Summer is the perfect time to enjoy blueberries in a salad. Add fresh cucumbers, feta cheese, and some crunchy nuts to make a seasonal salad ready to eat on even the hottest days.
This blueberry cucumber salad doesn't require any cooking or toasting, and you can make it extra refreshing and cooling. Cucumbers have a natural cooling effect, while the blueberries and dressing can be left in the fridge until the last minute.
You can use up even more of summer's seasonal fruit by blending up some strawberries for a light but flavorful dressing. Or if you're feeling lazy (as we all do!), use a store-bought balsamic or raspberry vinaigrette to save some time.
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Recipe
Ingredients
Blueberry cucumber salad
- 4 ounces salad greens (about 2 cups)
- 2 mini cucumbers
- 1 cups blueberries see note
- ¼ cup nuts pistachios, almonds, or walnuts
- ½ cup feta cheese (2 ounces)
Dressing - use your favorite or make this Strawberry Poppy Seed Dressing
- ½ cup strawberries, halved (about 2.5 ounces)
- ½ tablespoon apple cider vinegar or balsamic
- ½ tablespoon olive oil
- ½ tablespoon honey optional, if strawberries aren't sweet enough
- ½ tablespoon poppy seeds
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- ⅛ teaspoon pepper
Instructions
Make the salad
- Wash produce. Cut cucumbers into rounds or quarters and sprinkle with salt (only if using right away!). Chop nuts. Then mix all ingredients together. Top with salad dressing.
Optional: make the dressing
- Add all of the ingredients to a blender or food processor. Blend until fully combined.Transfer to a jar and use right away or keep in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. Note: consider making a larger batch and using it for the next couple of weeks.
Notes
Blueberries & cucumbers
I used a full cup of blueberries for this recipe because that's what's in a half-pint container. It's a lot of blueberries, but I like it that way. Feel free to use slightly less if you don't want the salad loaded with blueberries. I like mini cucumbers because the are seedless, almost never bitter, and can be sliced whole or quartered for more of a chop-salad style. That said, any cucumber will work out just fine. A note on salting cucumbers: salt draws out their moisture, so you only want to salt them right before adding to the salad.Salad Dressing
- The strawberry poppy seed dressing makes about a ½ cup (4 servings). It's 52 calories per serving, which is 2 tablespoons.
- You can also use a sweet balsamic salad dressing or a raspberry vinaigrette
Calories & Nutrition
Calories are calculated to include 1 serving of the salad and 1 serving of dressing (2 tablespoons). The dressing accounts for 52 calories per serving. See post for more nutritional breakdowns.Nutrition
Salad calories & nutrition
This salad has a little bit of everything - fiber (4g), protein (9g), and an assortment of vitamins for 200 calories, plus another 52 if you use the strawberry poppy seed dressing.
I've provided a breakdown to give you an idea of where the calories and nutrition are coming from. I find it helpful when making tweaks to a recipe.
For example, it's easy to want to cut out the nuts or feta cheese to lower the calories, but they also provide most of the protein, along with other health benefits from the nuts. I leave it to you to customize based on your health needs and goals.
| Ingredient | Calories per serving | Other (per serving) |
|---|---|---|
| Blueberries | 42 calories | 8 grams sugar |
| Cucumbers | 9 calories | |
| Nuts | 90 calories | 3g protein |
| Feta cheese | 70 calories | 4g protein |
Ingredients
The ingredients are pretty straightforward, but I wanted to include a few specific notes about the quantity I used (a lot of blueberries), various options (what kind of nut?), and substitutions (cheese).
Blueberries
Using fresh blueberries in a salad really lets their flavor shine. Be sure to buy blueberries while they are in-season (bonus points from a farmers market).
This recipe calls for 1 cup of blueberries, with the intent that you can scale it down depending on how blueberry-y you want the salad. Most grocery stores and farmers markets sell blueberries in either 1-cup or 1-pint (2 cups) containers.
I often use a full cup of blueberries in this salad and I don't think it throws off the ratio. It's loaded with berries which seems to delight everyone.
You can also try adding blueberries to a Cobb salad along with a blueberry vinaigrette. Or add peaches to a blueberry-cucumber salad in the heart of summer, like this version from Recipe Runner or Frontier Co-op.
Cucumbers
Cucumbers are great in summer salads because they have some compounds that create a chilling effect on your tongue. This effect can also enhance acidic, salty, and bitter flavors, according to Taste Buds & Molecules.
Any cucumber will work, but I do prefer the smaller, seedless varieties. As a bonus, they are almost never bitter, and don't usually have a waxy coating. If you do end up with bitter cucumbers, there are tricks to fixing them.
Small cucumbers can be cut into whole slices for a very cute presentation. Sometimes I still cut them into quarters for more of a 'chopped salad' presentation.
Lastly, if you grow your own cucumbers, a blueberry cucumber salad is an easy way to use some of them up. Anything from pickling cucumbers to larger slicers. Or if you are at a farmers market while cucumbers are in season, you'll probably have several varieties to choose from.
Nuts
Honestly, almost any type of nut works well in this salad. But I still wanted to share a few thoughts on the matter.
Almonds pair especially well with blueberries and any type will work. You can buy them sliced, whole, roasted, salted, even candied. I'm a fan of roasted and salted almonds for this salad to offset the sweetness of the strawberry dressing.
Pistachios are another favorite of mine. Plain, roasted, or salt & pepper flavors are all excellent. The photos for this recipe used salt & pepper pistachios.
Lastly, pecans and walnuts are other solid options. Make sure they are fresh as both of them can turn rancid, and it seems more noticeable for these types of nuts than almonds or pistachios. Candied versions of these also work in the salad.
Feta cheese & other options
Feta cheese is my go-to for this salad. It's extremely convenient and the flavor pairs great with both the blueberries and cucumbers. I've used plain feta cheese, as well as herb-flavored and pepper-flavored varieties.
Goat cheese is natural substitution. It has a similar texture that's slightly creamier and also comes in various flavors. Try a cheese flavored with honey or pepper, or even the blueberry goat cheese log from Trader Joes could be good.
If you don't want a soft cheese like feta or goat, try a mild swiss cut into cubes or an asiago shaved over the top.
Salad for a crowd
This salad is a hit every time I bring it to a barbecue or dinner party. It's sweet, salty, and crunchy, tossed in a strawberry poppy seed dressing. But how much do you need to feed a crowd?
Quantity
This blueberry cucumber salad recipe serves 2 people, who each eat a healthy helping as a side salad. For a barbecue or potluck with a lot of side dishes, this same recipe could feed 4 people without scaling it up, and a double batch could feed 8 people.
Why is that the case?
For a typical dinner with a meat, side, and a salad, most people will eat about 2-2.5 ounces of lettuce. That equates to about 1 cup (according to the internet, but I can't imagine any two people measure lettuce close to the same way!)
Less salad is needed for larger meals that have several sides, like baked beans, corn, potato chips, and a fruit salad (for example). People want a little bit of everything! I've found people tend to eat about half as much salad in this case, about 1 ounce of lettuce per person.
Make-ahead
This blueberry cucumber salad can be made ahead pretty easily, you just need to keep some of the ingredients separated.
- Cucumbers can be cut ahead of time, but don't salt them or they will weep too much water
- Keep nuts in a separate sealed package so they don't lose their crunch
- Cheese should stay in a separate package so it doesn't get slimy from touching the cucumbers
- Dressing should also remain separate
To transport, you can add the lettuce, blueberries and cucumbers to a large bowl. Add a bag of nuts, feta, and a container of dressing to the top (or set to the side). Cover and transport!
Other dressings
In case you're looking for a different type of dressing, I have a few options for you.
- A store-bought raspberry vinaigrette, balsamic vinaigrette, or even sweet onion
- This homemade creamy balsamic vinaigrette on a similar salad from How Sweet Eats
- A homemade raspberry vinaigrette from Downshiftology.
- A vanilla balsamic dressing from Frontier Co-op
More salads & recipes
Summer salads highlight the fresh produce at its peak. Use the best tasting, ripest fruit and vegetables all summer long, saving the less flavorful ones for baking.
Here are a few other salads to try:
More blueberry & cucumber recipes
Enjoy even more recipes while blueberries and cucumbers are in season.
If you're wondering what else is currently in season, check out my calendars to see what produce is in season each month (and coming up soon).
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