Cucumber Feta Salad
on May 05, 2025
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This cucumber feta salad has it all: fresh ingredients, beans and toasted pita with incredible crunch. This quick and easy salad works as a main dish or a side dish for spring and summer potlucks and barbecues. It has Persian cucumbers, white beans, sliced red onions, crumbled feta and pita chips all tossed in red wine vinaigrette. If you are looking for a salad that ticks the boxes on texture and flavor, this one is definitely it.
Also, try this chickpea cucumber salad recipe.
Table of Contents
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Beans and pita make this crisp cucumber salad filling. It has all the cool crunch you would expect, and these additions give the salad different textures and flavors that keep you going back for more. This is a fantastic lunch salad.
No-lettuce salads are great because they don’t wilt. You can make this recipe for potlucks, picnics and cookouts. All you have to do is wait to stir in the pita chips until right before you’re ready to serve it, and they will have maximum crunch.
You can customize this salad and stretch it into more servings. It’s easy to turn it into a pasta salad or a grain salad with quinoa, barley or pearl couscous. Also, if you have other fresh veggies like tomatoes or red peppers in your kitchen, you can toss them in too.
The Ingredients
This is what you need:
- Cucumbers: You can do better than regular cucumbers. This recipe calls for Persian cucumbers, which are sometimes labeled as mini cucumbers. They are smaller in diameter and have more delicate skin and less seeds. You can substitute with English cucumbers, which are similar, but they are wider and much longer.
- Feta: This salty Greek cheese is a spring/summer salad classic. It’s briny flavor is iconic. Sheep’s milk feta is the sharpest and strongest. You will also see it made with goat’s milk and even cow’s milk or a mix.
- White beans: You have three options, going from largest to smallest: 1) cannellini beans 2) great northern beans 3) navy beans. What you see in these photos are great northern beans, but it is up to you depending on your bean preference.
- Red onions: I use my mandolin to get those super-thin onion slices. They mix right in with the cucumber slices and toasted pita pieces.
- Pita: Either white or whole wheat pita will work. I like wheat because it has more flavor and gives the salad more fiber.
- Sumac: This spice is often found in Middle Eastern recipes. It’s tart, lemony and bright. I sprinkle the pita with sumac before toasting it in the oven.
- Parsley & dill: I go all in on fresh herbs with chopped parsley and dill. You can only use fresh parsley, but I like the dimension that dill adds.
- Red wine vinaigrette: This dressing is a mix of minced garlic, whole grain mustard, fresh lemon juice, red wine vinegar, olive oil, kosher salt and black pepper. You will also need extra virgin olive oil to make the pita croutons.
Optional Additions
I love this healthy summer salad as written, but you can add one of more of the following ingredients:
- Quinoa, barley or pearl couscous
- Pasta (short shapes such as orecchiette or bow ties)
- Diced avocados
- Pitted kalamata olives, whole or chopped
- Cherry tomatoes or grape tomatoes, halved
- Red bell peppers, diced
- Hard-boiled eggs, sliced or diced
- Baby arugula or spinach
How To Make This Cucumber Feta Salad
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
1. Prep the pita. Toss it with oil, salt and pepper and arrange the pieces in a single layer across a baking sheet. Then sprinkle with sumac.
2. Toast the pita. Give it 8-10 minutes to turn golden brown and crisp. Then move it from the hot pan to a plate to cool off while you work on everything else.
3. Make the vinaigrette. In a small bowl, whisk the minced garlic, mustard, salt, pepper, vinegar, lemon juice and olive oil.
4. Assemble the salad. Combine the sliced cucumbers, white beans, red onions, feta, parsley and fresh dill in a large bowl.
5. Pour in half the dressing and gently toss the salad.
6. Add the pita chips. Stir everything together and drizzle in more vinaigrette as desired.
Serving
With beans and pita croutons, this is cucumber feta salad is filling enough to be a main dish salad. I also like it as a side with with tofu veggie skewers or grilled tofu shawarma. The freshness of the cucumbers and the acidity vinaigrette go really well with anything roasted or grilled and smoky. As mentioned, this is a fantastic potluck salad.
Leftovers & Storage
If you are making this Mediterranean salad for meal prep or you know that you aren’t going to eat all of it, only add the amount of pita chips for that portion. Then store the salad in an airtight container in the fridge up to 3 days.
Extra salad dressing should be stored in a jar. Keep the pita chips in another container at room temperature, so they stay crisp. Let the salad and vinaigrette sit at room temperature for 15 minutes before you serve them, so they aren’t as cold.
Go ahead and save the salad even if it has toasted pita tossed in it. The chips will soften, but the salad will still taste good. You can make another batch of pita or use store-bought pita chips.
Recipe Tips
- Buy a block of feta cheese and not feta crumbles. When you break it by hand, you get more variation in size and shape.
- Tear the pita bread by hand instead of using knife to cut it. Much like my tip for the feta, you want all those jagged edges and different sized pieces. It makes the salad more interesting.
- If the smaller pita pieces are browning faster, take them off the pan when they are ready. Then give the larger ones more time to toast in the oven.
- You can use bagged pita chips for a shortcut. If you want to save time, don’t leave out the homemade pita chips. Take advantage of store-bought ones to give you that all-important crunch and toasted flavor.
Recipe FAQs
Salty feta cheese adds a lot to the salad. If you leave it out, the salad won’t have that. You can try to use something plant-based like Violife Just Like Feta.
Use gluten-free pita bread. If you have trouble finding that, then gluten-free pita chips will also work.
More Cucumber Salad Recipes
Tabbouleh Barley Salad
Asian Cucumber Salad
Watermelon Cucumber Salad
Strawberry Cucumber Pasta Salad
Radish Cucumber Avocado Salad
Cucumber Tomato Salad
If you’re a salad person like me, then don’t miss my easy seasonal salad guide for inspiration all year long.
Cucumber Feta Salad
Ingredients
For pita
- 3 pitas, torn into pieces
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon sumac
For vinaigrette
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1 tablespoon whole grain mustard
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 1 lemon, juice
- 1/4 cup olive oil
For salad
- 1 pound Persian cucumbers, sliced 1/4-inch thick (about 3 cups)
- 15 ounce can white beans, drained and rinsed
- 1/4 cup thinly sliced red onions
- 4 ounces crumbled feta cheese
- 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
- 2 tablespoons chopped dill
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
- On a sheet pan, toss the pita with 2 tablespoons olive oil. Spread in a single layer and sprinkle with 1 teaspoon sumac.
- Bake the pita until golden brown and crisp, about 8-10 minutes. Transfer to a plate to cool while you make the rest of the salad.
- For the vinaigrette, whisk the garlic, mustard,1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, red wine vinegar, lemon juice and 1/4 cup olive oil in a small bowl.
- To assemble the salad, combine the cucumbers, white beans, red onions, feta, parsley and dill in a large bowl.
- Toss the salad with half the vinaigrette.
- Fold in the pita chips adding more vinaigrette as desired.
Notes
- Quinoa, barley or pearl couscous
- Pasta, short shapes such as orecchiette
- Diced avocados
- Pitted kalamata olives, whole or chopped
- Cherry tomatoes or grape tomatoes, halved
- Red bell peppers, diced
- Hard-boiled eggs, sliced or diced
- Baby arugula or spinach
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
