Even though Polish supermarkets carry produce from all over the globe, Poles tend to eat what’s in season locally, at least to a greater extent than we do here in the States.
At a lunch meeting with Polish friends in the fall, one of the ladies remarked, “This will be my last salad until spring.” The restaurant will likely still be offering a salad on the menu, she just didn’t plan to order it. That line of thinking makes spring and summer the perfect time of year for Mizeria (Polish Cucumber Salad).
No matter when you’re making mizeria, let me say that it goes so well with schabowy, sausages, burgers, or just about anything!
The benefits of cucumbers
Besides this dish being delicious, there are so many health benefits to eating cucumbers. Let me name a few:
- hydration
- nutrient-rich
- digestive health
- antioxidants
- bone health
- anti-inflammatory
- heart health
Why wouldn’t you eat this? Every time I make mizeria, I ask myself why I don’t make it more often. It’s so easy to prepare and yummy.
The story behind mizeria
Mizeria is the Polish word for misery. The taste is wonderful, but the dish was said to have made Queen Bona Sforza, an Italian princess who married Polish King Sigismund I in the 16th century homesick for Italy.
The queen is credited with bringing a great variety of vegetables to Poland. The popularity of her Italian imports soon spread beyond the confines of the garden at Wawel Castle in Kraków.
I’ve been told the Polish word for the vegetable bundles sold in Polish markets for making soup means “things from Italy” because of the new plants she brought to Poland.
This salad of cucumbers in sour cream is a cool and refreshing side dish. Even in their somewhat wilted state (from the salt and vinegar), the cukes still provide some crunch.
I ended up making two batches of Mizeria before this post. The first vinegar I grabbed from my pantry was a fig balsamic vinegar. The color of the balsamic vinegar was so dark that it turned the sour cream brown, not exactly what I was hoping to photograph.
So I whipped up a second batch with apple cider vinegar. Fortunately, we really like this salad, so having two bowls of it is not a problem.
I have to say that for flavor, I preferred fig balsamic vinegar even though it would not be a traditional choice. It went so nicely with the other tastes and the hint of fig added an interesting note.
My fig balsamic dressing sounds a little too Mediterranean for a Polish dish, but it does seem to be in keeping with the trend set by Queen Bona Sforza. Whatever vinegar you choose, I know you’ll enjoy Mizeria (Polish Cucumber Salad).
Smacznego!
Lois
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Mizeria (Polish Cucumber Salad)
- Prep Time: 30 mins
- Total Time: 30 mins
- Yield: Serves 4
- Category: Salad
- Cuisine: Polish
Description
A refreshing salad of cucumbers in sour cream
Ingredients
- 2 cucumbers
- Salt
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 2 tablespoons vinegar
- 1 tablespoon finely cut chives or green onions
- 1 tables finely cut fresh dill
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- For ordinary cucumbers, peel, slice lengthwise and remove the seeds
- Slice as thin as possible, no more than 1/8 inch
- If you’re using the thin skinned hot house cucumbers, just slice
- Spread out the slices and sprinkle with salt
- After 20 minutes pat and press with a paper towel
- Combine the sour cream, vinegar, chives, dill, sugar, 1/2 teaspoon salt , and pepper
- Chill
An accountant by trade and a food blogger since 2009, Lois Britton fell in love with Polish cuisine during the years she lived in Poznań, Poland. As the creator of PolishHousewife.com, she loves connecting readers with traditional Polish recipes. Lois has a graduate certificate in Food Writing and Photography from the University of South Florida. She is the author of The Polish Housewife Cookbook, available on Amazon and on her website.
JUDI HUGHES
First time my Irish husband had this at my parent’s house, he neatly lost his mind! This became a constant in our home, and he excelled in preparing this and other traditional Polish dishes. He died in 2002 at the age of 42. I miss him EVERY day, but this memory has made me smile!
polishhousewife
I’m so sorry for your loss, Judi. I’m glad this made you smile. ❤️
Elizabeth Beaudoin
You have given me inspiration. Recently I purchased a white balsamic pear/cranberry vinegar so will try it with the mizeria. I have to wait for my own cucumbers which make an appearance in July but the dill is showing up….what is a Polish garden without dill??? I am glad to hear that the fig was not too sweet. The sour cream would mitigate the sweetness. Thank you.
polishhousewife
Let me know how it goes, Elizabeth! Pear/cranberry sounds great!
Teresa
Ha Ha. I just realized I’m a complete failure as a Polish woman because I don’t have dill in my garden! I do get what you mean though – it was rampant in my Mum’s garden, along with the parsley. I have the descendants of my Mum’s parsley in my own garden. The other thing I’m really bad at is that I’ve evolved my own variation of mizeria. Never liked salt (although do understand why it’s used here), so I don’t salt my cucumbers and use a particularly heavy clotted type cream (Mum never used sour cream either). I also chop a little Vietnamese mint through, and sometimes some snow peas (mange tout) as well. Does this make my variation a ‘fusion’ dish? LOL. I just made a mizeria to go with dinner tonight, and thought I’d check to see how far I’d strayed from the original. Thanks most kindly.
polishhousewife
Your version of mizeria sounds wonderful, Teresa! My friend the English teacher told me that a living languages changes over time, and I think the same is true of cuisines!
David
Cucumber salads are wonderful, especially as the heat rises! I look forward to making this, Lois, and serving it aside some chilled poached salmon.
polishhousewife
I often serve it with the Polish version of schnitzel, but I think your chilled poached salmon will be just the thing for our summer heat!
Karen Koryl
Thanks for this recipe…I love cukes with sour cram etc. I really never knew how POLISH it was even though my Polish mom made it all the time. So, what kind of Polish Princess am I ????HaHa
polishhousewife
Enjoy, Karen!
monika
Two long English cucumbers or two (regular-sized) garden cucumbers?
polishhousewife
I think I used regular cucumbers.
Julie Kenkel
My mom made this all our lives. Never realized it was Polish until I visited Poland, in 2000, and it was at the breakfast buffet at the hotel we stayed at. My mom’s family is Polish, well, it was Prussia when they emigrated to the US. It is a terrific dish, thanks for sharing Lois!
polishhousewife
My pleasure, Julie!
Jeanne 2
I’m Hungarian. We make it with no vinegar or sugar.
Salt sliced cucumbers and onionet sit and squeeze out. Add sour cream and mix. Pepper. Done
polishhousewife
Thanks for sharing your version, Jeanne!
Tom Etheridge
I made this tonight to accompany a big pot of Bigos. it was perfect!
polishhousewife
I’m glad you enjoyed it, Tom!
Pat Adams
I came into some free cucumbers from a neighbor and made this last week to accompany our grilled salmon. I used Sicilian Lemon white balsamic vinegar and it was superb. I want to make it again but the store I went to didn’t have dill. I have lots of mint growing in my herb garden and plan to sub mint for the dill.
Patricia Adams
The mint was a good substitute for the dill I couldn’t find in this Corona isolation time. My husband like it better than the dill version. I used the Sicilian lemon white balsamic vinegar with both versions.
polishhousewife
I’m glad to hear it worked for you!
Karen Zaorski
Made this over the weekend for a lovely Polish meal with family at the lake. Used Greek yogurt rather than sour cream and it was refreshing and delicious! So easy to throw together. Used my mandolin to thinly slice the cucs.
polishhousewife
I’m so glad to hear you enjoyed it, Karen. Thanks for taking the time to let us know.
Anna
One correction: Polish word for vegetables does means things from Italy, your friend meant something else. Warzywa comes from boiling and jarzyny comes from spring wheat. I pressume they must have been reffering to “wloszczyzna” – which means it’s Italian, but it’s a mix of vegetables that you usually cook your soup and includes a mix of vegetables including carrots, root parsley, celery and leek. But not cucumbers.
Susan
Loved this cucumber salad. I made it as a side dish tonight and everyone loved it. My mother in law won’t eat sour cream so when she tried it and loved it, I was very pleased. She asked what made it creamy. I told her and she said she normally doesn’t like anything with sour cream. It was a hit.
polishhousewife
That’s great, Susan. I’m so glad your family enjoyed it! Thanks for letting me know.
Susan
Hello,
I’d like to make this salad ahead of time. Will it keep in the fridge for 6 or 7 hours?
Thank you!
Susan
polishhousewife
I think it will be fine. I even eat leftovers the next day.
Edyta
MIzeria DOES NOT mean misery! More likely the word derives from “mizerna” which means measly, scanty, poor people’s food.
David Wolinski
Grew up with two Polish grandmothers in Nebraska. Now we operate a bed and breakfast in Colorado Springs, We serve our version of mizeria over boiled potatoes along with scrambled eggs and a rasher of bacon for breakfast. Guests love it!
polishhousewife
It sounds like a great combo, David!
Dennis
Made two batches. One with non-dairy sour cream, the other with dairy. Both came out delightful!
Mark Smith
Modified by deleting salt and adding chick peas. Used white onion as green onion not available.
I usually make an Italian inspired version with balsamic vinegar and virgin olive oil. This looked good on Beryl’s podcast.
Giving it a try. Looks like it would pair well with German potato salad 🙂
B W NORRIS.
Happy to see this. A little different than my recipe but all is good thank you. I dont measure. And sometimes i add a little cottage cheese…. make it differently each ttime
polishhousewife
Sometimes the hard part about writing a food blog is remembering to measure everything! LOL