Sweet and spicy Korean Cucumber Salad (Oi Muchim) is cool, crunchy and refreshing. Easy to make, with simple ingredeints, it’s healthy, delicious, and vegan. Video.
Now I see the secret of making the best person: it is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth.
Walt Whitman
We are smitten with this Korean Cucumber Salad recipe! Cucumber and scallions are tossed in a slightly sweet and spicy dressing made with Gochugaru chili flakes (Korean chili flakes). Serve this as a refreshing side dish or a tasty addition to Korean Tacos or Korean Rice bowls.
Why You Will Love This!
- Quick & Easy! Make it in 30 minutes!
- Authentic Flavors! So refreshing and a perfect balance of salty, spicy, sweet.
- Healthy and Light! Cucumbers are packed with water, magnesium, vitamin C, calcium, potassium, and quercetin. They are hydrating and anti-inflammatory, help reduce puffiness and redness, and may lower blood sugar levels.
Korean Cucumber Salad Recipe Ingredeints
- Cucumber- English cucumbers, Japanese cucumbers, Armenian cucumbers, or Persian cucumbers- any thin-skinned variety with minimal seeds.
- Rice Vinegar– best for flavor but in a pinch substituting with apple cider vinegar, or champagne vinegar is fine.
- Green onions- or scallions add lovely flavor and color.
- Sesame oil– toasty deep flavor.
- Sesame seeds – for finishing the salad, and adding texture.
- Sugar– honey or maple syrup will work too.
- Gochugaru- dried Korean red pepper flakes, spicy but not super hot, start with less and add more to taste. This is a really unique flavor that is key is achieving the Korean taste. You could substitute with regular chili flakes or Aleppo chili flakes, or even cayenne pepper- but it will not give it that authentic Korean taste.
See the recipe card below for a full list of ingredients and measurements.
How to make it!
Step 1: In a colander, toss cucumbers with 1 teaspoon of salt and set over a plate for 30 minutes. (See notes for skipping this step).
Lightly rinse the cucumber slices. Use a towel to blot and dry removing excess moisture.
Step 2: In a large mixing bowl whisk together the soy sauce, vinegar, honey, sesame oil, scallions, and Gochogaru chili flakes.
Step 3: Add the salted, rinsed, blotted, cucumbers to the dressing in the bowl and mix.
Serving Suggestions and Storage
Serve the salad sprinkled with sesame seeds and fresh cilantro. Leftovers will keep 3-4 days in the refrigerator, but after day two the cucumbers will become less crisp.
FAQS
Gochugaru chili flakes ( or Korean chili flakes) have a really unique flavor that is key in achieving the Korean taste. You could substitute with ground gochugaru powder, gochujang, or even red pepper flakes or Aleppo chili but it is not going to give it that authentic taste.
It allows the cucumbers to release their liquid making the finished salad less watery and the flavor less diluted. It also gives the salad a refreshing crunch, keeping the cucumbers crisp.
In Korea, this means cucumber salad. In Korean Oi=cucumber, Muchim=to season or to coat.
Packed with water, magnesium, and potassium, cucumbers are hydrating as well as anti-inflammatory, helping to reduce puffiness, redness and may help lower blood sugar levels.
What to Serve with it!
Korean cucumber salad is typically served as a summer banchan because of its cooling effects, along with Korean BBQ and rice.
More Cucumber Salads You'll love!
Cucumbers are so cooling and refreshing in the warm summer months-and pair with many things!
I hope you love this as much as we do!
Love this recipe? Please let us know in the comments and leave a 5-star ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating below the recipe card.
Korean cucumber Salad VideO
Korean Cucumber Salad Recipe
- Prep Time: 30
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 5-6 cups
- Category: salad, sidedish
- Method: tossed
- Cuisine: Korean
- Diet: Vegan
Description
Tangy spicy Korean Cucumber Salad (Oi Muchim) is crunchy, cool, and refreshing. An easy-to-make Korean cucumber side dish that is healthy and delicious. Watch the video!
Ingredients
- 4 cups cucumber, sliced into thick rounds or 1/2 moons (English cucumber, Japanese, Armenian, or Persian- thin-skinned, seedless is preferred)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce
- 3 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 1 tablespoon sugar (honey or maple)
- 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
- 2 scallions, sliced thin
- 1– 2 teaspoons Gochugaru Korean chili pepper flakes (spicy but not super hot, start with less and add more to taste)
- toasted sesame seeds
- fresh cilantro for garnish
Instructions
- In a colander, toss cucumbers with the 1 teaspoon of salt and set over a plate for 30 minutes. (See notes for skipping this step).
- In a bowl whisk together the soy sauce, vinegar, honey, sesame oil, scallions and Gochogaru flakes.
- Lightly rinse the cucumber slices and use a kitchen towel to blot and dry. Add to the dressing in the bowl and mix.
- Serve sprinkled with sesame seeds and fresh cilantro.
Notes
If short on time, you can skip the salting step- it is delicious either way, salting releases water from the cucumbers making the salad less watery and giving the the cucumbers a crisp texture.
Optional additions: 1 garlic clove, finely minced, 1 teaspoon fish sauce (leave out soy), thinly sliced carrots and onions.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cup
- Calories: 40
- Sugar: 3 g
- Sodium: 153.8 mg
- Fat: 2.8 g
- Saturated Fat: 0.4 g
- Carbohydrates: 3.8 g
- Fiber: 0.2 g
- Protein: 0.3 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
The salting of the cukes is worth it
Glad you gave it a try! Thanks for the review.
Delicious! I had several cucumbers from my garden and couldn’t imagine how to present them in interesting ways… thank you for this recipe.
Glad you enjoyed Colleen!
Delicious salad
Will remember this next year when I have lots of cucumbers
Glad you enjoyed Geraldine! Thanks for leaving a review.:)
AWSOME! This is the recipe I use when I don’t have Kimchi (from Hmart) around. Everyone loves it, tho, I do put in one super finely minced garlic. However, still delish without — I know, I tried it before I added garlic! Excellent with Bulgogi lettuce wraps.
Great to hear Oak!
I make this often, as both my husband and I love it, especially when we have cucumbers fresh from the garden. I could only find the Gochugaru flakes in an 8 ounce pouch on Amazon, so in order to keep it fresh, I used my Food Sealer and made little pouches. I placed 2 Tablespoons in each pouch, sealed them up, and now keep in the freezer for easy access whenever I want a spicy Korean dish!
So smart! Love that you are enjoying!
Absolutely delicious!
Light, refreshing, satisfying crunch.
Love eating this in the summer!
So glad you are enjoying! Perfect hot weather food.
This is so easy and delicious! I was looking for a cucumber kim chee recipe since cucumbers were on sale. I choose this recipe instead and am glad I did, it’s fantastic! I used Trader Joe’s Gochujang paste and since I like things spicy I added 1 T. I’ll be making this all summer!
So glad you gave it a try Renee!
Loved this salad!!!!
We had two cucumbers next time will use alot more, such a delicious way to eat cucumber seeds in we ate it all thank you
Great! Glad you enjoyed.
My daughter loves any Asian recipe. She loved this so much that she took it to lunch at school. Her friends were jealous and thought I was the best cook in the world!
Awesome Melinda, love it!
It’s so tasty! It has just the right amount of heat that blends so well with the cooling cucumber slices!
Thanks Susan!
Incredible and healthy! Ate it all in one sitting.
Great to hear Joe!
So much flavor! We devoured this.
Awesome to hear Peter!
Just made this last night to go along side the Korean Chicken Wings. Very delicious. I didn’t find the Gochogaru flakes so I simply used paste. Refreshing and delicious!
Awesome to hear Kate!
made this about 1 hr ago, chilled it and it taste’s SOOO good, my new go-to cucumber salad recipe, thanks!
Yay! Glad to hear it. 🙂
The dressing is perfect. We loved it so much we added carrots, shredded red cabbage, and broccoli. Delicious!
Awesome Shawn! I’m so happy you gave it a go!
Oh my, so delicious! Thank you for this lovely recipe. It was very hot today, so I ate it for breakfast!
Great to hear Maggie! And thanks so much for the quick feedback and rating… very appreciated. ❤️
This looks really good! Currently, we have 2 cucumbers so that will be fine!!!!
Yes, give it a go!
Such lovely flavor and incredibly quick and easy to make. A perfect recipe to help put a dent in our cucumber harvest. I used Aleppo pepper because I had it on hand. I’ll definitely try the authentic version when able.
Glad you enjoyed Karen! Abundant cucumbers…yay!
All the things! Crunchy, sweet, sour…everything all at once. Easy peasy recipe.
Yes so good and easy!