Asian Cucumber Salad

Asian Cucumber Salad with fresh crunchy Cucumber, Onion and an Asian dressing is a great side dish for any meal. It is very easy and quick to make.

Fresh cucumber, Onion Slices, green onion everything tossed in a delicious Asian Salad dressing. This Asian cucumber salad is so refreshing and simple to make. The Asian dressing packed with flavour, it is tangy, sweet and with just a hint of heat from red chilli flakes.

It time we take a break from creamy Cucumber salad and give this version a try.  I was not sure how the family is gonna like this salad, because we are so used to the regular creamy version. In India Yoghurt based Cucumber raita a part of an everyday meal. Surprisingly, it was received well.

This salad goes well as a side dish with a barbeque or a potluck. During summer it is great because of cucumbers cooling property. Actually you can make this salad at any time of the year because the ingredients are easily available all year long.

How To Cut Cucumber For Salad?

What we want is thinly sliced Cucumber. I use my trusted Knife to cut thin Slices because I am too lazy to take the Mandoline slicer out. Show off your knife skill or take the easy way out and use a mandoline slicer. Try not to make the slices too thick.

5 ingredients Asian Salad Dressing

The Asian dressing is the heart and soul of the dish. Cucumber as such doesn't have its own taste. This dressing gives life to the salad, yet doesn't overpower the natural taste of the veggies. You need just 5 ingredients for the dressing,

• Rice wine Vinegar - For the tang. You can also substitute with White wine vinegar.
• Sesame Oil - I prefer toasted Seasme Oil. It gives a nutty flavour
• Soy Sauce - Asian flavour is incomplete without soy sauce. You get the umami from Soy sauce.
• Sugar - To balance the sauce.
• Chilli flakes - For that extra heat. You can certainly skip if you don't like spicy.

Ingredients For Asian Cucumber Salad

This salad has the simplest of ingredients.

• English/Lebanese Cucumber - Fresh crunchy ones for the best texture
• Onion- thinly sliced. I prefer red onion.
• Spring Onions
• Toasted sesame seeds

Apart from these, you can also add thinly sliced red pepper, chopped fresh cilantro etc. Keep it simple and let the fresh veggies sign through.

Can we make this salad ahead?

It can be made a day ahead.  Cut all the veggies and store in an airtight container. In a separate container, you can store the dressing. If the sliced veggies kept longer in the refrigerator, the veggies will lose its freshness. So I prefer making this salad a few hours before it is consumed.

I like the cucumber and onion crispy in my salad. The salt in the dressing will extract the water from the veggies making it soggy. That's why I keep the vegetable and the dressing separately.

Can we freeze Cucumber Salad?

Because of the high water content Cucumber doesn't freeze well. So, no this salad can't be frozen. But the dressing stays fresh up to a week. So a bottle of salad dressing in the refrigerator comes handy.

Can the leftover be stored?

Personally, I don't like soggy veggies in my salad. After a couple of hours of adding the dressing, the veggies release water and becomes soft. If you are fine with the texture, then you can store the leftovers up to 2 days in an airtight container.

More Summer Salad Recipes...

ROASTED CORN SALAD

ITALIAN CHOPPED SALAD

CHINESE CHICKEN SALAD

CHICKEN PASTA SALAD

VEGAN MACARONI SALAD