Creamy Cucumber Salad with Sour Cream

Grandma’s Creamy Cucumber Salad Recipe with Sour Cream made with sliced cucumbers in a simple creamy dressing is the perfect side dish for summer. Serve this delicious side salad with beef, pork, chicken or seafood for the perfect complement to any meal.

When I was growing up, this sour cream cucumber salad was on the table very frequently during the summer months. Sometimes, my mom would make it and sometimes my grandmother would, but either way, it was always cool, creamy and completely delicious.

We had cucumber sour cream salad, or Mizeria, as Grandma called it, with ribs, steaks, onion soup burgers, grilled Italian Dressing Chicken and Polish breaded pork chops. That’s the great thing about this easy side salad — it goes well with pretty much anything. And, you can make it in just a few minutes.

Now personally, I like the taste of cucumbers, and it doesn’t matter how they’re prepared. I can eat them plain — well, with a little bit of sea salt. I also think the cukes add some awesome crunch to tossed salads, and I love them with a bit of vinegar and olive oil. And pickles? Wonderful! 

Ingredients

You only need 6 ingredients for this old fashioned creamy sour cream cucumber salad.  It’s made with sour cream, no mayo — and without dill. I love cucumber dill dip, and dill dip but I don’t like dill in cucumber salad!

• Cucumbers — use regular cucumbers or English cucumbers
• Sour cream — I use Daisy brand
• Vinegar — use white vinegar or apple cider vinegar
• Sugar
• Sea salt and black pepper

What you don’t already have at home should be easy to find online or at your local grocery store.

How to Make Creamy Cucumber Salad Recipe with Sour Cream

First, you peel the cucumbers and slice them nice and thin. If you’re using English cucumbers, hot house cucumbers or Persian cucumbers, you don’t need to peel them.

I usually peel the cucumbers anyway, no matter what kind I have.

You can use a mandolin slicer if you prefer. I don’t, since I personally don’t like super thin cucumbers in this salad.

Then, you sprinkle a little bit of sea salt and pepper over the cukes. You can use regular salt if you want, but I love sea salt, especially pink Himalayan salt, so that’s what I use. My kids love helping out with the seasoning, so I usually let them do this part.

Note — Cucumbers have a high water content. Many recipes call for salting the cucumbers to remove extra water before adding the sour cream. If you’re eating the salad right away, you don’t have to do this. My mom and grandma never did, so I skip this part.

However, if you want to make the salad ahead of time this step prevents the salad from becoming too watery as it sits. Just salt the cucumbers, allow them to drain in a colander, then rinse, and stir in the dressing.

Then, mix the sour cream, vinegar and sugar in a separate bowl until creamy.

After that, you just stir the tangy sour cream dressing with the cucumbers, and you’re done!

We never add onions to our cucumber salad, but you can add thinly sliced red or yellow onions if you like.

This quick and easy cucumber salad has been around forever, but you all know by now that I have a huge soft spot for classic retro recipes. 

I like to serve them every now and then just so that my kids can taste the dishes that their parents and grandparents grew up with, and in this case, I also just love how it tastes.

How easy is this?! Anyone else grow up with this creamy cucumber salad? I’ve seen some recipes that call for dill, which sounds good too, but that’s not how my mom and grandma made it.

How to Store

Store leftovers in an airtight container or tightly covered with plastic wrap in the refrigerator. Cucumbers release a lot of excess water, so leftover salad may get runny even if you salt the cucumbers, as I mentioned above.

Just drain the excess liquid before serving.

Variations

There are a couple ways to customize this creamy cucumber recipe.

Add your favorite seasonings to the salad. Besides, black pepper and sea salt, garlic powder, onion powder, and paprika are all great options.

You can sub Greek yogurt for the sour cream.

Another great way to get some variety is to use a combination of cucumbers. Mix large cucumbers and smaller cucumbers for some texture difference, or use different cucumber types.

Add thin slices of red onion, green onions, and yellow onions for a delicious cucumber onion salad. Fresh dill weed also pairs well with fresh cucumbers — if you like dill.

If you’re looking for more summer side salads, try Easy Three Bean Salad, Instant Pot Potato Salad, Cucumber Tomato Salad or visit my salad recipes for more inspiration!

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Recipe first published in 2016 and updated in 2022