This easy Marinated Cucumber Salad with red onions is made with eight simple ingredients in under ten minutes, making it easy to prepare anytime. It is the perfect summer side dish for grilled chicken, grilled fish, and ribs.
Celebrate the season by whipping up a batch of these Marinated Cucumbers and Red Onions to go along with your grilled burgers or brats. They are amazingly easy and lip-smacking good!
How to make Marinated Cucumber Salad
Start by slicing the cucumbers and red onions thinly with a sharp knife. Now in a large wide-mouthed mason jar, add the cider vinegar, olive oil, sugar, water, salt, black pepper, and celery seed and shake to combine. Add the sliced cucumbers and red onions to the vinegar mixture. You can also add the cucumbers and red onions to a large bowl. Then pour the vinegar mixture over them and toss to coat. Refrigerate for one hour up to overnight.
Recipe Notes and Tips
- Use English cucumbers for tender skins that don’t need peeling. If using regular cucumbers, peel them to remove the thick skins.
- This cucumber salad is best eaten within the first 24 hours while the cucumbers and onions are still a little crisp. Use a mandoline slicer for uniform-size cucumbers.
- Enjoy this recipe made with other kinds of vinegar like red wine vinegar, rice vinegar, champagne vinegar, white vinegar, or white wine vinegar.
- Other vegetables to add include cherry tomatoes, green bell pepper, red bell pepper, or jalapenos.
- Try adding fresh herbs like fresh dill, basil, cilantro, or thyme.
- Celery seed is a delicious addition to this salad but optional. If it is in your pantry, and you like celery, use it.
- Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. The cukes and onions will not remain as crisp, but the salad will still be delicious.
Do I peel the cucumbers?
If using English cucumbers, there is no need to peel them as they have thin skins. Regular, also known as American slicing cucumbers or Persian cucumbers, however, have thick skins that should be peeled or at least partially peeled, so alternate peeled and unpeeled stripes.
What vinegars can I use for marinated cucumbers?
I really love apple cider vinegar with these cucumbers, but you can also use red wine vinegar, rice vinegar, white wine vinegar, and champagne vinegar. Each one will yield a slightly different flavor, but the marinated cucumber salad will still be delicious.
Other salad recipes to try
Marinated Cucumber Salad Recipe
This easy Marinated Cucumber Salad is the perfect side dish for BBQs, picnics, and potlucks. Enjoy it with hot dogs, burgers, grilled chicken, or grilled pork steaks.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 10 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings
- Category: side dish
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 1 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ½ cup sugar
- ½ cup cool water
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
- ½ teaspoon celery seed (optional)
- 2 English cucumbers thinly sliced (see notes)
- ½ red onion thinly sliced
Instructions
- Add the cider vinegar, olive oil, sugar, water, salt, black pepper, and celery seed in a large, wide-mouthed mason jar, and shake to combine.
- Add the cucumbers and red onions to the jar. Refrigerate for one hour up to overnight.
Notes
- Use English cucumbers for tender skins that don’t need peeling. If using regular cucumbers, peel them to remove the thick skins.
- This cucumber salad is best eaten within the first 24 hours while the cucumbers and onions are still a little crisp.
- Enjoy this recipe made with other kinds of vinegar like red wine vinegar, rice vinegar, champagne vinegar, white vinegar, or white wine vinegar.
- Other vegetables to add include tomatoes, green bell pepper, red bell pepper, or jalapenos.
- Try adding fresh herbs like dill, basil, cilantro, or thyme.
- Celery seed is a delicious addition to this salad but optional. If it is in your pantry, and you like celery, use it.
- Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. The cukes and onions will not remain as crisp, but the salad will still be delicious.
Keywords: marinated cucumbers, how to make marinated cucumber salad, cucumber marinade, cucumber salad marinade
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Sandy
Could you skip the sugar?
Beth Pierce
Yes you certainly can.
Catalina
I love cucumbers and this salad is exactly what I need for dinner tonight!
★★★★★
Sandra
We enjoy this with almost everything!! It is so good! Perfect side dish!
★★★★★
Beti
This is fantastic!! One of my favorites cucumber recipes.★★★★★
katerina
This is my favorite cucumber recipe. So easy, crisp, and delicious.
★★★★★
Allyson Zea
My mom always used to make something similar while I was growing up, I can’t wait to try your recipe!
★★★★★
Beth Pierce
Thanks, Allyson!
Erin
My favorite way to eat cucumbers. Delicious every time!
Amanda
This looks right up my alley. I have plenty of empty mason jars too!
Beth Pierce
Thanks, Amanda! Enjoy!
Melanie
This is such a quick and easy salad. My daughter loved it!
★★★★★
Marysa
Oh wow does this look delicious! I will have to make some of these. I love fresh cucumbers in the summer, so I’ll have to save your recipe.
Monidipa Dutta
I just stumbled upon your recipe for marinated cucumber salad, and I must say, my taste buds are watering just looking at the pictures! Can’t wait to try it out in my kitchen!
★★★★★
Celebrate Woman Today
I love marinated recipes. I grew up with them. I will attempt your recipe in my kitchen to share the taste of all things marinated!
Marie Cris Angeles
I love cucumber with vinegar but never tried with onion. I will try this recipe to know what the taste of cucumber with onion and vinegar.
Lavanda of Appetizers & Entrees
I love cucumbers and red onions, It looks delicious and I can’t wait to give it a try.
Lisa
Yum!My mouth was watering while reading the recipe ha ha, wanna try this!!
Robert Gatesh
Ditch the olive oil and add a few red pepper flakes. It cuts the calories, adds a little kick and lasts for weeks in the refrigerator – if you don’t eat it all the first few days.
★★★★
Donna Zelias
How long is it recommended to refrigerate before they are ready ? I see the one comment it only is good for 3 days so are they ready in 24hrs ?
Beth Pierce
Marinate for about one hour. They are good for longer than 3 days they just will not be as crisp.
Esther
Add bay leaves… The crispiness will be maintained. I had them in the fridge for 4 weeks and they were still crispy
Cheryl Greninger
I wonder about the olive oil being refrigerated. Doesn’t it just solidify?
Beth Pierce
No it does not.
Brian
There’s only 1 tbsp of oil – it’s diluted far too much to solidify.
Nadine
I made this recipe today. it looks so yummy. I can’t wait to try them!
Beth Pierce
Thanks Nadine! I sure hope you enjoy them!!
Teodora Grujic
Very nice! This is on my list to make next weekend! Thank you for sharing!
★★★★★
Anjali
This simple side turned out to be so good! We served it alongside a bigger spread for dinner last night and it complemented the main dishes perfectly!
★★★★★
Alejandra
What an easy, simple but tasty recipe! These really would taste so good on a freshly grilled burger, can’t wait to try them!
★★★★★
Tara
Oh yum! These sound fantastic! Definitely the perfect addition to hot dogs and burgers. Love those flavors.
★★★★★
Emily Flint
Marinated veggies are my guy’s favorite and I know he is going to love these. This is also a great way to use up all of those cucumbers in the garden!
★★★★★
Elizabeth
Made 4 jars for family members! Hope they like them….
★★★★★
Roxanne
When the jar is empty can I just add more cucumbers and onions to the same liquid?
Joanne
A way to omit the sugar and it still taste good? Diabetic alternatives?
Beth Pierce
Let’s see if the readers have any suggestions.
Vicky
I’ve used a sugar substitute in other recipes similar to this.
Rita
Monk sugar is a great substitute and it taste just like sugar!!
Joni
I just made it using Monkfruit sweetener instead of sugar. Should be just as good!
Esther
If you use raw Apple Cider vinegar which has the mother, the sugar will be fermented away in a few days. Add bay leaves to maintain crispiness and enjoy it for weeks. It’ll become more sour as the sugar gets used up, but it’ll still be delicious.
Dorthell McAlpine
These are INCREDIBLE! A friend gave me a lot of red onions, I used English cucumbers. My husband loves them too
★★★★★
Beth Pierce
Thanks so much! So glad that hubby liked them!
Mary M
Really want to make this but need to ask before I do = about the 1 cup of vinegar and 1 tbsp olive oil ratio – is this correct? How long can leftovers be refrigerated? Thank you for a great side dish.
Beth Pierce
Yes it is! They are delicious just like that but if you want you can add a little more olive oil. You can store leftovers up to 3 days.
Lynn
Why only 3 days in refrigerator, isn’t it the same as pickles ?
Beth Pierce
They last longer than that but they start to soften and do not have that crispness to them. Pickles are usually sliced thicker and generally speaking they go through the canning process that preserves them.