Cucumber, Tomato and Radish Salad with Sour Cream
When I was little, I was sent to my grandmother’s village for the summer holidays. One of the most frequent dishes on the lunch table was a vegetable salad. The garden was big and they grew a lot of vegetables. Everything was straight from the bed, as they say: you just had to walk out and pick it. Young green cucumbers and ripe, colourful tomatoes are the base of the salad. Fresh radishes, young onion and lots of herbs are a pleasant variety. And of course homemade sour cream, which always has a special taste.
The ideal dressing for a vegetable salad is homemade sour cream. It is fattier than the shop-bought kind, but you need only a little in a salad. If you use shop-bought sour cream, try to buy a natural product with 10-15% fat from a well-known producer you trust. For a diet, it is perfectly fine to make the dressing from natural soured milk.
One important thing to keep in mind when making a vegetable salad is that the vegetables should be at room temperature. Then their taste and aroma open up fully, and the result will please and surprise you. I remember from childhood that the tastiest vegetables are the ones just picked from the bed, still slightly warm from the sun and with an amazing aroma.
Homemade vegetable salad dressed with homemade sour cream: amazingly simple and tasty.
Ingredients
2 servings
Step-by-step recipe
Vegetables
A salad of fresh young vegetables with sour cream is simple and luxurious at the same time. To make it as tasty and pleasing to the eye as possible, take ripe, colourful tomatoes and young green cucumbers. In early summer green onions start to form a bulb, and that is the best option: the combination of white and green parts gives a pleasant taste. Use radishes too, since their slightly sharp, characteristic taste goes very well with sour cream and the other vegetables. I love a lot of fresh dill in a vegetable salad.
Wash all the vegetables thoroughly and pat them dry with napkins, so there is no trace of moisture.
Cutting
As a rule, in home cooking all the vegetables are mixed and dressed before going to the table. It is easy to toss them right at lunch instead. Serve the salad as a platter, laying the vegetables out on a big plate, and add the sour cream just before mixing, right at the dining table. Served this way, the vegetables hardly release any juice.
The pieces should be roughly the same size. Cut the cucumbers, radishes and tomatoes alike.
Lay all the vegetables side by side on a plate. If you are using tomatoes of different colours, lay them separately.
Chop the green part of the onion finely and cut the white part into rings, then put them on the plate.
Roughly chop the dill sprigs with a knife, discarding the stems.
It looks very pretty to serve the salad on a big plate, with a small bowl of homemade sour cream in the centre and the vegetables and herbs arranged in sectors around it.
Serving
Salt the vegetables right before serving.
Then, at lunch, pour the homemade sour cream over the salad and toss.
Portion it onto plates, so put a spoon with the dish.
The salad is very tasty, and apart from salt it needs no spices at all. In my childhood at home we used only these vegetables. But if you like, you can add sweet pepper, parsley and basil, and it is very good with cilantro.
The salad is a self-sufficient appetizer that needs only bread. Still, we very often make it as a side dish for new potatoes. At the end of a hard working day there is often no strength to cook anything complicated, and a vegetable salad is perfect for dinner.
Calories and macros
125 kcal
Serving ≈ 380 g
- Protein4 g12% of kcal
- Fat7 g53% of kcal
- Carbs11 g35% of kcal
100 g33 kcalProtein 0.9 gFat 1.9 gCarbs 2.8 g
Calculated from the recipe ingredients, excluding salt and spices. Data: USDA and Matvaretabellen.
To Get It Right
Which sour cream to use
Homemade is best: it is fattier than shop-bought, but you need only a little in a salad. If you buy it, choose a natural product with 10–15% fat from a producer you trust.
Vegetables at room temperature
Not straight from the fridge: that way their taste and aroma open up fully. The tastiest ones are just picked from the bed, still warm from the sun.
To keep the salad from going watery
- Pat the vegetables completely dry with napkins after washing.
- Salt them right before serving.
- Add the sour cream at the table, just before tossing: serve the salad as a platter with the sour cream in a small bowl.
Have your own trick for this recipe?
Vegetable chopper with handleAliExpress
Adjustable mandoline slicerAliExpress
Peeler with wooden handleAliExpress
Pull chopper for garlic and onionAliExpress
Oil sprayerAliExpress
Kitchen scale up to 5 kgAliExpressQuestions and answers
What can I use instead of sour cream in a vegetable salad?
Natural soured milk. This dressing is lighter and perfectly fine for a diet.
How many calories are in a vegetable salad with sour cream?
About 30 kcal per 100 g. The vegetables add almost no calories, and you need only 2–3 tbsp of sour cream (30–45 g) for two servings.
Can I make the salad with just cucumbers and tomatoes?
Yes: young cucumbers and ripe tomatoes are the base of the salad. Radishes, young onion and herbs add pleasant variety, but it is tasty without them too.
Can I add cheese to a vegetable salad?
You can, but that is a different recipe: a vegetable salad with cheese.
Is a salad with sour cream good for dinner?
Yes. It takes 15 minutes to make and needs only bread, or new potatoes if you want something more filling.