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.
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 & 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.
You Will Need
🔥 Our Hot Tip 🔥 If you can take the time to salt your cucumbers, it will prevent them from going soggy, intensifies their flavour and won't water down your vinaigrette, making this salad even more delicious!
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How to Make It (step-by-step)
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.
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.
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.
Step 3 - Assemble your Cucumber Goats Cheese 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. 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.
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 & Questions
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
Recipe Card
Equipment
- Bullet or High Speed Blender or Small Food Processor
- Mandoline or V-Slicer
Ingredients
- 480 grams Lebanese cucumbers (approximately 4 medium, 17 ounces)
- 420 grams watermelon radish (approximately 1 bunch of 5 radishes, 15 ounces)
- ⅔ cup mint leaves
- 50 grams goats cheese (approximately 1.8 ounces)
- Sea salt and cracked black pepper
- ¼ cup olive oil
- ¼ cup lime juice
- ⅓ cup mint leaves
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
Instructions
- Wash and trim your cucumbers, then using a vegetable peeler, cut them into ribbons. You will need to cut up the leftover thicker end bits.
- Wash, trim radishes and slice thinly using a sharp knife or with a mandoline/v-slicer.
- Wash the mint leaves, shake and either pat or spin dry in a salad spinner. Remove the eaves from the stems.
- 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.
- 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. Transfer to a salad bowl, leaving any leftover dressing behind, crumble the goat's cheese and scatter the mint leaves on top to garnish. Serve immediately.
Video
Notes
- TOP TIP - If you can take the time to salt your cucumbers, it will prevent them from going soggy, intensifies their flavour and won't water down your vinaigrette.
To do this, place the cut cucumbers in a colander, sprinkle with some sea salt, stand the colander in a bowl to catch the excess water and let stand for 20 minutes or so, then pat them dry.
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