Polish Cucumber Salad
on Sep 17, 2022, Updated Mar 21, 2024
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The most iconic and delicious 🥒 Polish Cucumber Salad is this creamy Mizeria salad. The word “mizeria” in Bulgarian means “misery” but this salad is the opposite of that. This salad is so creamy and refreshing and very similar to this Cucumber Salad. Mizeria is a salad that originated in Poland and consists of thinly sliced or grated cucumbers, often with sweet sour cream or kefir, and in some cases oil. Other possible ingredients you can use here include onions, sweet peppers, lemon juice, dill, chives, mint or parsley. I hope you give this recipe a try and I hope I made all my Polish friends proud with it. 🌿
Why You’ll Love Polish Cucumber Salad
This is hands down one of my favourite salads 🥗 and I know it will become one of yours, too! It’s so simple to prepare, literally takes minutes to make and comes together with just a few ingredients that you probably already have on hand. It’s a wonderfully fresh side dish that’s great for family BBQs or to bring along for a potluck.
How to Prepare Polish Cucumber Salad
💦 First, wash one large cucumber and pat it dry.
🔪 Now, slice the cucumber into super thin slices. You can use a sharp knife like I did or a mandolin. The thinner, the better.
🥣 Next, in a separate bowl, mix the sour cream together with the salt, chives, dill and vinegar.
🥒 Finally, toss in the cucumbers and enjoy!
Nonna’s Tip
Remember, the thinner the better when it comes to slicing up the cucumber for this Polish Cucumber Salad! You can use a sharp knife like I did, or a mandolin would work great to get super thin slices.
Variations and Substitutions for Polish Cucumber Salad
- Instead of sour cream, you can make this salad with yogurt or try a 50/50 mix of yogurt and sour cream to lighten it up.
- If you’re dairy-free, you could absolutely try a thick, dairy-free yogurt or sour cream here instead.
- To balance the flavours here, try adding in some cracked black pepper or even a traditional pinch of sugar.
- Instead of dill, you can also use parsley, or mint.
- If you don’t have chives, finely sliced green onions will also work.
More Cucumber Recipes
Creamy Cucumber Salad
10 mins
Cold Cucumber Soup
10 mins
Cucumber Boats
10 mins
Vegan Cucumber Rolls
10 mins
Best Served With
- You can enjoy this salad on the side of any main dish or 🍗 grilled meats like my Chicken Souvlaki Skewers.
- Serve this salad with a totally Polish meal featuring grilled sausages and a Borscht soup.
- Go completely vegetarian and serve this with 🍤 Grilled Shrimp Skewers or my Best Grilled Salmon Skewers.
Common Questions
Remember, the thinner the better when it comes to slicing up the cucumber for this Polish Cucumber Salad! You can use a sharp knife like I did, or a mandolin would work great to get super thin slices. You could even make this with grated cucumber. Overall, take your time, this should be therapeutic.
You can definitely make this dairy-free by swapping the sour cream for your favourite thick and creamy dairy-free yogurt or dairy-free sour cream.
I usually use red wine vinegar here, but you could absolutely use another acid. Instead, try a splash of white vinegar, white wine vinegar or even lemon juice.
Dill and chives are traditional, but you could use certainly use parsley, mint or green onion instead.
Since this salad is so simple, a good quality salt really shines. Everyone here knows I use Redmond Real Salt in all my cooking and I also sometimes add a pinch of cracked black pepper in this salad as well.
You can absolutely toss in thinly sliced bell peppers, or red onion which would also add great colour to the Polish Cucumber Salad.
Polish Cucumber Salad
Ingredients
- 1 cucumber , sliced very thin, or use a mandolin
- ⅓ cup sour cream, or as much as you like
- ¼ teaspoon salt , more or less to taste
- 1 tablespoons chives, finely chopped, more or less to taste
- 1 tablespoon dill, fresh, more or less to taste
- 1 tablespoon vinegar, I used red wine vinegar but you can use any
Instructions
- Wash one large cucumber, pat it dry and cut it into thin slices. You can use a sharp knife like I did or a mandolin. The thinner, the better.
- In a separate bowl mix the sour cream with the rest of the ingredients.
- Toss in the cucumbers and enjoy.
My Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
This was delicious!