Cucumber Gherkin Salad

This salad combines all the things a salad should have: the crisp crunchyness of the fresh cucumber meets the tangy pungency of the pickled gherkin. Add to this the different gradations of the cheese flavour: Mozzarella with its creamy, mild taste but a certain smoothness and elasticity in the mouthfeel an on the other hand feta with its strongly aromatic, slightly pungent notes of sheep's milk and its crumbly structure. The dressing is based on creamy mayonnaisegets its irresistible fizziness from some pickling liquid. Fresh dill makes it extra aromatic.

I could eat a fresh cucumber salad on every occasion. Being not the biggest fan of leafy salads in fact a cucumber salad is my go-to solution every time I need a quick and easy low carb meal.

In fact, my aversion to lettuce dates back to my childhood. I can remember a few times where I was close to tears from having to choke on those large creeper-like leaves. They seemed to grow in my mouth, squirming and wrapping around my teeth the more I tried to control them. Not to mention those acidic salad dressings. But enough of that old stuff. As I am happily grown up i can whip up a vegetable based salad every time I have a craving for it.

Best ways to enjoy the Cucumber Gherkin Salad

A freshly sliced ​​cucumber is the base, which I combine with various types of protein - hard-boiled eggs, cheese or cold meat - and other vegetables.

In fact, I often eat this dish for breakfast. Another occasion is when I come home from work hungry and want to make a quick meal without cooking.

How long does this salad take to make?

This salad is easy to prepare and ready in no time. There is no need to marinate or prep the ingredients. All ingredients are processed directly without time-consuming preparation. You basically just slice the cucumbers and cheeses and toss everything together in a bowl. If you're in a hurry, you can even add all the ingredients for the dressing to the bowl with the salad ingredients and toss it all together.

Ingredients – here's what you need to make Cucumber Gherkin Salad

• Cucumber – you will need a fresh slicing cucumber. Freshness ist key here. I prefer to peel them, but if the skin is still thin and tender feel free to leave it on and prepare the cucumber as a whole. Same goes for the seeds. If they are tiny and soft, you can leave them in. But when the cucumber is more mature and the seeds are already getting a firm, tough covering, it is better to remove them. The best way to do this is to halve the cucumber lengthwise and scrape out the core with a teaspoon.
• Gherkins – you can take every kind of gherkins or pickled cucumbers which are available to you. The taste will differ depending on whether you use brined gherkins or dill pickles or cornichons. I am using Salzgurken which are cured in brine. The peculiar thing about them is that a lactic acid fermentation takes place – thus, it is a fermented food rather than just a pickle. So they bring all the goodness of fermented foods with them – probiotics as an array of different lactobacilli species. As far as I know, this way of preserving cucumbers is particularly widespread in Central Europe - I know particularly delicious brined gherkins from Poland.
• Pickling liquid - In addition to the salt, which is necessary to control the fermentation process, various herbs and spices are also added to the pickling liquid for the cucumbers. Essentially, these are whole grains of spice from the following: mustard seeds, dill seeds, pepper, allspice and coriander seeds but also garlic, onions and dill stalks. This mixture of spices makes the liquid so highly aromatic and perfect to use as an alternative to vinegar in all kinds of sauces and dressings. Thus I also added some of the pickling liquid here in this recipe to round off the taste.
• Feta cheese – This sort of cheese adds some salty brittle bite to the salad. What's not to love about feta? It really adds an aroma boost to any dish and is my go-to ingredient for every kind of vegetarian concoction.
• Mozzarella – whether melted or served cold, mozzarella adds scrumptious gooeyness to every dish. Its stringy properties come out best in the molten state. But it also cuts a fabulous figure as a salad ingredient. In any preparation, I prefer the firm, drier mozzarella used for grating to its fresh, watery counterpart, which is sold as balls soaked in water. Mozzarella belongs to the family of filata cheeses and its chewy properties derive from the particular way it is made, in which the curds are scalded in hot water and kneaded and stretched until they are soft, pliable and malleable.
• Mayonnaise - When it comes to this point, nothing beats fresh homemade mayonnaise. Here you know which ingredients were used and you can adapt them to your dietary guidelines.
• Mustard – use a medium hot to hot mustard. Dijon style mustard is best.
• Dill – as we are out of season here for fresh dill, I have used dill. but if you can get your hands on fresh dill, it's the preferred choice.

Substitutions and variations:

• Gherkins – instead of the extra tangy and salty brined gherkins, you can use some milder varieties of pickled cucumber or omit it altogether. As a variation on the theme of brineness, you could try some olives instead (TBO what an intriguing idea… i guess I'll try this out. Stay tuned for more!)
• Feta cheese - Real feta is made from sheep's milk. As a result, it has a fairly pronounced aromatic taste, which is not for everyone. If you don't like feta, go for a milder variety of feta style cheese from cow's milk or just omit it and double the amount of mozzarella instead.
• Mozzarella - you can trade the Mozzarella for any type of grated cheese. If you're dairy-intolerant or just don't want to eat dairy products, hard-boiled eggs would be a good choice to add a protein component to this salad
  Mustard - I prefer mustard made from finely ground mustard seeds. But a mix of coarse and fine mustards would also be great
• Dill - dill and cucumber are an unbeatable combination that always goes well. If you want to vary the herb variant in the dressing, I suggest you try it with chervil or tarragon

How to store:

This salad is a great option for meal prep because even the cucumber will keep its crunchyness for some time when marinated in the dressing. You can just assemble all the ingredients beforehand and keep the salad in an airtight container in the fridge until you are planning to eat it.