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This Asian Cucumber Salad is cool and refreshing and pairs well with many things. It’s vegan and gluten-free and is a nice addition to meals and bowls you are already making!  With a video!

Love Salads? Check out our 20+ Refreshing Cucumber Recipes  and  40 Must-Try Vegan Salads!

This Asian Cucumber Salad is cool and refreshing and pairs well with many things. It's vegan and gluten-free and is a nice addition to meals and bowls you are already making! #cucumbersalad I am not these bones, this flesh, this greying hair, I am the fire inside the shell, passing the light forward. 

Here’s a simple recipe for Asian Cucumber Salad, that I think you will fall in love with. It’s fast and easy and light and delicious! Cool, refreshing cucumbers are just what I crave during the hot summer months and this salad is no exception. It hits all the flavor notes as well- such a great combo!

And although I went the generic route and called this “Asian”, you can take this Cucumber Salad in many different directions based on what you are serving. For example, to go with a more Thai theme, you could add fish sauce, lime juice, Thai Basil, and crushed peanuts. To give it more of a Korean twist and add Gochujang. Leave out the chili paste and garlic to give it more of a Japanese spin. You get the idea. 🙂

Asian Cucumber Salad | 30-sec video

Asian Cucumber Salad made with rice vinegar, sesame, ginger, garlic and soy is cool and refreshing and pairs well with many things. It's vegan and gluten-free and is a nice addition to meals and bowls you are already making! #cucumbersalad

Ingredients in Asian Cucumber Salad:

types of cucumber to use in cucumber salad

What kind of cucumbers to use?

Use thin-skinned burpless cucumbers like Persian, Turkish or English Cucumbers, for the least bitterness and best flavor. Waxy cucumbers will work in a pinch but you will need to peel them first.

scoring the skin with a fork, elevates the salad

Expert Tips:

  1. Scoring the cucumber with the tines of a fork before slicing allows the dressing to cling to the cucumbers, making each and every bite more flavorful! A reader recently reminded me of this and it is SO true. Thanks, Joseph!
  2. Salting the cucumber beforehand helps release liquid, also creating a more flavorful salad as the dressing doesn’t get as watered down. Of course, you can skip this if in a hurry.

salt the cucumber to release their juices, making the salad even more flavorful.

So if you have time, salt the cucumbers, and place in a strainer– for 20 minutes or up to a few hours!

strain the cucumber liquid

Chop up your herbs. Here I’m simply using scallions, but feel free to play with chives, cilantro, or even Thai basil!

chop the scallions and gather the dressing ingredients

Gather your Asian Dressing Ingredients:

You can directly add these to the salad bowl with the strained cucumbers and toss. Simple!

Asian Cucumber Dressing Ingredients!

Grate a little ginger into the salad.

Grate the ginger

Grate a little garlic into the bowl.

grate the garlic clove

For a little heat- add Red chili paste or sriracha.

add red chili paste for more spice

Mix it all up and adjust salt and spice level to your liking.

Asian Cucumber Salad made with rice vinegar, sesame, ginger, garlic and soy is cool and refreshing and pairs well with many things. It's vegan and gluten-free and is a nice addition to meals and bowls you are already making! #cucumbersalad

The Asian Cucumber Salad will last 3 days in the fridge- if it makes it that long!

What to serve with Asian Cucumber Salad:

Asian Cucumber Salad made with rice vinegar, sesame, ginger, garlic and soy is cool and refreshing and pairs well with many things. It's vegan and gluten-free and is a nice addition to meals and bowls you are already making! #cucumbersalad

Asian Cucumber Salad Variations:

  • Thai Version: add crushed roasted peanuts, fish sauce and lime juice or tamarind (replace some of the vinegar).
  • Korean Version: Add Gochujang, cilantro and extra ginger and garlic.
  • Japanese Version: Leave out the garlic and chili paste, try chive blossoms.

 

Asian Cucumber Salad made with rice vinegar, sesame, ginger, garlic and soy is cool and refreshing and pairs well with many things. It's vegan and gluten-free and is a nice addition to meals and bowls you are already making! #cucumbersalad

More recipes you may like:

This recipe for Asian Cucumber Salad is made with rice vinegar, sesame, ginger, garlic and soy is cool and refreshing and pairs well with many things. It's vegan and gluten-free and is a nice addition to meals and bowls you are already making! #cucumbersalad

Enjoy the Asian Cucumber Salad- please leave your feedback and/or adaptions below, everyone loves reading these!

Hope you are having a lovely week. All is well here, hope it is with you too.

xoxo

Sylvia

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Asian Cucumber Salad made with rice vinegar, sesame, ginger, garlic and soy is cool and refreshing and pairs well with many things. It's vegan and gluten-free and is a nice addition to meals and bowls you are already making! #cucumbersalad

Asian Cucumber Salad

★★★★★ 4.9 from 52 reviews
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Description

Asian Cucumber Salad is made with rice vinegar, sesame, ginger, garlic and soy, cool and refreshing and pairs well with many things. It’s vegan and gluten-free and is a nice addition to meals and bowls you are already making!

Ingredients

Units Scale
  • 1 1/2 pounds Turkish, Persian or English cucumbers (about 5 cups sliced)
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 4–5 scallions, finely sliced
  • 1 teaspoon ginger, grated
  • 1 clove garlic, finely minced
  • 1/4 cup rice vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon soy sauce, Bragg’s Liquid Amino Acid or Coconut amino acid.
  • 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
  • 1 tablespoon maple syrup (or honey, or sugar)
  • 1 teaspoon red chili paste (or sriracha, both optional) more to taste
  • 1–2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds

Instructions

  1. Using the tines of a fork, score the cucumbers lengthwise- this will help the dressing cling to the cucumber. (Feel free to skip if in a hurry.)
  2. Slice the cucumbers thinly. Place in a bowl and toss with the salt to help them release water. Let this stand while you gather the remaining ingredients.
  3. Strain the cucumbers, (do not rinse) place them in a large bowl and add the scallions, ginger, garlic, rice vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, maple syrup, optional red chili paste and toasted sesame seeds. Mix to combine.
  4. Taste and adjust salt to your liking. Add more chili paste if you like.
  5. Refrigerate until ready to serve.  This is best served the same day but will keep up to 3 days.

Notes

Optional Additions: (see variations in post body)

Nutrition

  • Serving Size: 1 cup
  • Calories: 89
  • Sugar: 6.4 g
  • Sodium: 404.5 mg
  • Fat: 4.8 g
  • Saturated Fat: 0.7 g
  • Carbohydrates: 11.5 g
  • Fiber: 1.4 g
  • Protein: 2 g
  • Cholesterol: 0 mg

Keywords: Asian Cucumber Salad, Cucumber Salad with Rice vinegar, Asian Cucumber Salad recipe, Asian Cucumber Salad soy, vegan cucumber salad

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Comments

  1. I really enjoyed the Asian Cucumber Salad! Rather than drizzling or sprinkling the individual dressing items on the cucumbers as seen in the video, I made a little dressing in a bowl. I sampled the salad for lunch and will definitely be serving it to my family for dinner tonight! I think I will even experiment with using the dressing as a marinade for tofu sometime soon.
    Thank you, Sylvia!

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  2. Love this recipe. I also love the glass salad bowl with the wooden bottom. Can you share the source?
    Thanks so much for your beautiful recipes.

    Reply

    1. Thanks Winnie! I love that bowl too- it was a gift, so not sure where it came from!

      Reply

  3. I absolutely love this! I made it to go in my salmon rice bowl a few weeks ago and the combination was amazing! Making it again tonight.

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  4. this is so good and honestly addicting 😋 i like to add a little bit of hot chili oil into the dressing

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  6. I am assuming the rice wine vinegar you.use is unseasoned, as you add syrup or honey. I wish people when posting recipes would indicate what kind of sauce they are using, if there are multiples.
    Thank you.

    Reply

  14. Delicious! To keep it keto friendly, I used sugar free maple syrup. I call it “Faple” syrup because it is as far from the real thing as you can get.

    Either way, you couldn’t tell the difference in this salad.

    Quick, easy and diet friendly! Thanks for this.

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  15. Delicious! To keep it keto friendly, I used sugar free maple syrup. I call it Faple syrup, because it’s about as far from the real thing as you can get!

    Either way, you couldn’t tell the difference in this salad. Quick, easy and diet friendly! Thanks did for this.

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  18. Used a couple of English cucumbers from my garden. Super crispy, until I salted them. Now I have limp cucumbers for my salad. Is this traditional in Asian cooking? I am thinking I would have liked this better without the salting step. Love you blog! Have made several of your recipes. Thank you! Next up, Curried Zucchini Soup.

    Reply

    1. Try it with out salting. Yes, it is somewhat tradional but there are no rules here.;) Be a rebel! xoxoxo

      Reply

  19. Another hit! I used garden cukes because I have like 400 of them, opted in for sambal olek, and I also folded in some perfectly ripe avocado because that’s what one does with perfect avocado. Then I ate the whole thing by myself.

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  20. We have been making this Asian Cucumber Salad every week since you posted. It’s simply the best!

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  21. My new favorite cucumber salad recipe, even without the scallions and subbing 1/2 tsp ground ginger because I was in a hurry. Thanks!

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  22. Beautiful presentation! We love this and all your recipes. Thanks for sharing. We know a blog is hard work, and we appreciate it. xo

    Reply

  23. This Asian Cucumber Salad is my new favorite! Used cucumbers from the garden and the flavor was outstanding. served it with your Katsu Tofu and Furikake Rice. All excellent!.

    ★★★★★

    Reply

    1. I’m so glad you liked this Jenny, and I imagine it was even better with those fresh cucumbers!

      Reply

  24. Mid-summer last year, I had an abundance of nice young zucchini–sliced thin, it also works well with this same dressing. You don’t have the juiciness or crispiness of the cukes, but the tender-firm texture of young raw zucchini is lovely in its own right, and it doesn’t dilute the dressing. One of my summer faves. Thanks for this Sylvia!

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  25. So I was planning to make cucumber salad the way my granny made it-cucumber, sliced white onion, white vinegar, salt, black pepper, and sugar to taste. Then I read your recipe. I’ll let you know how it turns out. 😉

    Reply

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Hi, I'm Sylvia!

Chef and author of the whole-foods recipe blog, Feasting at Home, Sylvia Fountaine is a former restaurant owner and caterer turned full-time food blogger. She currently lives in the Pacific Northwest and shares seasonal, healthy recipes along with tips and tricks from her home kitchen.

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