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Enjoy this fresh and delicious Mediterranean Cucumber and Tomato Salad with anytime. Serve it with protein or any of your favorite meals. It comes together easily and can serve a crowd.
This recipe includes all of the key ingredients in every Mediterranean Salad including juicy tomatoes, fresh cucumbers, spices and feta cheese. It’s easy to make and is perfect for lunch or dinner.
Double or triple the recipe to serve a crowd. Prep it up to 2 days in advance. This salad is a great choice for any meal.
Table of Contents
Recipe Highlights
- Easy to Make: This delicious salad requires only 15 minutes of prep with 30 minutes of rest time. You can also adapt it to suit your needs.
- Fresh and Flavorful: With fresh ingredients like cherry tomatoes, crisp cucumbers, parsley and shallot, this recipe is packed with mediterranean flavors.
- Prep Ahead: You can prep this recipe in advance and store in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
- Perfect for a Crowd: Bring this salad to summer bbqs and potlucks or serve it as an easy side dish at your next dinner party. It’s perfect for hot summer days!
Variations
While this salad tastes perfect as-is, you can add more fresh flavors to make it your own.
- Add protein: Make this salad a complete meal by adding hearty protein like chicken, fish or shrimp. You can also add canned chickpeas (garbanzo beans) or white beans.
- Add kalamata olives: For more salty flavor and healthy fats, sprinkle some kalamata olives on top of the salad.
- Add other veggies: You can also add other veggies like sliced red onion, chopped red or green bell peppers or avocado.
- Add more fresh herbs: The fresh parsley is a staple in this Mediterranean salad, but you can also add other fresh herbs like fresh mint, fresh basil or dill. A squeeze of lemon juice or sprinkle of lemon zest adds fresh lemon flavor.
- Add pasta or quinoa: Turn this dish into a pasta salad by adding bow tie pasta, fusilli or penne pasta. Instead of pasta, add quinoa.
- Make it vegan: Omit the feta cheese to make a vegan tomato and cucumber salad.
- Substitute the dressing: While the homemade dressing is a staple in this fresh salad, you can save time by using your favorite bottled Greek vinaigrette or Italian salad dressing.
Storage
Store leftover Mediterranean cucumber tomato salad in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. You can store the dressing separate from the salad ingredients, if desired and mix prior to serving. However, the salad tastes best when all of the ingredients have time to marinate in the dressing.
Do not freeze this salad as the veggies retain water and will becomes mushy.
Serve the salad cold or at room temperature.
Serving Suggestions
This Mediterranean salad recipe is an easy side salad that is the perfect complement to any meal. Here are a few of our favorite recipes for serving with this summer salad.
- Chicken: Serve with oven roasted half chicken or grilled lemon pepper chicken.
- Steak: Pan seared ribeye or cast iron flank steak are two great choices if you’re looking for beef.
- Ground Beef: Serve as a topping for burger bowls.
- Sandwich: Serve it as a side with a homemade BLT grilled cheese sandwich.
- Salmon: If you’re looking to make it a complete Mediterranean meal, serve the salad with cast iron salmon.
- Vegetarian: Try serving with Penne Alfredo Pasta or Zucchini Lasagna for two great vegetarian options.
Other Mediterranean Recipes
If you love this Mediterranean dish, try a few of our other favorite recipes.
- Mediterranean Roasted Vegetables
- Baked Mediterranean Chicken
- Greek Chicken Pasta Salad
- Oven Roasted Mini Peppers
Did you try this Cucumber and Tomato Salad with Feta? Leave a recipe rating and review below.
Mediterranean Cucumber and Tomato Salad with Feta
Equipment
- Medium Saucepan
- Large Mixing Bowl
Ingredients
- 2 pints ripe cherry tomatoes, quartered (about 4 cups) or grape tomatoes
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon sugar
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 medium shallot, minced
- 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- ground black pepper
- 1 medium cucumber, peeled, seeded and diced into ½-inch chunks
- 4 ounces feta cheese, crumbled
- 1-2 tablespoons fresh parsley, minced
Instructions
- Combine the tomatoes, salt and sugar in a medium bowl; toss to combine. Let stand for 30 minutes.
- Transfer the mixture to a salad spinner and spin until the seeds and excess liquid have been removed, about 1 minute. Stir to redistribute the tomatoes during spinning as needed. Return the tomatoes to the bowl and set aside. (If you don’t have a salad spinner, you can put the tomatoes in a bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap and gently shake the bowl to remove the excess seeds and liquid.) Strain the tomato liquid through a fine mesh strainer into a liquid measuring cup, pressing to extract as much liquid as possible.
- Combine no more than ½ cup of the tomato liquid with the garlic, oregano, shallot and vinegar in a small saucepan set over medium heat. Simmer until the mixture is reduced, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature. Whisk in the oil, and season with pepper to taste.
- Add the cucumber, feta, dressing and parsley to the bowl with the tomatoes. Toss gently and serve.
Notes
- You can substitute cherry tomatoes with grape tomatoes.
- You can use Persian cucumber, English cucumber or standard cucumber.
- You can omit the sugar, if desired.
- If you don’t have a salad spinner, follow alternative directions above.
- Don’t be too concerned if you don’t have very much tomato liquid. Even after spinning the tomatoes, sometimes you may get even less than 1/4 of a cup. Combine whatever liquid you have, up to 1/2 cup, with the other ingredients and decrease the amount of time to simmer on the stove.
- Store this salad in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Yummy, that’s all I can say! Made this last night.
I can’t wait for my cherry tomatoes to come on in my garden so I can make this! All your salads are so amazing!
This combo is so tasty and refreshing – perfect for Summer!
I had never added oregano to my tomato cucumber salad before, it was fantastic. Also, I love that your recipe is a different color, made it so much easier to find on the page!
Thank you for the timely summer salad recipe. Even though it is not summer, a lots of cherry tomato is growing in my backyard. I am going to make this salad with those tomatoes. Thank you 😀