Cucumber Tomato and Sweet Onion Salad With Italian Dressing

The Summer Salad I Have Been Craving

Sometimes you don’t realize you’ve been craving something until you finally eat it.

We were having some friends over for steak, and earlier in the day we had gone to one of our local flea markets. One of my favorite things about these markets in the summer is that there are farm stands everywhere. You can find gorgeous tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, herbs and some of the most beautiful flower arrangements.

I came home with tomatoes, mini cucumbers and one enormous sweet onion, and immediately knew exactly what I wanted to make.

A very simple cucumber, tomato and onion salad.

Nothing revolutionary. Nothing fancy. Just one of those old-fashioned summer salads that tastes approximately 4,000 times better when the vegetables actually taste like vegetables.

I recently learned more about something I had noticed for years at farmers markets throughout this part of the Midwest. Many of the growers selling beautiful vegetables, herbs and flowers at these markets are Hmong farmers.

History Of The Hmong

Hmong refugees began resettling in the Upper Midwest in the mid-1970s following the wars in Southeast Asia. Many Hmong people had lived in Laos, where agriculture and growing food were deeply rooted parts of everyday life. After the United States withdrew from the region, many fled Laos, with some spending years in refugee camps in Thailand before eventually resettling in the United States. Wisconsin’s first Hmong refugee families arrived in 1976.

I was told that farming became one way some Hmong families established themselves in their new communities. In Minnesota, there were programs began working with Southeast Asian refugee families in the early 1980s to help them adapt their farming knowledge to Midwestern growing conditions and markets. This is why you see Hmong farmers at farmers markets throughout Minnesota and Wisconsin.

That tradition continues today. Wisconsin Extension provides small-farm resources and programming in both Hmong and English, and Hmong growers continue to be an important part of the local food system. I work a lot with the Wisconsin agricultural community through my work with the Wisconsin Maple Syrup Producers Association so I am always happy to learn more about Wisconsin agriculture.

One thing I always notice in addition to the produce is the flowers. The arrangements at these stands are absolutely gorgeous. I can go to the market telling myself I am there for a cucumber and somehow leave carrying vegetables, onions and a bouquet approximately the size of my head!

Let’s Talk About These Onions

The vegetable that really inspired this particular salad was the onion.

I cannot properly express to you how good these onions are.

They are sweet onions, but even calling them a sweet onion doesn’t quite describe them. You can bite into a piece raw and it is crisp, juicy, slightly sweet and savory. The texture almost reminds me of biting into an apple.

This is completely different from my recent onion experiences at the grocery store.

I will buy a bag of six or eight onions, get them home and discover that half are already rotten somewhere inside. The ones that aren’t rotten can be so pungent that my eyes are pouring before I’ve finished cutting one. Sometimes the flavor is so aggressive that it takes over whatever I am cooking.

I’ve actually stopped putting onions in a few recipes where I used to always use them because I’ve been so disappointed in them.

It has been an awful onion experience.

Why Are Some Onions Sweet and Others So Pungent?

There really is science behind this.

An onion’s pungency is largely connected to sulfur compounds. When you cut into an onion, you damage its cells and trigger chemical reactions that create the volatile compounds responsible for that sharp onion aroma, flavor and, of course, the crying. Many different things can alter an onions flavor. Variety, growing conditions, maturity and storage can all influence the final eating quality of an onion.

Another interesting thing about onions is that if your knife is dull, you will also damage the cells more and your onion will make you cry more!

Sweet onions are varieties selected and grown for a milder flavor.

So while I can’t tell you exactly what variety my market growers are planting without asking them, I can tell you that these fresh sweet onions are in another universe from some of the onions I’ve been bringing home from the grocery store.

Next time I go, I’m asking what they’re called. I wish I had a cellar to store a ton of these in!

Fresh Vegetables Don’t Need Much Help

The tomatoes I bought were equally beautiful. They were big beefsteak-style tomatoes that were perfectly ripe but still slightly dense.

That’s what you want for this recipe.

You don’t want a hard, underripe tomato, but you also don’t want one so ripe that it disintegrates when you cut it. The tomatoes need to survive several hours sitting in dressing.

I don’t seed them, either.

Those tomato juices become part of the salad. As everything sits, the tomato juice combines with the Italian dressing, onions and cucumbers and makes this incredible liquid at the bottom of the bowl.

The Easy Italian Dressing

The dressing is my little shortcut.

I use two packets of Good Seasons Italian dressing mix, but there is an important distinction here: I only make ONE packet according to the package directions.

For that packet, I use rice vinegar instead of the suggested vinegar and avocado oil instead of a heavier or strongly flavored oil.

Then I add the entire second packet of dry seasoning to that prepared dressing.

This gives you a much more flavorful dressing without adding another full batch of oil, vinegar and water.

I also add dried dill and plenty of black pepper.

The resulting dressing is tangy, herby and highly seasoned, which is exactly what you need because the vegetables are going to release quite a bit of liquid while they sit.

Why You Should Make This Salad Ahead

This is not really a mix-it-and-immediately-eat-it salad.

You can. Nobody is going to arrest you.

But you’re missing the best part.

Give it at least four hours in the refrigerator.

During that time, the onions soften slightly while still keeping their crunch, the cucumbers absorb the seasoning, and the tomatoes release their juices into the dressing.

The entire thing becomes one big bowl of summer.

It’s even better the next day.

That also makes this an excellent recipe when you’re having people over. I made mine earlier in the day, put it in the refrigerator and didn’t have to think about the side dish again when it was time to make the steaks.

Don’t Add More Salt Too Soon

This is probably my most important tip for this recipe.

When you first toss everything together, taste it if you want, but do not immediately start dumping more salt into the bowl because you think it needs it.

Let the salad sit.

The Italian dressing mix already contains salt and seasoning, and as the vegetables sit and release moisture, the flavor of the entire salad changes.

I prefer to wait until right before serving, toss everything again, taste it and THEN decide whether it needs more salt.

This also keeps you from over-salting vegetables that are going to continue releasing water as they sit.

What To Serve With Cucumber Tomato and Onion Salad

I originally made this to go alongside steaks, and it was exactly what I wanted with a rich piece of beef. The cold, tangy vegetables balance a heavier grilled dinner really well.

It would also be great with grilled chicken, pork chops, burgers, brats, Italian sausage, barbecue chicken or ribs. I also think it belongs on just about every summer buffet where there are grilled meats, potato salad and corn on the cob involved.

And if there is some of this left the next day?

Put a big spoonful next to a sandwich for lunch and call it a day.

Tips For The Best Cucumber Tomato and Onion Salad

• Use the best vegetables you can find. There are very few ingredients here, so you will taste the difference.
• Choose ripe but firm tomatoes. You want juicy tomatoes that will still hold their shape after marinating.
• Don’t seed your tomatoes. Their juices add flavor to the dressing.
• Use mini cucumbers if possible. They stay beautifully crisp and don’t usually require peeling or seeding.
• Use a genuinely mild sweet onion. This is a raw onion salad, so this isn’t the place for an aggressively pungent onion.
• Make it at least four hours ahead. The waiting is part of the recipe.
• Wait before adding additional salt. Taste and adjust shortly before serving.
• Save the leftovers. The salad is fantastic the next day.

A Simple Summer Salad Worth Making

The funny thing about this recipe is that the vegetables were so good that I probably could have put them in a bowl without any dressing at all and happily eaten them.

That’s what I love about this time of year.

When tomatoes actually taste like tomatoes, cucumbers are crisp and juicy, and you find an onion so good that you’re standing in your kitchen eating pieces of it raw like it’s an apple, you really don’t need to do much.

A little tangy Italian dressing, dill and black pepper just bring everything together.

And now I have another problem.

I need to go back to the market and buy about twelve more of those onions.