Inspiration: As is often the case when I’m adding vegetables to my meals, my inspiration lies in wanting to make sure that any leftover fresh produce that I have doesn’t go to waste. Last night, I needed to use some cucumbers and carrots before they went bad. Cucumbers aren’t my favorite vegetable, but I really do love them coated in vinegar for a tart, crispy salad. Carrots aren’t my favorite vegetable either, but when making these carrot-flecked dinner rolls, I found that throwing them in the food processor until they are finely minced allows them to be added to recipes without really adding a lot of carrot flavor. So I made this salad with a couple of my not-so-favorite ingredients, and it ended up being one of my favorite salads that I’ve recently made.

What we Loved: This is a fairly simple recipe, but I’ll restate how much I love the flavor combination of cucumbers and vinegar. Coated in vinegar, the cucumbers are sour, fresh, and light, and they’re perfect for a side dish on a warm evening.  This salad is also a completely guilt-free dish, as I can’t think of many ingredients that are healthier and less caloric than cucumbers and carrots. One of my favorite things, too, was how pretty the salad looked with the green cucumbers, the orange carrots, and the red onions. This recipe would be a perfect and easy-to-make side dish for a summer barbeque.

Helpful Hints: There really aren’t a whole lot of routes to take when making a simple recipe like this that would lead you astray. My only suggestion is to use red onions instead of white or yellow, because they make for a pretty dish. I also used red wine vinegar, solely because I wanted the pink color. It collected in the bottom of the serving dish, and it looked nice to drizzle over the salad when serving.

Cucumber Carrot Salad
Source: Original Recipe

1 English cucumber, sliced
1 large carrot, peeled and roughly chopped
1/2 red onion, diced
Red wine vinegar
Kosher salt and black pepper
Dried dill

1. Add the carrot pieces to a food processor, and process until finely minced.

2. In a large bowl, add the cucumbers, carrots, and onions. Season to preference with salt, pepper, and dill. Pour a good portion of red wine vinegar over all of the ingredients (I like to use enough so that it pools in the bottom of the bowl), and mix well to combine.

3. Chill until ready to serve.