Tomato, Onion, and Cucumber Salad
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).
Video
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.
I love salads like this! In fact I like a sandwich made of bread, butter and sliced onions,yum! Sometimes I make one using sliced radish instead of onion, try it, you will like it!
I made this for a cookout last weekend and got so many compliments! Everyone loved how “simple” it was–you can taste the cucumbers and tomatoes, and the dressing just enhances their natural taste. Led to lots of good stories about how people used to eat their parents’ cucumbers and tomatoes out of the garden.
I am so glad to hear it was a hit with everyone!!!
I grow the tomatoes and cucumbers in my garden every year and add the onion but I have been throughing Newman’s on it. I will try this next time it all grows. Thanks. And I like the idea of making the piece big but to pick out the tomato’s not the onions.
I love this salad! My grandma always added a little hot pepper or banana pepper, hence the name “fire and ice”. So yummy, want some now! 🙂
I made this and LOVED it! Thanks for sharing. I also did some tweaking and added apple cider vinegar in place of some of the vinegar, and added apples to it. I posted my tweaked version on my blog, but also put a link to your original recipe up on my blog as well. 🙂
I make this all sumer long, but just put seasoned salt on mine. We call it Thunder and Lightning. Can’t wait to try your dressing on it.
Thanks for all the great recipes!
So funny you posted this. I was dying to make this to eat with our New Year’s Day meal. I thought it would be smart to go ahead and cut up the veggies the night before. I also poured vinegar over them. LOL Oh my goodness, it was so strong and soggy. (I didn’t know to add water and added very little sugar) Needless to say, it would have choked a horse. I ate it anyway because I had been wanting it. But, I will make it again soon. (The right way)
Christy I just love you girl! I first saw you on Paula Deen and it wasn’t 5 minutes and I was online buying your cookbook. I love it! I don’t know what I like best, the stories,the recipe’s or your dishes!! I have the orange and yellow ‘sunshine’ pyrex it was my mom’s ,maybe 40 years old it means a lot to me.You are making this fire and ice recipe on the dishes I use every day. And I love jadeite!!! You are such a pretty, sweet, christian girl. Keep up the good work. Good luck.God bless.