This Mediterranean Tomato and Cucumber Salad combines tomatoes, cucumbers, olives, and feta cheese with a red wine vinaigrette.
It sounds simple, but in my over 10 years as a personal chef, this summery salad was one of my top client requests. It’s the perfect side dish to anything on the grill, and makes a fantastic veggie-packed buffet table salad for anything from a backyard BBQ to a bridal shower. In addition to tips for making this salad juicy but not soggy, I’ll show you how to make homemade seasoned pita chips that are miles better than store-bought!
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Why You'll Love This Cucumber Tomato Salad
- Makes the Most of Summer Produce: no better use for ripe cherry tomatoes and cucumbers!
- Easy to Make: This recipe includes a simple vinaigrette, and just a few vegetables to chop.
- So Versatile: Try this cucumber tomato salad for lunch or dinner. Works as a side dish and also as a vegetarian main course, especially if you make the pita chips to go with it!
Ingredients for Mediterranean Cucumber Salad
- Cherry Tomatoes: Use any type/color of cherry tomatoes you like. You could also replace with a full-sized tomato, cut into chunks, though I find that cherry tomatoes keep their shape better.
- Cucumbers: Seedless cucumbers that you don’t need to peel are the way to go here. I love the baby cucumbers you can find in stores or farmers’ markets, but English cucumbers work too.
- Red Onion: Red onion is traditional, but you could replace this with a sweet onion like Vidalia or a mild onion like a white onion. Or try scallions for a slightly different flavor and texture.
- Kalamata Olives: These olives are traditional in a Mediterranean salad, and taste delicious next to the rest of the ingredients. But you can feel free to change it up with whatever olives you prefer.
- Red Wine Vinegar: Feel free to replace this with white wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar if you don’t have red wine vinegar. You could also try freshly squeezed lemon juice.
- Olive Oil: Choose a good-quality extra virgin olive oil if you have it!
- Ground Sumac: This is a Middle Eastern spice that adds color and tanginess to your recipe. You can absolutely leave it out, but if you do have some on-hand, I love using it to make pita chips!
How to Make Cucumber and Tomato Salad
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. To make the pita toasts, cut a pita bread pocket in half, then cut each half into 5 or 6 triangles. I like to use multi-grain pita in this recipe, for more nutritional value. Repeat with another pita pocket.
Line a sheet pan with parchment paper. Tear each pita triangle in half where the bread connects. Spread out the triangles on the sheet pan with the inside of the pita face up.
In a small bowl, combine 2 tablespoons olive oil, ½ teaspoon salt, and ½ teaspoon ground sumac. Use a pastry brush to brush each triangle with a little bit of the oil mixture.
Put sheet pan into the oven and bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the pita toasts are lightly browned and crisp. Set aside to cool.
To start the Mediterranean Cucumber Tomato Salad, slice a pint of cherry tomatoes in half. Cut 1 pound seedless cucumbers lengthwise into quarters, then slice into ½-inch chunks.
Peel ½ red onion, and chop finely. Slice ½ cup pitted kalamata olives in half.
To make the dressing, whisk together 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar, 5 tablespoons olive oil, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper.
Put the tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, and olives into a large mixing bowl, then add half of the dressing. Stir together, and add more dressing as needed.
Crumble 4 ounces feta cheese over the salad and stir again. Serve with pita toasts.
🧐 Recipe FAQs for Mediterranean Cucumber Salad
This salad will keep for 2-3 days in the refrigerator, but the flavor and crispness are really best on the day it is made.
As a result, this dish is really not great for make-ahead purposes (though you could easily make the dressing and pita chips in advance). Pita chips can be stored in a ziplock baggie or in an airtight container for several days.
The Mediterranean diet features lots of seasonal vegetables, like cucumbers and tomatoes, so this salad fits in perfectly. It’s very similar to what is known as a Greek salad, though the balance of vegetables is a little different.
Greek salads also often include sliced green bell peppers, feta cheese in a large block or big chunks, and no red wine vinegar. The core elements of the two salads are quite similar though.
The key to keeping a cucumber salad from getting soggy is first to use the right cucumbers. Seedless cucumbers are a lot less juicy in the center, so they will not let out as much liquid in a salad.
Second, try to make the cucumber salad not long before you are going to eat it. The longer the salad sits in the refrigerator, the more liquid will come out of the cucumbers and tomatoes.
👩🍳 Expert Tips
If you like your salad dressing sweeter, feel free to whisk in a teaspoon of honey or maple syrup before adding to the salad. Also, if you want to get creative with the dressing, this mediterranean tomato cucumber salad is perfect with our Sumac Dressing.
Wondering what to serve with this cucumber tomato salad? This salad has so much flavor that we like to serve it with a simply prepared protein like salmon, chicken sausages, burgers, fish, kabobs, shrimp, etc. Almost anything you’d throw on the grill, though you could also just sear something on the stovetop.
This salad is also great when paired with other small dishes, like this Eggplant Bruschetta, hummus, or a platter of roasted or grilled vegetables.
To make this into a vegetarian main course, you might add a little protein like throwing these crispy Air Fryer Chickpeas on top. You could also serve it on a bed of quinoa or farro. Or just add garlic bread and some Spicy Harissa Hummus!
Other Delicious Cucumber Recipes
Love cucumbers? Same here. There are lots in the Summer recipes archive, or why not check out some favorites:
More Recipes To Try
If you try this Mediterranean Cucumber Salad recipe, we would love to hear from you! Please rate this recipe and leave a comment below—your feedback is invaluable to us.
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Mediterranean Tomato and Cucumber Salad
Equipment
Ingredients
For the Salad
- 1 pint cherry tomatoes (about 13 ounces)
- 1 pound seedless cucumbers
- ½ red onion
- ½ cup pitted kalamata olives (3 ounces)
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 5 tablespoons olive oil
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
- 4 ounces feta cheese
For the Pita Toasts
- 2 pita bread pockets
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground sumac
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- To make the pita toasts, cut each pita bread pocket in half, then cut each half into 5 or 6 triangles. Repeat for the second pita pocket.
- Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.
- Tear each pita triangle in half where the bread connects.
- Spread out the triangles on the sheet pan with the inside of the pita face up.
- In a small bowl, combine the olive oil, salt, and ground sumac.
- Use a pastry brush to brush each triangle with a little bit of the oil mixture.
- Put sheet pan into the oven and bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the pita toasts are lightly browned and crisp. Set aside to cool.
- To start the salad, slice each cherry tomato in half.
- Cut cucumbers lengthwise into quarters, then slice into ½-inch chunks.
- Peel onion, and chop finely.
- Slice olives in half.
- To make the dressing, whisk together red wine vinegar, olive oil, salt, and pepper.
- Put the tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, and olives into a large bowl, then add half of the dressing.
- Stir together, and add more dressing as needed.
- Crumble feta cheese over the salad and stir again.
- Serve with pita toasts.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Instagram Users: Now that you've made this Mediterranean salad recipe, tag me @vanillabeancuisine or #vanillabeancuisine because I'd love to see your results!
More About Molly
Cooking healthy(ish) meals with seasonal ingredients is my passion. Trained as a French pastry chef, I spent over 10 years as a personal chef. Here you'll find well-tested recipes that you and your family will love!
John says
What a great refreshing salad. Cherry tomatoes out of my garden I used balsamic vinegar instead of red wine vinegar. Made it as a side to grilled BBQ chicken, seasoned angel hair pasta cooked in water and milk.
Molly Pisula says
Ooh, I want this whole meal! Thank you so much for commenting, I really appreciate it! And so glad you loved this salad.
Dianne Wuensch says
I am on a calorie deficit diet and need to know calories per serving. Do you have that information?
Thank you
Dianne
Molly Pisula says
Hi Dianne, the calories are listed at the very bottom of the recipe card. This salad with pita toasts is 439 calories per serving. I haven't calculated it if you remove the pita toasts and only make the salad. Sorry!
Karen D says
This recipe sounds delicious! One question though... should I serve it immediately after adding dressing, or should I wait a bit to allow flavors to work their magic? 🙂
Molly Pisula says
I generally serve right after adding the dressing, so that the cucumbers stay super crisp. But adding the dressing and letting it sit for 15-20 minutes might give you the best of both worlds!
Chef Mimi says
This is a great salad, especially when I can pick my own tomatoes! Red wine really goes well with cukes and tomatoes. And feta!
Chef Molly says
Yes, completely agree! I love the flavor combination in this recipe.
Jeff the Chef says
What a classic! But the pita toasts make it special. Thanks!
Chef Molly says
Now that I have ground sumac, I want to use it everywhere. It really makes the toasts delicious!
Chef Mimi says
Some of my most favorite flavors are in this salad! Happy Summer!
Chef Molly says
Mine too! The best of summer foods!