Cucumber Goat Cheese Salad with Minty Lime Dressing

Our Cucumber Goat Cheese Salad is perfect if you are looking for something a bit different. It's light, refreshing, and perfect for spring or summer! It features crisp cucumbers, watermelon radishes, tangy goat cheese, and a minty lime dressing.

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Cucumber Goat Cheese Salad on a white plate with cut limes and watermelon radishes at top right.

This pretty-looking salad is elegant enough to serve as a dinner party side or a great side to serve at a summertime barbecue or potluck, as it is so light, cool and refreshing.

For more dinner party salad inspiration, why not try our Summer Brie Salad or our Shiso Salad? For potlucks or barbecues, try our Kale Coleslaw or our Vibrant Garbanzo Bean Salad.

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Ingredients and Substitutions

Our Cucumber Goat Cheese Salad is made with a handful of ingredients, most of which are easily found at the supermarket -

Cucumbers - we have opted for a seedless variety so as not to waterlog our salad. Opt for Persian, Lebanese, Kirby or English/Telegraph cucumbers. If you would like to use plain old cucumbers, then make sure to remove the seeds.
Watermelon Radishes - I ran across these pretty little things at a farmers market and couldn't resist adding them to this simple salad. It is perfectly fine to use any radish variety that you can get your hands on.
Goats Cheese - adds a wonderful tangy creaminess to this salad; you can swap it for feta, or even a creamy blue cheese variety such as gorgonzola would work well.
Fresh Mint - added for its wonderful aroma and freshness. Swap for basil or dill if you prefer.
Minty Lime Vinaigrette - so wonderfully bright and tangy and really sets off this salad beautifully.
Consider adding some wonderful chilli lime almonds to add an incredibly moreish crunchy element to this salad.

Labelled ingredients needed to make cucumber goat cheese salad.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Step 1 - Prepare the Veggies

Wash your cucumbers well, then using a vegetable peeler, cut them into ribbons. You will need to cut up the leftover thicker end bits.

Cucumber being cut into ribbons on a wooden board with a vegetable peeler.

Cut cucumber on a wooden board with knife on the side.

Wash your radishes and remove any blemishes using a sharp paring knife. Then using a mandoline/v-slicer or a sharp knife, cut into thin rounds.

Wash the mint leaves, shake and either pat or spin dry in a salad spinner. Remove the mint leaves from the stems.

Watermelon radish being sliced with a mandoline slicer on wooden board.

Mint leaves stripped from stems on a wooden board.

Step 2 - Blitz the Vinaigrette

Place all your vinaigrette ingredients in a bullet/high-speed blender or small food processor and blitz until combined.

Taste and adjust seasonings according to your liking; if you find the dressing a bit tart, then add half a teaspoon or so of your favourite sweetener such as honey or maple syrup.

Minty lime vinaigrette ingredients in blender.

Blitzed minty lime vinaigrette in blender.

Step 3 - Assemble Your Salad

Place the prepared cucumber and radishes in a large mixing bowl, season and pour over the dressing.

Toss well to combine, taste and adjust seasonings.

Prepared cucumber goat cheese salad ingredients in a glass bowl.

Hand pouring dressing over prepared goat cheese salad ingredients.

Transfer to a salad bowl, leaving any leftover dressing behind, crumble the goat's cheese on top and scatter the mint leaves on top to garnish. Serve immediately.

Tongs mixing cucumber goat cheese salad in a glass bowl.

Serving Suggestions 🍽

The delicate flavours in this salad pair well with seafood and white meats such as chicken and pork. We served ours with barbecued green prawns and a crusty baguette.

It would also be sensational with a Honey Glazed Ham or with Herby Roast Chicken.

Tips and Questions

What Are Watermelon Radishes?

Watermelon radishes are an heirloom variety of daikon radishes, they are both root vegetables and brassica family members (just like superfood broccoli and cabbage).
They originated in China and are called shinrimei, which means “beauty in the heart" if you slice one open, you will reveal a bright pink exterior surrounded by a white rind.
While regular radishes are spicy and peppery, the watermelon radish is milder. It still has a peppery bite, but it's milder and only slightly peppery with almond-sweet notes. Nothing at all like a watermelon!

Can I Use Regular Radishes?

I found my watermelon radishes at a farmers market and have also seen them at speciality greengrocers.
It is not necessary to make this salad with watermelon radishes; feel free to replace them with any variety you find.

Can This Salad Be Made Ahead?

Once this salad has been dressed, then it really should be eaten straight away.
You could, however, prepare the salad ingredients and blitz up the dressing an hour in advance and assemble it just before serving.

Storage Tips

Store any leftover salad, without the excess dressing, covered in the fridge, and it should be ok to eat the following day, but it would be wilted.

What diets is Cucumber Goat Cheese Salad suitable for?

It would be suitable for gluten-free, keto, nut-free, and vegetarian eaters.
To make it vegan, you could go for vegan feta.
For paleo and whole30 eaters, leave out the goat's cheese and consider adding some avocado for creaminess.
This salad has 200 calories per serving and a net carb count of 11 grams.

Cucumber Goat Cheese Salad with Minty Lime Dressing

Ingredients and Substitutions