This recipe is a delicious, creamy cucumber sauce that comes from my grandmother’s recipe arsenal. Although I think it’s more traditionally a Polish dish, it’s also a popular Ukrainian side dish and one that my mother grew up with and then I grew up with.
This one took me a few tries to make–because it’s such a simple sauce that my grandmother would just whip up from memory, I couldn’t find a recipe written down anywhere!
When it comes down to it, though, the proportions and recipe instructions aren’t as important as the ingredients. The key items used to make mizeria are staples in every Ukrainian household:
- Sour cream
- Onion
- Vinegar
- Dill
- Cucumbers
Pretty simple, right? You can also add a little lemon juice or garlic, but that will make it more of a tzatziki sauce which is fine. Also, I do realize that there are different ways to make this dish and your family’s recipe may be different from mine, but this is how I remember it!
how to make mizeria
To start, you’re going to slice your cucumber very thinly. I like to cut my cuke in half first to make half-slices, but you can leave them as whole rounds if you prefer. It’s also up to you if you want to peel the cucumber. I like the added texture and flavor of the skin, so I leave it on.
Once you have your slices, place the cucumbers in a bowl and sprinkle them with salt. Cucumbers hold a LOT of moisture, so this step helps them “sweat” out some of that water. Water’s great, but if your cukes but you don’t want the sauce to end up being too runny.
While the cucumbers are sweating, you can mix up your sauce. This part is super easy– you’re just going to mix together sour cream, vinegar, onion, and pepper in a bowl.
After your cucumbers have sat in the salt for about 10 minutes, you’ll just want to pat them dry with a paper towel to remove that excess moisture.
Then, you’ll mix together the cucumber, sour cream mixture, and a bunch of freshly chopped dill, and you’re done!
Mizeria is best served cold, so if you’re not going to consume it right away, definitely store it in the fridge.
ways to enjoy mizeria
If you’re a huge cucumber and sour cream lover, you can certainly enjoy this dish by itself, but it works best as a side dish or accompaniment to some kind of meat or fish.
My mom used to make this all the time when we had salmon for dinner, which is a great pairing. It’s also delicious with other dry meat dishes like pork or chicken.
While you can typically find cucumbers year-round depending on where you live, this is also a great summer dish when cucumbers are at their prime. The cooling sensation of the cukes and the sour cream also make this a wonderful respite on hot summer days, so it’s definitely a great dish to include at the barbecue!
⟶ the recipe
Mizeria (dill cucumber sauce)
ingredients
1 large seedless cucumber, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon salt
½ cup sour cream
1 teaspoon white vinegar
Half of a yellow or Vidalia onion, thinly sliced
Ground black pepper
½ cup chopped dill
Prep time
10 minutes
Cook time
5 minutes
Total time
15 minutes
Makes 1 cup of sauce
instructions
Place sliced cucumber in a medium bowl and sprinkle with salt. Let it sit for about 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a small bowl, mix together sour cream, vinegar, onion, and pepper to taste. Make sure ingredients are well-combined.
After the 10 minutes, pat the cucumbers dry with a paper towel. Add the sliced cucumber to the bowl and mix it in along with the dill.
Serve immediately or refrigerate until ready to use.
⟶ recipe notes
- You can use a traditional seeded cucumber, but the seedless variety helps keep the sauce from being too watery
⟶ modifications
- You can use Greek yogurt instead of the sour cream, but it will be a slightly thicker consistency
⟶ store it
- Store cucumber sauce in a tightly sealed container in the fridge for up to 3 days
