Summertime means fresh ingredients straight from the home farm, and what better way to showcase fresh ingredients than a salad. This simple cucumber radish salad is tossed in a creamy dill dressing. In fact, this type of dressing for summer salads is popular where I live in Ukraine, and it’s very similar to an American ranch dressing. This cucumber radish salad, along with my watermelon mint salad, are two of my favorite summer salad recipes.
While I am using cucumbers and radishes for this salad, you can easily change it up and add some other veggies like broccoli or cherry tomatoes. This a really great salad to make in advance as well because the harder vegetables don’t wilt. I actually prepare this an hour before serving as I think the flavors meld together better.
The base of the creamy dill dressing is a mayonnaise and buttermilk mixture. Here in Ukraine we have kefir which is a fermented milk drink very similar to buttermilk and a fine substitute.
To make the cucumber radish salad dressing I just add some mayonnaise into a bowl and then thin it out with the kefir (buttermilk) until I get my desired consistency, around 3 tablespoons. Of course you can adjust for your desired consistency if you want it thicker or thinner. Then I add in 4 cloves of minced garlic, a teaspoon of hot mustard, salt, freshly cracked black pepper, and of course a LOT of dill. Cover and place in the fridge until needed.
For the cucumbers and radishes I slice them into rounds. The cucumbers I like to keep a bit thick, but the radishes I want as thin as possible. You can use a mandolin if you have it, or just use a knife if you are able to keep them thin.
When everything is ready you can just mix up the cucumbers and radishes in a bowl and drizzle in some of the creamy dill dressing. Garnish with some more fresh dill and serve! Here’s a great tip. Save all of the leftover dressing in the bottom of the bowl after everyone has finished the cucumbers and radishes. This makes a great marinade for chicken. Just add in some raw chicken, cover, and place in the fridge overnight. Voila, creamy ranch chicken!
Cucumber Radish Salad With Creamy Dill Dressing
Equipment
- Bowl
Ingredients
- 6 Persian Cucumbers or 1-2 English cucumbers, peeled and cut into rounds
- 12 Radishes more or less depending on the sizes, thinly sliced
- 1 cup Mayonnaise store bought or homemade
- 3 tbsp Buttermilk or Kefir if you can find it
- 1 bunch Dill fresh
- 1 tsp Hot Mustard
- 2 tsp Black Pepper freshly cracked
- 4 cloves Garlic minced
- 1 pinch Salt to taste
Instructions
- Make the dressing by combining all the ingredients (except the cucumber and radish) in a bowl. Mix together with a fork or whisk. You can add more buttermilk if you want to thin it out some more. I suggest adding the buttermilk one tbsp at a time in case you want it thicker than I like it.
- In a bowl place the cucumber and radish rounds and then drizzle over some of the creamy dill dressing. Give everything a good toss. Sprinkle on some more fresh dill for show and serve!
