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.
CHRISTY,,
THE ALABAMA WHITE BBQ SAUCE RECIPE YOU GAVE US A FEW WEEKS AGO IS GREAT WITH THIS RECIPE — I JUST POUR IT OVER THE CUKES ,TOMATOES & ONIONS &&&&& WOW !!!!!
I will pass this one up, you see I am another one that hates onions. And after sitting for a hour or more the tomatoes and cukes pick up the taste of onions. So your mom might still complain.
You may NOT want to use Splenda in this (instead of sugar) as I now have two tupperware without lids, as the lids were broken by the pressure of the Splenda and vinegar in my Broccoli-Cauliflower salad. I’ve never had it happen when I use sugar, but can guarantee it can happen with Splenda.
Kaye-I was going to use Splenda, till I saw your post. What exactly happens please.
I used to keep this salad for a few weeks (single, no kids) in the frig with no problems whatsoever. I made it with Splenda once for a Thanksgiving thing at work, and 3 co-workers are diabetic and after 3 days, the lid to the tupperware was broken (still in one piece, but three or four big tears in the plastic). Well, I thought that was odd but really didn’t remember making it with Splenda at the time. I made it several more times (with sugar) and I can keep this at least 3 weeks in the frig. I made it again for an Easter thing at work with Splenda(for the co-workers) and it happened again. Four days after putting the salad in the frig, ANOTHER lid from Tupperware is in pieces. This salad only has mayo, vinegar, sugar (or splenda), bacon bits, onion, broccoli, shredded cheese and cauliflower in it and the only difference I’ve ever done is replacing the sugar with Splenda.
I suppose if you eat it up all in one meal, it won’t be a problem, but if you plan to store it, watch out!
Love this salad never knew it had a name. Cola cake is the best ever and your rice pudding is well worth the wait. I’m ging to try the Dixie Corn bread cuz I don’t like it sweet. Even though I’m a native Michigander I’ve been exposed to so much Southern cooking because of the influx of “Southerners” tothe auto plants during WWII. We made lots of Army vehicles at the GM truck plantt and planes at Willow Run. Oh yah I have a jar of bacon grease in the fridge at all times how ever can you make “raw fries” ( thinly sliced raw potatoes fried slow in castiron skillet with bacon grease,and don’t turn until bottom is crispy) LOOve this site.
Hi from New Zealand,
My dad use to make this particular salad when we were kids, but he used malt vinegar with white onions. He also used the same for marinating mussels, just opting out the cuccumbers. You can use it with fish, but you have to be daring to try it!
Now a fan of your recipes! lol
Wench.
My first date was to the Space and Rocket Center! I think I might be a nerd, or a native Huntsvillian.
Well,
After my foray with the Hoecake in the morning,
I decided this site is too good to pass up, So I went through the site looking for dishes to have with my BBQ pork shoulder and hoe cake.
I found the fire and Ice, and said YES!, so I looked in the pantry, and found no white vinegar,only apple cider vinegar. so i followed the directions made the “dressing” tasted it, and just about fell on the floor from such a strong and robust flavor, it was like all the summers as a kid had come back at one moment so refreshing.
Now I had to get this made up with the veggies..
off to the store, well thanks to this site I went to the store 4 times yesterday, but thats another story.
came home with all the supplies, chopped cut and stuck in the fridge. At party time, this came out,and was a hit with the crowd
besides the pork, hoecake, I made the basil corn, and the berry cobbler, lets just say, after last night I had closer friends 🙂
thanks southern plate.
Jason
in Oregon