The ingredients are simple yet the sour cream & fresh dill dressing brings a lovely full flavor to this chilled salad. This salad, also known as Gurkensalat is fresh and light and makes a perfect side dish.

The Sour Cream & Fresh Dill Dressing

For the creamy dressing start with a base of sour cream. Add vinegar, sugar, salt, pepper & lots of fresh dill.

We use white distilled vinegar but have seen variations of this recipe using cider vinegar. I’m certain that would give a refreshingly different taste.

For the German Cucumber Salad

I like to use English cucumbers because the seeds are very small and have less moisture. There’s no need to peel them either which makes this salad that much easier. We used a mandolin to thinly slice them and added a little white and red onion.

Once the dressing is added I like to chill the salad for a couple hours before serving. The cucumbers really take on the nice tart dill flavor.

Creamy German Cucumber-Dill Salad is best enjoyed within a few hours of dressing, but will keep in the refrigerator a couple days if needed.

Check out a few of our other Oktoberfest inspired recipes.

• Wienerschnitzel
• Sweet & Sour Red Cabbage
• Warm German Potato Salad
• Sauerkraut
• Simple Sage Brown Butter Spaetzle

Don’t forget to follow us @LemonyThyme on Instagram and Facebook! And check out our latest TikTok videos and Pinterest boards too!

All my best,
xo Libby

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Creamy German Cucumber-Dill Salad (Gurkensalat)

This simple Creamy German Cucumber-Dill salad, also known as Gurkensalat, is fresh and light and makes a perfect side dish.

Course Salad, Side Dish

Cuisine German/Austrian

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Resting Time 2 hours hours

Servings 6

Author Libby with Lemony Thyme

Ingredients

For the Cucumber Salad

• 2 English cucumbers sliced very thin
• 1/4 cup or more to taste red or white onion sliced very thin

For the Dill Dressing

• 1/2 cup sour cream or Greek yogurt
• 2 Tablespoons, plus more for garnish fresh dill chopped
• 2 Tablespoon white distilled vinegar
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• salt & pepper to taste

Instructions

For Cucumber Salad

• Thinly slice cucumbers and onion using a mandolin or very sharp knife.

For the Dill Dressing

• Combine all dressing ingredients in a medium bowl. Add the sliced cucumbers and onions 2 hours before serving. Adjust salt & pepper to taste. Garnish with fresh dill to serve.

The post Creamy German Cucumber-Dill Salad (Gurkensalat) appeared first on Lemony Thyme.

You make homemade Quick Sauerkraut!

I mean why not, you’ve got this!

Quick Sauerkraut is so easy to make.

It’s literally cabbage, white vinegar, salt & water cooked down until the cabbage is tender, about 30 minutes. I added apple to bring another layer of tart flavor.

This recipe is adapted from Martha Stewart. She’s knows a thing or two about great recipes.

This dish makes a good bratwurst feel right at home! Hot off the grill with kraut and mustard sings of summer.

I grew up with sauerkraut and kielbasa. I think I remember my mom making it at least once a week. I wasn’t a huge fan then, but I sure love a good kraut now!

Little did I know at the time that sauerkraut is really good for you. It’s nutritious and loaded with probiotics and vitamin K2. It can also aid with digestion. Mom knows best!

Besides – having homemade sauerkraut on hand (stores in fridge for up to two weeks) gives you ample opportunity to make The Classic Reuben Sandwich or Hot Reuben Dip!

Two of my favorite recipes.

Next time impress your friends and family with a from scratch sauerkraut recipe. They’ll taste the difference!

I’d love for you to share a comment below or on our social media pages @LemonyThyme. xo Libby

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Quick Sauerkraut {with Apples}

In about 30 minutes you'll be serving your friends and family homemade Sauerkraut that will be the star of the show!

Course Side Dish

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes minutes

Servings 6

Author adapted from Martha Stewart

Ingredients

• 1 small head green cabbage halved, cored and thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup distilled white vinegar
• 1 Tbl coarse salt
• 1 granny smith apple peeled, cored and julienned

Instructions

• In a medium saucepan, combine cabbage, vinegar, salt, and 1 1/4 cups water. Cover and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally for 15 minutes. Add apple and cook an additional 15 minutes. Serve warm and enjoy!

The post Quick Sauerkraut {with Apples} appeared first on Lemony Thyme.

Sweet.  Crisp.  Bread & Butter Pickles.  We’re hooked.  Fortunately these pickles are super easy to make and just a day away from pickle perfection.

October may seem like an odd time of year to put out a pickle recipe.  After all, our local farmers market has closed for the season.  The thing is, we’ve enjoyed these pickles all summer long and I’m just now coming around to post them.

So while in-season pickling cukes might be best for making pickles, I have learned that salad cucumbers work just fine.  Their skins are a bit thicker, but that has been no challenge for this pickling liquid.  I assure you, these Bread & Butter Pickles are perfectly sweet and punchy.

I used our trusty mandolin fitted with a ridge blade to slice the cucumbers.  Slicing them with a knife, either in rounds like this or into spears, works well also.  Once sliced, the cucumbers are salted and allowed to sit refrigerated for an hour, before being rinsed to remove the salt.

The pickling liquid is a combination of sugars and vinegars with mustard and celery seed, along with a bit of turmeric.  It is the perfect balance of sweet with a sour bite finish.

This picture is eye candy.  A jar of pickle love.

Earlier this summer, while visiting my local farmers market, I bought cucumbers.  I don’t eat cucumbers, in their raw form.  I like them, they don’t like me.  But I am a sucker for old-timey farmers and can’t walk by without speaking (and most often purchasing) from each and every one of them.  I happily bought the last 2 pounds of his pickling cukes and promptly began recipe research for pickles…a mutual love.  I found this recipe from Recipe Girl and have never looked back.

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Bread & Butter Pickles

Prep Time 2 hours hours

Total Time 2 hours hours

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 lbs. thinly sliced pickling cucumbers
• 1 1/2 Tbl. kosher salt
• 1 cup thinly sliced sweet onion
• 1 cup granulated white sugar
• 1 cup white vinegar
• 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp. mustard seeds
• 1/2 tsp. celery seeds
• 1/8 tsp. turmeric

Instructions

• Place cucumbers in a large bowl and toss with salt; cover and refrigerate for 1 hour. Transfer to a colander and rinse under cold water to remove the salt. Drain well and return to bowl; add sliced onion.
• In a medium saucepan combine sugars, vinegars and remaining ingredients. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Pour hot pickling liquid over cucumbers and onions. Allow to sit at room temperature for 1 hour.
• Transfer pickles to covered jars and refrigerate for 24 hours. Store refrigerated for up to two weeks.

The post Bread & Butter Pickles appeared first on Lemony Thyme.

We love Caesar Salad.  For these reasons.  Homemade Croutons and Caesar Dressing.  I’m just being honest.  Yes, we enjoy the lovely crunch of romaine lettuce, and the nutty saltines of fresh shaved Parmesan cheese.  We even add warm boiled eggs, which are incredible on this salad.  But it all comes back to the Homemade Croutons and Caesar Salad Dressing.

For us, it’s always been Cardini’s Original Caesar Dressing.  In fact, I felt a bit foolish even bothering to make my own Caesar dressing.  But as I continue down this foodie path I find myself stepping up to ‘the challenge’ on more and more occasions.  And if I am ever stranded on a ‘fresh food only’ deserted island I want to be prepared.  And I will want Caesar Dressing.

Recipe Note:  We’ve found buying anchovy paste vs. anchovy fillets is more versatile.  It comes in a tube and can be stored in the refrigerator for several months after opening.  Anchovy paste adds a complexity to dishes, and in the case of Caesar dressing it’s essential.  You’ll find it sold at most Whole Foods Markets or specialty stores.  1/2 tsp. anchovy paste = 1 anchovy fillet.

Recipe Note2:  My plan was to follow a recipe from Food Network pretty closely.  Because, even though I know what Caesar Salad Dressing should taste like, this was my first attempt.  Well, things didn’t go quite according to plan.  There’s really no other way to put it, I forgot to add the vinegar and since the lemon was optional I didn’t use it.  My adapted version was so stinking unctuous (the kind that makes your husband declare this is the only salad dressing he ever wants to have from now on, ever)…that I have modified the recipe.

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Caesar Salad Dressing

Cook Time 10 minutes minutes

Total Time 10 minutes minutes

Servings 4

Author adapted from Food Network

Ingredients

• 6 cloves garlic minced
• 1 tsp. anchovy paste or 2 anchovy fillets
• 1 Tbl. Dijon mustard
• 2 Tbl. mayonnaise
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• kosher salt & pepper

Instructions

• Combine garlic, mustard, mayonnaise, and anchovy paste in a blender or small food processor and mix thoroughly. In a slow stream add olive oil through the hole in lid. Scrape down sides of bowl. Season with salt, pepper to taste.
• Refrigerate unused portion for up to 7 days.

The post Homemade Caesar Salad Dressing appeared first on Lemony Thyme.

Peruvian Chicken.  When my co-worker Cindy told me she had a recipe that was right up my alley…I listened.  She knows me.  Peruvian Chicken she promised was packed full of incredible make-you-get-a-little-giddy flavor…and wouldn’t you know this recipe is just in time for Winter Thyme Spice Exploration.  She really knows me.

You might know this about us by now….every week we cook a whole chicken.  Why wouldn’t we?  You get an amazing chicken dinner on night #1, glorious homemade chicken broth and leftover chicken on night #2 (or 3 if you don’t feel like dealing with it), and on subsequent days you can make sumptuous soups, stews, or chilis.  Why not cook a whole chicken every week?!!  Peruvian Chicken Soup here we come.

Once Peruvian Roast Chicken was on my radar I did my typical recipe research.  There are many similar recipes out there for this make-you-get-a-little-giddy dish.  They call for a marinade of white vinegar or lemon juice, olive oil or canola, garlic , paprika, cumin, oregano, pepper, and salt.  We mostly followed this recipe for El Pollo Rico aka Peruvian Chicken.  A slow mud bath in the divine paste (4-24 hours) and then onto the…..grill, rotisserie, beer can chicken Bodacious roaster.  We chose to use our Bodacious roaster because it gives the chicken skin the most exposure, resulting in crispy skin which we love.  In addition, this roaster has what we call ‘the moat’.  The place where delicious juicy love ends up at the end of cooking.  We’ll come back to that in a moment.  We started roasting slow in a cold oven set at 300 degree for 1 hour, moved up to 350 for the next 45 minutes, then crisped this South American Goddess for another 15 minutes at 400 degrees, until her timer said “Pop.”

Recipe note:  you can stick a thermometer in it or you can just trust what chicken experts have already figured out….the pop-up timer. 

Recipe note #2: you could just cook this at 350 degrees the entire time.  Not sure why we didn’t.

We paired this glorious bird with an absolutely amazing Quinoa recipe I pulled together incorporating as many Peruvian ingredients we had on hand.  I did not know, but my research helped me discover, that Quinoa originated in the Andean region of Peru, Ecuador, and neighboring countries in South America.  It was delicious on it’s own and may find it’s way into our next post.

As it turns out, Peruvian Roast Chicken yields a nice amount of pan drippings (which collected in the moat).  While carving the chicken I raked a piece through the this juicy love and out of no where there was one of those angels-singing moments in our kitchen.  Holy Moat…the paprika based marinade combined with the chicken drippings made the most glorious sauce.  So we liberally spooned it over our chicken and Quinoa.  I recommend you do the same.

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Peruvian Roast Chicken

Prep Time 12 hours hours

Cook Time 2 hours hours

Total Time 14 hours hours

Servings 4 -6

Ingredients

For the marinade…

• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 2-3 garlic cloves minced
• 2 Tablespoons smoked paprika
• 1 Tablespoon ground cumin
• 1 Tablespoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper

For the chicken…

• 1 whole chicken the biggest you can find (aka 6-7 lbs.)

Instructions

• Mix all marinade ingredients together and slather over chicken and under chicken skin. Place chicken in a zip lock bag or bowl for 4 – 24 hours
• We used our Bodacious beer-can chicken roaster, however a shallow roasting pan with a rack would work as well.
• Place chicken in cold oven, then set to 300 degrees. Bake 1 hour, then increase temp. to 350 degrees for an additional 45 minutes. Increase temp. to 375 degrees for final 15 minutes, or until done.
• Let chicken rest for 15 – 20 minutes before carving.
• Reserve pan drippings to spoon over chicken.

The post Peruvian Roast Chicken {She Knows Me} appeared first on Lemony Thyme.

This Southwest Ranch Dressing is amazing.  Trust me and make it.

Southwest Ranch Dressing is a combination of ingredients you likely already have on hand. Creamy Buttermilk Ranch and Mayonnaise, with tart and spicy white vinegar, ketchup and sriracha, seasoned by chili powder and ground cumin.

You’re going to want to drizzle this Southwest Ranch Dressing on everything!

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Southwest Ranch Dressing

You're going to want to drizzle this Southwest Ranch Dressing on everything!

Author Libby with Lemony Thyme

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup ranch salad dressing
• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 1 Tablespoon white vinegar
• 1 teaspoon sriracha hot sauce
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

Instructions

• Combine all ingredients. Chill before serving.

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