You Should Bring This Pickled Cucumber Salad to Your Next Picnic.
A couple of months ago, I found a snack that changed my life . It had only three ingredients—super-tart gherkins dipped in sour cream, mixed with honey—and it was chaotically good.
I eat it quite often and with pleasure, but recently I started dreaming about playing with this format. What if, instead of a dipping appetizer, we sliced up pickles, swapped the proportions, and turned it into a scoop-and-chew salad?
This hypothesis sounded pretty good to me, a well-known cucumber enthusiast, but I was afraid it would polarize anyone who didn’t have my, well, sensibility. But fiddling around a bit, I have to say I think this is a picnic salad that would be more than at home next to a pile of any smoked meat, on a ham sandwich, or even on a hamburger. (That’s fine on its own if you’re the type of person who thinks eating pickles is smart and good.)
“Dressing” is too easy. Sour cream, whipped with a little honey, sticks to marinades, softening their acidity with fat and sweetness. Sliced red onion adds a crunchy spiciness, and herbs refresh the joint.
If honey sounds weird to you, grow up! This little sweetness is key. Without it, the salad seems unbalanced and aggressive, and no one likes an aggressive salad.
You can use a mixture of any pickles, but try to get at least three different flavors. For my pickles, I opted for a combination of gherkins, classic Clausen marinade, and Mount Olive Sweet Heat pickles. (Half-sour would be fine too, but I’m currently sitting out the Portland heat at my parents’ house in the country and can’t find half-sour at Safeway.)
If your pickles are not sliced, try not to slice them thinner than 1/4 inch. You want them to be crunchy, not draped, so keep them a little hefty. (However, cut the onion into thin slices – a draped onion is really good in this context.)
cucumber salad
Ingredients:
- 3 cups 3 types of pickles (1 cup each), cut into 1/4-inch slices
- 1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 2 teaspoons honey
- 2 tablespoons chopped green onions (divided)
- 1 tablespoon fresh chopped parsley
- 1 tablespoon fresh dill leaves
- Fresh pepper to taste
Chop the pickles if they need to be chopped and add them to the bowl along with the chopped onions. In a separate smaller bowl, whisk together the sour cream and honey, then stir in the pickles and onions. Add all herbs except one teaspoon green onion and stir again, then transfer to a serving bowl and garnish with the remaining green onions. This salad is good right away, but it will keep well in the refrigerator for several hours. (A lot longer and things get too soft, although now that I think about it, it still makes a great burger topping.)