The Ina Garten Cucumber Salad I've Been Making for 20 Years—It's Genius

In the early 2000s, I worked in a high-volume Irish pub in Charlotte, North Carolina. I was in Charlotte for culinary school, and the job allowed me to attend classes in the morning and arrive at the pub just in time for my 4:00 p.m. to midnight shift. 

Throughout my shift, while I cooked endless burgers and "Irish nachos" for people enjoying the pub's $2 pints of Guinness, I kept the little mounted tube TV in the kitchen tuned to Food Network, where I watched a steady stream of Rachel Ray, Bobby Flay, and Ina Garten. 

I was getting just as much information from Ina during my working hours as I was from my formal education, and to this day, I still use the tips I learned from that time spent watching everyone's favorite Hamptons chef.

One of the most eye-opening tips I learned from Garten was about how to drain cucumbers for a salad so that they stay crispy and don't make the salad watery. 

Straining salted cucumbers for a few hours, Garten explained, allows them to release their water (cucumbers, after all, are mostly water) so that, when they're combined with tangy yogurt and sour cream, they retain their texture, creating a nice, creamy yet crunchy final product.

The result is worth the effort, and nearly 20 years later, I still make my creamy cucumber salads the same way.

How To Make Ina Garten’s Creamy Cucumber Salad

The most important step in Garten's Creamy Cucumber Salad is the first one—thinly slice cucumbers and red onion, and place them in a colander over a bowl with 1 1/2 tablespoons of kosher salt. Refrigerate for at least four hours or overnight.

At the same time, Garten also strains plain yogurt in a sieve lined with paper towels over a bowl. Doing so creates what is essentially labneh, a now-trending ingredient perpetually common in the Middle East that was less common when Garten's cookbook, Back to Basics, came out in 2008.

You can still strain the yogurt, as Garten does, or you can use Greek yogurt or labneh and skip that step—the salad will still be satisfyingly creamy and delicious. Once the cucumbers and onions (and, if applicable, the yogurt) have released their liquids, combine them with freshly chopped dill, champagne vinegar, salt, and pepper, and serve chilled for maximum cooling goodness.

Tips for Making Ina's Creamy Cucumber Salad

• Swap strained plain yogurt for Greek yogurt or labneh to skip the yogurt-straining step.
• Once you've combined all the ingredients except for the salt and pepper, taste the salad and add more salt if needed. Some reviewers noted that the salad is too salty. Use your judgment (and kosher salt, rather than table salt) to avoid over-salting.
• This recipe calls for A LOT of yogurt and sour cream, which makes an extremely rich salad that borders on tzatziki. You can reduce the amount of "dressing" (yogurt, sour cream, and vinegar) you add to the cucumbers if you prefer a different cucumber-to-creamy-goodness ratio.
• Save the strained cucumber and onion liquid and use it to add flavor to gazpacho, a Bloody Mary, or to make a simple vinaigrette.