Description
An infusion of Chinese Smashed Cucumber Salad (Pāi huángguā 拍黄瓜) and Korean Cucumber Salad (Oi Muchim 오이무침)
Ingredients
Scale
- 1 English Cucumber (thinly sliced (I recommend a mandolin/slicer, but carefully with a knife is fine))
- 1 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 2 cloves garlic (grated)
- 2 Green Onions Chopped (optional)
- 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar (AKA rice vinegar)
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon of fish sauce
- 1 teaspoon white granulated sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 teaspoons chili garlic sauce
- 1 Tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro (1–2 sprigs)
- 1 Tablespoon sesame seeds
Instructions
- slice Slice your cumbers thinly. You can achieve this by either using a mandoline, I actually prefer this Stainless Steel Box Grater by Rachel Ray
- toss In a mesh colander set over a bowl, toss the cucumbers with 1½ teaspoons salt.
- drain Let stand for 20-30 minutes, tossing once or twice to encourage liquid to drain on it’s own.
- dressing Meanwhile, in a large bowl, stir together garlic, green onion, rice (or rice wine) vinegar, soy sauce, fish sauce, sugar, sesame oil, & chili garlic sauce
- squeeze Using your hands, firmly squeeze/smash the cucumbers to remove as much water as possible. After squeezing the cucumbers drop them into the bowl of dressing. Discard the cucumber liquid once you’re done.
- combined Toss/mix around. Taste and season with salt and pepper if needed.
- sit Let sit for about an hour in the fridge
- serve Top with freshly chopped cilantro and sesame seeds (optional).
Notes
Some Tips for Success
- Use English/Chinese/Korean Cucumbers, not American (unless you want to peal the cucumber and have way more seeds. the skin is too tough and there are a lot more seeds in an American Cucumber, thankfully every American grocery store offers English cucumbers).
- Let your salad rest. You can eat it right away, but it’s much better if you wait. I promise.
- Rice Vinegar and Rice Wine Vinegar are the same, unless you buy Matured, which is dark, they’re just labeled differently. I don’t know. 🤷🏻♀️ but it’s important that you use Rice Wine Vinegar vs White Vinegar. It’s a different flavor and at this point in time, I’m pretty sure most places offer it. Otherwise… there’s always Amazon.
How to Store Your Salad
Refrigerate any leftover cucumber salad in an airtight container and eat within 2 days for the best results. After the 3rd day, the cucumber becomes saturated with the salad dressing and tends to be too mushy to enjoy, especially since we’ve also squeezed them.
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Category: Appetizer, Salad, Snack, topping
- Cuisine: Asian, Asian American, Chinese, Chinese-Korean Mashup, Korean
Nutrition
- Calories: 162
- Sugar: 11
- Sodium: 5223
- Fat: 6
- Saturated Fat: 1
- Carbohydrates: 23
- Fiber: 4
- Protein: 6
