Tomato Cucumber Salad

Tomato Cucumber Salad is a light, refreshing, and simple salad which is certain to be a favorite when served on warm summer days. This Tomato Basil Cucumber Salad also includes red onions and a lemon garlic dressing. With only a few simple ingredients and minimal preparation, Basil Cucumber Tomato Salad comes together in minutes and it’s time well spent!

What We Love About This Recipe

• Colorful Dish and Fresh Flavors. This is a great recipe to serve when you want to impress your friends and family with your culinary skills. The colors alone will be sure to send heads turning around the dinning table. The flavors are wonderful, especially if you love tomatoes. The dressing is a perfect compliment to the dish; it’s made with fresh lemon juice, garlic, and cumin which really adds a nice pop of bright flavors.
• Easy to Make. This Tomato Cucumber Salad comes together in under fifteen minutes, even quicker if you aren’t fastidious when it comes to slicing your tomatoes perfectly.
• Healthy Ingredients. Tomato Basil Cucumber Salad is very healthy. Let’s take a look at some of the health benefits of the main ingredient, tomatoes. Tomatoes are loaded with vitamin C; in fact one tomato includes almost a third of the recommended daily intake. Tomatoes are also a rich source of lycopene, a red pigment found in high concentration in tomato skins. Studies suggest that lycopene is beneficial for heart health and lowering cholesterol. (1)(2)

How To Make Tomato Cucumber Salad

1. Soak red onion to remove bitterness. Place sliced red onions into a small bowl of cold water to soak for five minutes before adding them to the salad.
2. Make dressing. Pour all dressing ingredients into a mason jar, secure it with a lid, and shake well to fully combine.
3. Arrange salad ingredients on serving plate. Place heirloom tomato slices and baby heirloom tomatoes onto a serving plate. Sprinkle sliced red onion and basil leaves over the top of the tomatoes.
4. Add dressing and serve. Pour dressing over the top of the salad and serve with additional salt and pepper to taste.

Don’t forget to check out my recipe for Homemade Croutons to go with this salad recipe!

What Type Of Tomatoes Should I Use?

Any type of tomatoes can be used for this recipe. My goal for this recipe was to make it colorful and thus the heirloom tomato mixture. However, Roma tomatoes are one of my favorites as well. Feel free to use any type of tomato for this recipe.

What Type Of Cucumber Should I Use?

I personally love English cucumbers or Persian cucumbers. The texture of both is more crisp and crunchy, which I love. However, again, feel free to use any type of cucumber.

Can This Recipe Be Made In Advance?

It really depends on what type of tomatoes you’re using for this Tomato Cucumber Salad. If you’re using heirloom tomatoes which you plan on cutting thin, as I’ve done for this recipe, you may find they fall apart and don’t store well. However, if you’re using a sturdier tomato (such as Roma), cut into thicker slices, then this should be fine for storing. Cherry tomatoes also store well. If you plan on making this recipe in advance and storing it, I would recommend not adding the dressing or basil to the tomato, cucumber, onion mixture. However, you should add dressing and fresh basil at the time of serving.

Recipe Variations

While this Tomato Basil Cucumber Salad shouldn’t be modified too much since it’s pretty close to perfect, here are just a few suggestion you might consider.

• Use cherry tomatoes or Roma tomatoes instead of heirloom.
• Add in some almonds or sunflower seeds.
• Include some fresh slices of avocado.
• Use green onions instead of red onion.
• Add some greens like spinach or arugula.

More Easy Vegan Salad Recipes

• Shirazi Salad
• Mixed Berry Salad
• Cucumber Radish Salad
• Chopped Kale Salad
• Greek Quinoa Salad
• Vegan Macaroni Salad
• Southwest Quinoa Salad
• Taco Salad
• Kale Caesar Salad
• Vegan Caesar Dressing
• Jalapeno Ranch Dressing
• Vegan Ranch
• Mango Avocado Salad

Looking for more recipes? See our page for Vegan Salads.