Asian Cucumber Salad

The salad is gluten free, nutritious and delicious. Make this crispy cucumber recipe. I believe it will soon become one of your favorite summer side dishes!

Smashed Cucumber Salad Asian Style

Honestly until I started making Asian cucumber salads, I had never smashed a cucumber before slicing it. The step makes a lot of sense when making a salad like this though.

One of the biggest difficulties in making a good cucumber salad is avoiding watery dressing. Cucumbers are already challenging to get salad dressing to adhere to well. Getting excess water out of them helps reduce water seeping from the cucumber and thinning the dressing.

Salting cucumbers before using them in a salad helps pull out liquid and smashing the vegetable before slicing opens up the cucumber flesh for the salt to do it's work. The Asian dressing can also seep into the tiny crannies created when the cucumbers are smashed, adding flavor.

What Type of Cucumbers to Use

Most seedless cucumber varieties can be used in this Asian cucumber salad. Popular choices are Japanese cucumbers, Persian cucumbers, English cucumbers or even mini cucumbers. I use readily available English cucumbers myself.

I don't recommend using the regular cucumbers most Americans tend to use in salads, as the centers tend to be softer and seedy. The skins are tough also. We want crunchy cucumbers, but not chewy skin.

How to Make Asian Cucumber Salad

Let's make this easy cucumber salad with fresh Asian dressing. I've included step-by-step images with the recipe to help guide you. If you prefer, jump right down to the printable recipe card.

The recipe makes 4 side dish servings.

Prep time: 10 mins Soaking Time: 15 minutes (min)

Ingredients you will need for Asian Cucumber Salad

• 1 English cucumber most seedless thin skinned fresh cucumbers will be fine
• ½ teaspoon Kosher salt or sea salt
• ⅛ to ¼ of a red onion
• 1 tablespoon green onions, sliced
• ½ tablespoon sesame seeds (I used black sesame seeds)

Asian Cucumber Salad Dressing Ingredients

• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar if you prefer
• 2 teaspoons honey (or 1 tablespoon sugar)
• 1 ½ teaspoon sesame oil (toasted or dark sesame oil)
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• ¼ teaspoon ground ginger or 1 teaspoon of fresh grated ginger

Instructions for Preparing the Cucumber Salad

Now that you've gathered your ingredients, it is time to prepare the cucumber salad recipe.

Start by peeling the cucumber while leaving strips of the green skin.

Then use a cleaver, rolling pin or small skillet to smash the cucumber. The goal is to break up the insides a bit, not completely pulverize it.

Then chop or slice the cucumbers to your preference. I just cut mine up into bite sized pieces, by quartering and chopping, as shown.

If you choose to go with thinly sliced cucumbers, you can skip the earlier smashing step.

Dump the cucumber pieces into a large bowl and toss with the salt. Set aside at least 15 minutes to allow the juices to seep out.

While the salt is drawing out the moisture, mix up the Asian vinaigrette in a small bowl. I add the liquid ingredients first, then add the garlic, red pepper flakes and ginger. Mix well with a whisk or fork.

Slice up the green and red onions.

Drain the liquid out of the cucumbers and discard.

Return the drained cucumbers to the large bowl, add both types of onion and the sesame seeds.

Pour in the Asian salad dressing. Toss together and serve immediately or refrigerate to serve later.

Keto Asian Cucumber Salad Recipe

Making this delicious recipe into a Keto Cucumber salad is really an easy adaptation. The only change to the initial version needed is to swap the honey for a tablespoon of erythritol or a measures like sugar substitute you prefer. The resulting dish will have 35 calories and 3 net carbs per serving!

Serving Asian Cucumber Salad

Of course Asian cucumber salad makes a perfect appetizer or accompaniment to a host of Asian dishes, such as: Mongolian Beef, Pork Katsu, Asian Chicken Drumsticks, Char Siu Bao and Fried Rice.

It is also great with grilled meats such as: Indonesian Grilled Chicken, Chili Orange Pork Chops or my Grilled Boneless Chicken Thighs in Turmeric Greek Yogurt Marinade.

Pair the salad as a side for sandwiches too. It is nice with a simple egg salad or chicken salad sandwich. It can counteract some of the fishiness of a tuna salad sandwich and goes beautifully with my Asian Chicken Burger!

If Asian flavors are not a good match for your main dish, try my Greek inspired Cucumber Tomato Feta Salad.

Storing the Salad

It is quite easy to store this super refreshing healthy cucumber salad. Simply put it in an airtight container and store in the fridge. The salad will last for up to 2 days, but quality quickly diminishes. The cucumbers will have lost some of their crispness on the second day. Eating it sooner rather than later is recommended.

It isn't hard to use the leftovers up quick, they are amazingly versatile. I've even tossed some in a chicken stir fry to go in a wrap and the results were yummy!