Chinese Cucumber Salad (Quick and Crisp)

This Chinese cucumber, aka smashed cucumber salad can perfectly be served as an appetizer, no matter you’re going to have Chinese meals or Western meals. The crisp cucumber is balanced with saltiness, sweetness and sourness.

To make this dish is absolutely no-brainer. Gather all the ingredients you need. By smashing the cucumbers, it helps to absorb all the flavours of the seasonings more quickly.

This step is very crucial. That’s why some people called this dish as Smashed Cucumber Salad.

Make sure to pick the good, fresh and crunchy cucumbers. It’ll make a big difference in texture. It’s a good idea to chill the cucumbers in the fridge well before.

When you’re ready to make this cucumber salad, you can move very quickly to smash them and mix them with the seasonings. All can be done within a few minutes. Sounds easy? Give it a try.

Chinese Cucumber Salad Recipe

(Printable recipe)
By Christine’s Recipes
Course: Salad, Appetizer
Cuisine: Chinese
Prep time: 5 mins
Cook time: 10 mins
Yield: 2 to 3 serves

Ingredients:

• 2 (about 275 gm) cucumbers
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• ⅛ tsp salt
• 1 Tbsp white vinegar
• 1 tsp light soy sauce
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 red chilli, roughly chopped
• sesame oil, to taste

Method :

1. Rinse the cucumbers well. Wipe dry. Use the flat side of a knife to smash the cucumbers. It helps absorb the flavours of seasonings. Cut into sections.
2. Put the cucumbers into a deep bowl. Mix with sugar. Leave it for 3 minutes. Mix in salt, white vinegar, light soy sauce, minced garlic, red chilli and sesame oil. Mix thoroughly. Enjoy!

Notes：

• The cucumbers I used were from Asian grocers, quite different from those at supermarkets. These Taiwanese cucumbers are meaty and crispy with less water.
• Different kinds of red chillies have different hot levels. You can leave the red chilli out if you don’t like, or add bird-eye chilli instead if you’re into hottest chillies.