Tomato, Onion, and Cucumber Salad
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A Southern staple at barbecues, family gatherings, and reunions, we love the juicy and refreshing experience of eating this fresh tomato, onion, and cucumber salad!
If I had to describe the flavor of this salad in one word, I’d say refreshing. This is the embodiment of everything a body craves on a hot summer’s day. Well, everything a body craves that doesn’t come with a little paper umbrella in the glass! This simple and easy tomato, onion, and cucumber salad recipe features juicy chunks, slices, and tossed in a delicious vinegar and sugar dressing.
I recommend making this colorfully crisp and tangy summer salad in advance to let it fully marinate in the dressing. Then serve it at your next summer gathering and prepare to win over your friends and family! You can also have fun with this salad and add some interesting additions, which I mention in the Recipe Notes section below.
Recipe Ingredients
- Two freshly ripe tomatoes (can be whatever you have on hand – heirloom tomatoes, grape tomatoes…)
- Two cucumber
- One purple or red onion (or , the choice is yours)
- Sugar
- Water, and…
- White vinegar. Go for the cheap kind here, make me proud!
Cut up your tomatoes.
You can cut the in chunks, slices, or dice them. I’m doing chunks because it’s pretty that way.
Peel and cut your . However, if you prefer you can also skip peeling your .
Cut up your onion.
I slice mine and then cut the slices in half, still leaving pretty big pieces.
This way, those of you who don’t care for the raw onions can pick them out easily enough.
Dump all of that into a bowl. You can also opt to sprinkle these vegetables with and right now before adding the dressing.
Now we have to make our dressing.
For this, all we are going to do is combine equal parts water, vinegar, and sugar and stir it up.
I start with 1/2 cup of each but you can do more if you like. I wouldn’t do any less though.
This is me adding my sugar to the vinegar and water mixture.
Stir that up good.
Recipe Tip
Don’t worry if your sugar isn’t dissolved all of the way because we’re going to let all of this marinate in the fridge for a spell before we eat.
Pour this over your veggies and stir.
Cover and place in the refrigerator for a few hours before serving.
It will make more juice but I like to go give it a good stir after an hour or so.
Save some for me!
Storage
Store this tomato, onion, and cucumber salad in an airtight container in the fridge for up to five days.
Recipe Notes
- If you like, add some fresh herbs to your salad. Dried or and oregano will give this salad recipe a Mediterranean feel, while I also like sprinkling fresh dill or parsley on top.
- Other fun additions to make to this salad include crumbled feta cheese, chunks of avocado, bell pepper chunks, and mozzarella balls.
- Instead of white vinegar, you could also use either red wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar. If you’re going for a Mediterranean-inspired , you can opt for too.
- Another option is using halves instead of chunks.
Recipe FAQs
What do you serve with tomato, onion, and cucumber salad?
Serve this refreshing salad with any grilled or barbecued meat and a side of crusty bread. My suggestions include grilled chicken tenderloins, pork chops, or slow-roasted beef brisket.
Can you make this salad ahead of time?
Yes, I recommend refrigerating the salad for a few hours before serving to let the vinegar sink into the vegetables. So you could definitely make this in advance the night before.
You may also like these other sensational salad recipes:
Cucumber Salad Creamy and Delicious
Fresh Fruit Salad with Lemon Honey Dressing
Low Carb Broccoli Cauliflower Salad
Ingredients
- 2 tomatoes
- 2 cucumbers
- 1 purple or red onion
- water
- white vinegar
- sugar
Instructions
- Peel and slice cucumbers, and chop tomatoes and red onion. Combine all in a large bowl.2 tomatoes, 2 cucumbers, 1 purple or red onion
- Mix up a dressing of equal parts vinegar, water, and sugar. I start with 1/2 cup each of my dressing ingredients.water, white vinegar, sugar
- Pour the vinegar dressing over the vegetables and refrigerate (ideally overnight).
Be more concerned about your character than your reputation because your character is who you are and your reputation is just what others THINK of you.
~Submitted my Southern Plate Reader, Emily. To submit your quote, and make someone’s day a little brighter, click here.
Oh my goodness, I have been reading and using your recipe’s for 2 years now. I always knew you sounded southern, and something about your cooking seemed so much “down-home southern” as mine is. Well now I see why! Your from Huntsville, AL and I live in Guntersville, AL..small world..
Thank you for the recipes, we need to swap recipes sometime, I cook an amazing southern casserole I perfected myself:) Its called hashbrown casserole (better than cracker barrels;)
Thanks
Michelle
I’ve had “Tomato Stuff” all my life. Instead of cucumber, it hot “pod” pepper. And instead of be a salad, it goes on top of fresh peas and bean from the garden. There would even be more onion on the side. We eat raw onion with everything!
This does look good. I have had something similar before and it was great. Just need some good burgers and brats to go with it… Yumm…
Christy, thank you sooo much for this recipe. The first time I made it, even my youngest raved about it.
We recently went camping w/some friends & I decided to make this to take along. Well, as you know there’s always something you forgot at the store; I forgot white vinegar, so I used apple cider vinegar instead. Not only did my guys like it better (they like spicy/tangy), but our friends loved it as well. As a matter of fact, they kept the leftovers!
My mom and dad make this except we don’t call it fire and ice we call it cucumber and onions. They don’t put tomatoes in it! I don’t like raw onions so I just eat the cucumbers I looooooove it tho!
Two things:
1. I love the U.S. Space and Rocket Center! My class went there on a field trip when I was in the 6th grade.
2. I grew up in Atlanta, and now live in L.A., and I agree it’s so weird to walk into a drugstore and see shelves of hard liquor!! Granted, my Kroger at home always had a beer and wine section, but still!
I made this same salad when I was pregnant with my daughter. All. The. Time. Except I used balsamic vinigarette dressing for the marinade. I could have supported Paul Newmans favorite charity by myself for all the salad dressing I bought!
Your sugar/water/vinegar combo sounds intriguing. I may try it. Sadly, my family (esp hubby) doesn’t like cukes. He thinks I should make it with zucchini…blech. I do NOT think it would turn out the same at all!!