to make at a later date. what do you do when you do not have a printer. I like when other people give others recipes to make at least they give it to us. I give you a 1 star just for that
Dear Kat, you have the option to pin a recipe for later to Pinterest. If you don't use Pinterest, I can recommend "Pocket", which is a chrome extension and a mobile app. Ratings that have nothing to do with the quality or experience with the recipe are not accepted.