The best Beet and cucumber salad (with roasted garlic yogurt sauce)
This beet and cucumber salad with a roasted garlic Greek-style yogurt sauce screams summer. It’s a vibrant and refreshing dish that combines sweet, tangy, and creamy flavors.
Imagine vinegar-poached beets and crunchy cucumber on top of a rich creamy Greek-style yogurt, garnished with fresh dill. It’s the perfect healthy summer treat!
Salads with roasted garlic yogurt sauce are our summer obsession. Roasting garlic mellows its sharpness and concentrates the garlic’s natural sugars, making it taste sweet. Roasted garlic is the perfect companion to Greek yogurt.
Overall, this roasted beet and cucumber salad offers a delightful balance of sweet, tangy, and creamy flavors. The beets bring a natural sweetness, while the vinegar poaching adds a tangy kick. The cucumber provides a refreshing crunch, and the Greek-style yogurt offers a rich, creamy texture. The roasted garlic adds a subtle sweetness and depth to the overall flavor.
If you love beets, you’ll enjoy these recipes:
Table of Contents
Beet and Cucumber Salad Ingredients
- Beets – Also called beetroot is the star of the dish. It’s an incredibly healthy vegetable containing antioxidants. Choose firm beets with smooth and unblemished skin. Avoid those with bruises or cuts. Beets with greens attached to them are fresher than those without.
- Cucumber – A fresh cucumber gives a lovely crunch to the salad, so it should be as fresh as possible.
- Greek-style vegan yogurt – Balances the beets’ sweetness and adds richness to the fresh cucumbers.
- Extra virgin olive oil – Goes in the yogurt sauce, to make it a little more creamy and rich.
- Sea salt – Used for poaching the beets and salting the yogurt sauce.
- Apple cider vinegar and Water – For poaching the beets, which balances some of the sweetness naturally present in beets.
- Fresh dill – Adds freshness, which makes it the perfect garnish. However, it can be replaced or combined with other fresh herbs such as parsley, dill, and basil.
Try more of our favorite salad recipes:
- Carrot And Cucumber Salad
- Easy High-Protein Glass Noodle Salad with Shredded Tofu
- Kale and Chickpea Salad – Dressed in Dreamy Gochujang Tahini
- Smoked Tofu Vietnamese Rice Paper Rolls with Peanut Dipping Sauce (Vegan & Easy) – These rolls are arguably not a salad, but just as refreshing and full of fresh crunchy veggies, including lettuce.
How to cook with beets
- Watch out for stains – Beets are highly pigmented and will stain just about anything they come into contact with, including your hands, chopping board, clothes, and even kitchen countertops. To avoid stains:
- Wear gloves when handling beets to protect your hands.
- Use a plastic or silicone cutting board that won’t absorb the color.
- Opt for dark-colored clothes or an apron to avoid permanent stains.
- If beet juice gets on your counters, wipe it up immediately to prevent it from setting in. For stubborn stains, a bit of baking soda or lemon juice can help lift the color.
- Roast whole beets – Roasting beets whole is one of the easiest ways to prepare them. This method helps intensify their natural sweetness and makes peeling so much easier.
- Balance the sweetness with vinegar – Beets are naturally sweet, which is great for salads, but sometimes the sweetness can be overpowering. Adding vinegar balances the flavor and enhances the beets’ earthy notes. In this recipe we cook the beets in a mixture of water and vinegar. This helps cut down on some of the sweetness.
- Cook in batches for meal prep – Beets take time to cook, typically around an hour, but they store well in the fridge. This makes them ideal for meal prep.
- Roast or boil a larger batch of beets at once.
- Store cooked beets in an airtight container in the refrigerator. They’ll stay fresh for up to a week.
- Use them throughout the week in salads, smoothies, or even as a side dish.
Beet and Cucumber Salad Step-by-step instructions
Vinegar poached beets
- Wash and clean the beets. If the leaves are attached, cut them off. Cut off the top part and the tail. Leave skin on.
- Fill a dark (or stain-resistant pan) with one and a half cups of water and half a cup of apple cider vinegar.
- Wearing gloves, rub olive oil on the beets, and then salt. Because we are roasting it whole, we need to add a generous amount of salt.
- Place the oiled and salted beets in the pan with the water and vinegar. Cover the pan with aluminum foil and place in the oven.
- Bake the beets at 200 Celsius (400 Fahrenheit) for 30 minutes. Then flip the beets upside down and continue baking for another 30 mins.
- You’ll know it’s done when a fork or a knife pierces through easily.
Roasted garlic yogurt sauce
- Cut a whole head of garlic in half.
- Wrap both halves in aluminum foil, and add two teaspoons of olive oil, before closing the foil.
- Roast at 180 Celsius (350 Fahrenheit) for one hour, or in an air fryer at 150 Celsius (300 Fahrenheit) for 40 minutes.
- The garlic is done when it’s soft to the touch. The cloves should easily slide out of their skin when pressed.
- Add roasted garlic cloves and the rest of the ingredients for sauce to blender and blend until smooth.
Slicing cucumber and beets
- Peel and de-seed the cucumber. Slice it into cubes and set aside.
- Wearing gloves, peel the beet. Once cooked, the peel should come off very easily.
- Slice the beet into cubes of a similar size to cucumber.
Assembly
- Spoon the yogurt sauce on the plate.
- Add a layer of cucumber on top of the beets.
- Add a layer of beets to the yogurt. Keep in mind, that if you mix it around, the yogurt and cucumber will turn pink from the beet juice.
- Garnish with fresh dill.
- Serve your Beet and cucumber salad with crackers or thinly sliced baguette, lightly toasted in the pan.
How to modify this recipe
- Although dill is an excellent garnish for this cucumber and beet salad, fresh mint, or parsley will also work.
- To make rank up the protein count, you could add edamame beans, or chickpeas to the salad.
- If you’d like the salad to be fresher, add a tablespoon of lemon juice to the yogurt sauce.
- Basically, this yogurt sauce will pair well with most fresh or roasted veggies. Therefore, you can use it with beets, cucumber, carrots, potatoes, or zucchini.
Salad Storage instructions
- We would suggest that you store the beet and cucumber salad unassembled. Store the beets in one container, cucumber in another, and sauce in another. If you assemble it, the beets will color everything pink, while the cucumber releases water and reduces the sauce.
- The yogurt sauce will keep for up to three days.
- Cucumbers can be kept for up to three days, but any longer and they will reduce their crunch.
- Beets will keep up to a week.
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Beets and cucumber salad
This beet and cucumber salad is a vibrant and refreshing dish that combines sweet, tangy, and creamy flavors. It's the perfect way to cool down on a warm summer day! Serve it with a slice of roasted bread or crackers as a light meal, or a satisfying side dish.
Equipment
- 1 Stain-free pan (medium size)
- 1 Blender or food processor
- Aluminum foil
- 1 Cutting desk
- 1 Large knife
Ingredients
Roasted garlic yogurt sauce
- 1 head garlic
- 150 grams greek-style yogurt
- 1 teaspoon extra virgin oil
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Salad
- 1 whole beetroot
- 1 whole cucumber
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons salt
- 1 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
- small bunch fresh dill
Instructions
Vinegar poaching beets
- Wash and clean the beets. If the leaves are attached, cut them off. Cut off the top part and the tail. Leave skin on.
- Fill a dark (or stain-resistant pan) with 1 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar .
- Wearing gloves, rub olive oil on the beets, and then salt. Because we are roasting it whole, we need to add a generous amount of salt.
- Place the oiled and salted beets in the pan with the water and vinegar.
- Cover the pan with aluminum foil and place in the oven.
- Bake the beets at 200 Celsius (400 Fahrenheit) for 30 minutes. Then flip the beets upside down and continue baking for another 30 mins.
- You'll know it's done when a fork or a knife pierces through easily.
Roasted garlic yogurt sauce
- Cut 1 head garlic in half.
- Wrap both halves in aluminum foil and add two teaspoons of olive oil, before closing the foil.
- Roast at 180 Celsius for one hour, or in an air fryer at 150 Celsius for 40 minutes.
- The garlic is done when it's soft to the touch. The cloves should easily slide out of their skin.
- Add roasted garlic cloves and the rest of the ingredients for sauce to blender and blend until smooth.150 grams greek-style yogurt , 1 teaspoon extra virgin oil , 1/2 teaspoon salt
Slicing the cucumber and beets
- Peel and de-seed the cucumber.
- Slice it into cubes and set aside.
- Wearing gloves, peel the beet.
- Once cooked, the peel should come off very easily.
- Slice the beet into cubes of a similar size to cucumber.
Assembly
- Spoon the yogurt sauce on the plate.
- Add a layer of cucumber on top of the beets.
- Add a layer of beets to the yogurt. Keep in mind, that if you mix it around, the yogurt and cucumber will turn pink from the beet juice.
- Garnish with fresh dill.
- Serve it with crackers, or thinly sliced pan-toasted baguette.
Notes
- Use gloves when peeling and slicing beets to avoid staining.Â
- Keep each element in the fridge in separate bowls.Â
Nutrition
Calories: 221kcalCarbohydrates: 8gProtein: 9gFat: 16gSaturated Fat: 2gPolyunsaturated Fat: 2gMonounsaturated Fat: 12gTrans Fat: 0.01gCholesterol: 4mgSodium: 7600mgPotassium: 210mgFiber: 0.3gSugar: 3gVitamin A: 5IUVitamin C: 4mgCalcium: 123mgIron: 1mg
I had so much fun creating this recipe and sharing it with you! I hope you give it a try and love it as much as I do. If you do, I’d love to hear your thoughts – please leave a comment and a star rating to let me know how it turned out! Your feedback not only makes my day but also helps other readers decide if they want to make it too. Happy cooking!