Cucumber salad - a few ingredients make a tasty appetizer

Originally posted on my blog

In Polish meals, you don't really see the huge green salad full of veggies so popular in the States. Salads (or "salatkas" - little salads) often comprise just two to three vegetables covered with a dressing of some sort. And in my family, we ate them with, rather than before, a meal. One of my favorites has always been "mizerja," which is a simple cucumber salad. My mom added only thinly-sliced cucumbers and onions and topped it off with a garlic-infused sour cream dressing.

Since I had scant cucumbers to harvest - not nearly enough to pickle - I decided to make my own version of mizerja.


(tiny cukes)

I bastardized it a bit by adding in a few additional veggies I had on hand. This makes a great summer salad, even if summer is finally drawing to a close.

My version of mizerja

• Thinly sliced cucumbers (I used a combo of fresh pickling and slicing cukes, but I sliced them too thick)
• Chopped green onions
• Chopped garlic scapes (the shoots that grow out of recently-planted garlic cloves)
• Sliced tomatoes

For the dressing:

• sour cream (or buttermilk)
• Minced garlic to taste
• salt and pepper

The rest is pretty simple. Mix together dressing ingredients and pour on top of veggies. Couldn't be easier!