Mizeria (Polish Cucumber Salad)

Name: Mizeria (Polish Cucumber Salad)
Prep time: 30 min
Total time: 30 min
Cuisine: Polish
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

October 26, 2023 by Lois Britton 40 Comments

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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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