Pickled Cucumber Salad is the traditional Danish side dish to everything from hamburgers, meatballs, and sandwiches to chicken and pork. It’s easy to make, healthy, and can stay fresh in the fridge for a week.
Pickled Cucumber Salad is one of those rare side dishes that go with almost anything. It’s perfect for a light summer picnic or lunch in the garden AND it’s great for heavy winter dinners while the snow is falling outside.
Because it’s so easy and inexpensive to make, you can always have a jar of Pickled Cucumber Salad in the fridge, ready for when you need a few pickles in your life (which will be often!)
How to make Pickled Cucumber Salad
It’s incredibly easy! The only tool you need is a mandoline slicer to get the cucumber and onion sliced thinly. You can also use a sharp knife, but the slices have to be very thin so you need to be careful not to cut yourself!
Put the sliced cucumber and onion in a bowl with a generous portion of chopped dill.
The marinade is a simple mix of white vinegar, unfiltered apple cider, and Stevia. The recipe traditionally calls for sugar but I don’t see any reason to add a lot of calories and carbs. Stevia works just as well.
You don’t need to heat the marinade. Just pour it over the cucumber, onion, and dill and gently mix everything.
Transfer the Pickled Cucumber Salad to mason jars (or any airtight container) and let it sit in the fridge for at least a few hours. It will get even better if you let the flavors combine overnight.
The longer you leave it in the fridge, the more intense the flavor becomes, but the cucumber slices will slowly become less “crisp”. It’s very much a personal preference whether you prefer a freshly pickled cucumber salad or one that has been in the fridge for a few days.
Because of the vinegar, the Pickled Cucumber Salad can easily stay fresh for a week in the fridge, as long as you make sure to always have enough liquid in the jar to cover the cucumbers.
Aside from being tasty, Pickled Cucumber Salad is basically calorie-free and has a ton of vitamin K, copper, potassium, manganese, vitamin C, phosphorus, magnesium, biotin, and vitamin B1.
It’s a great healthy alternative to store-bought pickles and condiments, which usually contain a lot of sugar or other preservatives.
Pickled Cucumber Salad is a great year-round side dish. If you are looking for something specific for the winter months, try the Braised Red Cabbage that most people in Denmark (myself included) make for Christmas.
Or you can go for this homemade coleslaw from our friend Denise at Easyanddelish.com
Pickled Cucumber Salad (Without Sugar)
Ingredients
- 1 large English cucumber
- ½ medium sized red onion
- 2 tbsp. dill
- 1 ⅔ cup (4 dl) white vinegar
- ½ cup (1.2 dl) unfiltered apple cider
- 1 tbsp. Stevia
Instructions
- Wash the cucumber. Remove the outer peel of the onion.
- Thinly slice the cucumber and onion using a mandolin slicer. You can also use a very sharp knife, but the slices need to be REALLY thin.
- Chop the dill.
- Place cucumber, onion, and dill in a big bowl.
- Mix vinegar, apple cider, and Stevia and pour over the vegetables. Mix well.
- Move the cucumber salad to a Mason jar or other tightly sealed container and place in the fridge.
- Leave in the fridge for a few hours or overnight before serving.
Nutrition Info Per Serving
Hi there…I wondering what you mean by “unfiltered apple cider”. Is that a fruit juice or a vinegar?
I’m hoping to serve this tomorrow night. Thank you. Vicki
Happy to clarify, I use the Apple Vinegar Cider. You can buy Apple Vinegar Cider in most supermarkets. The unfiltered ones still have some of the pulp so you’ll have to shake it before you use it.
Powdered stevia or liquid?
I use powdered but think liquid could work just as well
There is a step that you should not skip if you want crispy cucumbers. Salt your cucumbers in layers and let them sweat out their moisture for about a 1/2 an hour. Drain and rinse the cucumbers well and continue with the recipe. Also, I blanch my onions in boiling water for about 10 secs to remove the unpleasant bite. Then I marinate them overnight in beet juice. They make a nice pink addition to this salad. These onions are also great when served atop hummus.
If you really want to go whole hog, buy a Japanese pickle press. They are available on Amazon for a small price. You salt and press the pickles for about 1/2 an hour then rinse and use. They turn out just like the ones served in the Japanese restaurants.
Thank you for including how / when to eat the salad as well with the recipe! It’s helpful to get some personal backstory on the recipe before hearing how to make it. Definitely going to have to make this one at home, I love pickled cucumbers! Thanks for sharing!
Hope you enjoy them!