Cucumber Salad

This is the salad my grandma always makes, probably with a few adjustments because you never can reproduce Grandma’s cookin’. What made this salad particularly delicious were the mini cucumbers. I like normal cucumbers just as much, but I typically peel them for this sort of thing. This was pretty and festive because you can leave the skin on—it is soft, delicious, and nothing close to bitter.

I also used Campari tomatoes on the vine (though I think the on-the-vine thing is overrated) which are out of this world. I’ve also been deprived of good tomatoes for many years, so who knows. But get some sweet, small tomatoes that you can cut up into bite-size wedges. No cherry or grape tomatoes please! This recipe is so simple and so delicious it’s absurd. Very healthy too, if you go easy on the salt.

Ingredients

Three mini cucumbers or one large cucumber

Two small Campari tomatoes

½ medium-size yellow onion

Salad vinegar OR white vinegar, OR white wine vinegar, OR apple cider vinegar

Rice vinegar

Good extra virgin olive oil

Sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Cut the cucumber diagonally into slices. Cut the top off of the tomatoes. Flip them over so that the now flat part of the tomato is your base on the cutting board. Cut from the top downward down the middle, so that you have two pieces, then make 45 degree cuts into each half, creating a total of 6 wedges per tomato. Be careful with your fingers!

You will basically do the same with the onion, except take a half and make these 45 degree angle cuts very thinly to get the kind of onion pieces you see in the photo. You could also do half circles, but I think this comes out prettier.

Just use whatever vinegars you have on hand. My favorite is the classic American Heinz Salad Vinegar, but it doesn’t matter that much. Rice vinegar gives it a special bite but is not necessary. If you use rice vinegar, be sure not to use as much salt!

Put the cucumber, onion, and tomatoes into a glass, ceramic, or wooden bowl. Pour 3/4 cup of vinegar(s) over the mixture , then drizzle just a tad of the olive oil over. Stir it ever so slightly with a wooden spoon. Let it marinate for half an hour or an hour, and bon appetit!