Get my newest recipe via email:

Cucumber Basil Yogurt Salad

This creamy crunchy cucumber and basil yogurt salad, seasoned with lime and extra virgin olive oil, takes advantage of summer’s fresh-from-the-garden bounty. Hot weather simplicity at its best!  

Cucumber Basil Yogurt Salad in blue bowl with blue background.

Click here to PIN Cucumber Basil Yogurt Salad!

An important part of this salad is preparing the cucumbers. You definitely want them peeled and you absolutely want to scrape away the seeds. Once you’ve got that, slice them just shy of a quarter inch thick. See how pretty those cukes look?

Peeling, scraping seeds, and slicing cucumbers.

Mix the lime, its zest and juice, and the olive oil with salt and freshly ground pepper. At this point you can cover and refrigerate the cukes. Just before serving, stir in the chopped basil and yogurt. You want to add the yogurt just before serving so the salad doesn’t get watery.

Ideally use full-fat Greek yogurt, though plain whole yogurt is fine too. But don’t even think of using low fat or non-fat yogurt. In my view, yogurt that’s not full fat doesn’t ever make the grade, but especially when dressing this salad!

sliced cucumbers with basil for Cucumber Basil Yogurt Salad

This cucumber salad is sort of like a raita, the cooling condiment that goes well with spicy Indian food. You might want to try this light and creamy cucumber and basil raita with walnuts–with pita chips, it’s a fabulous healthy dip.

Usually in July, we travel to the Columbia River Gorge in Washington state. There, we have a little piece of property, outfitted with a 29-foot Holiday Rambler trailer hooked up to electricity and water.  Cooking is mostly outside on the two-burner Coleman stove (Affiliate link) and a basic propane grill (Affiliate link), and the internet comes to us via the wi-fi Hotspot on our phones. Not a bad place to spend your summer vacation.

2 cucumbers on blue background

There in the Gorge, our neighbors and friends bless us with their garden tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini and green beans, as much as we can use. A gift of warm-from-the-garden cucumbers and a little snip of basil inspired this refreshing cucumber basil yogurt salad. Easy meals like this are welcome when you’re cooking in a modest outdoor kitchen.

I baked this skillet chocolate chip walnut cookie in the propane stove out just off the deck of the trailer.

Our trailer in Washington state, the Gorge.

Wishing you a fabulous week! May you find yourself in the kitchen, indoors or out, cooking something light and delicious, maybe even with cucumbers and basil fresh from the garden!

To get my latest recipe posts and exclusive monthly newsletters, subscribe here. (I hate Spam too and will never share your email with anyone.)

  • Follow me on Instagram! It’s my favorite!
  • Peruse my Pinterest boards for more vegetarian recipe ideas.
  • Find daily vegetarian and healthy living ideas on my Facebook page.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. When you purchase products via my links, it doesn’t cost you anything and I earn a tiny commission, which helps me continue to provide free content here on Letty’s Kitchen. Thank you for supporting Letty’s Kitchen!

If you make this recipe and love it, please consider leaving a blog post comment. Your comments help other readers learn more about the recipe.

3 comments

  • Alicia

    Perfect find for a hot day, and I got to use all the cucumbers and basil from my garden! Plus, super tasty.
    Thanks Letty! Reply · 15 August, 2018

    • Thank you Alicia! On all counts–I’m happy you like the recipe! Reply · 16 August, 2018

Leave a Reply

Recipe Rating




This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.