Cucumber Salad With Soy, Ginger and Garlic Recipe (2024)

We’ve been making this weekly since the beginning of quarantine, roughly 28 years or so.We landed on three modifications: skip the sugar, add a splash of fish sauce, Thai peppers for heat. Modifications to avoid: bleach, hydroxychloroquine, and any form of alien DNA. Stay safe eat well.

I've made this several times and love it, although I struggle to rid the cucumbers of the salt even after several rinses. I've taken to slicing them and sandwiching them between lots of paper towels for at least an hour. The paper towels can then be dried and reused. Chopped peanuts are a nice addition to this as well.

Lots of the water in a cucumber is in the seeds. If you halve the cuke lengthways and scrape them out with a teaspoon before slicing thinly, you'll need to add far less salt, and they won't be nearly as watery.

Great salad--cool yet hot. I think the soy sauce, garlic, ginger,cayenne and sesame oil are essential. Other ingredients can be substituted. I used sherry vinegar, which was fine, and agave nectar (always) as a sub for sugar. To guarantee success, I recommend slicing cukes with a mandeline, they'll be very thin and perfectly consistent.

A Squirt of Siracha Sauce can replace the cayenne. Or substitute half of the dark sesame oil for hot (chili) sesame oil. Fresh chives works well (instead of scallions)

To slice the cucumbers really thin, Norwegians use a cheese slicer. Works like a charm.

I am saddened that a good recipe is tarnished by such a name! Would NYT Cooking title a dish with "European Flavors"? I expect not as readily, and advocate updating this recipe title to respect the diversity and complexity of the many cultures of Asia.

The dressing for this delicious salad is very similar to the Smashed Cucumber Salad. I've prepared both with excellent results. For this one, I used Schezuan pepper corns and sweetened it with a bit of mirin. In deference to my husband (who detests garlic) I left it out. I used Himalayan sea salt on the cucumbers and dried them with a tea towel. So, no need for the soy sauce. Both these salads are winners.

I add avocados to this.. amazing!

I liked this salad a lot, but prefer it without the cayenne. Also like to use English seedless cucumbers sliced lengthwise on a mandoline.

It reminded me of a dressing for cold noodles so I spiraled a zucchini into it. Yummy.

I liked it... I didn't love it. My husband makes a simple cucumber salad with white vinegar, red onions, garlic, salt and pepper that tastes brighter and more flavorful. We also do that recipe by cutting the cucumber in half lengthways, scraping out seeds and doing ¼" slices which I like better and which are way easier to cut. All a matter of opinion I guess.

I make this all the time. Very simple, clean, fresh tastes. I use gochujang (red korean pepper) for a simple kick.

I didn't have enough cucumber so added grated carrot. Also I used pickled ginger instead of grated fresh ginger and reduced the sugar. Very good!

Absolutely marvelous. 10/5 stars.

Used mix of big and small cukes to liven things up. Big were the “thin-skinned” kind (probably offended re:”big.”)Used coconut sugar to impress guests. Could have been sweeter. Next time, using refined for unrefined tastes, despite risk of cancer and diabetes, because tastes better.Needs more spice. Would say “Thai,” but don’t want to be culturally insensitive, given some offended this recipe is “Asian-inspired.”

This salad is a dinner staple usually w/ Melissa Clark's Grilled Sesame Lime Chicken Breasts. Leftovers make a delicious chicken sandwich the next day if you've got a sturdy loaf of bread. I sub a spoonful of chili crisp, sambal oelek, or garlic chili paste for the cayenne. Also would echo some others about placing the cucumber slices between some clean dishtowels. Personally, I'd say DO NOT cut out the seeds, waste of time and perfectly edible food.

Recently hosted some friends and needed to keep the menu vegan, and this salad was a huge hit with everybody (including the vegan, who commented she usually doesn't even like cucumbers).If you don't keep a bottle of seasoned rice wine vinegar on hand, you can make it from regular rice wine vinegar by adding salt and sugar. Recipes abound online.

Quick and yummy! I added more vinegar than the recipe called for, I thought it needed additional acidity to cut through all the oil.

Okay but a bit too much liquid.

added fresh chopped chilis, lime zest, and sesame seeds. delicious.

Skipped the ginger, used olive oil, red pepper flakes. Delicious!

I made 100 or so batches of this to use up the cucumbers from our garden this summer. We almost never have scallions or cilantro so I subbed sliced shallots or thinly sliced sweet onion, swapping garden chives for the cilantro. Great refreshing summer dish.

Way too much oil for me. Wish I would have gone with my instincts and omitted some. It's good though.

I had regular instead of seasoned rice vinegar, and went with a little less sugar, too. Had to sub in red pepper flakes as I was out of cayenne . Delicious. I served it at a buffet meal, and my guests ate every last slice. As did another commenter here, I used a mandolin to get thin, even slices, which I think is a big plus here. Of note: when I first mixed the sauce, an hour before we ate, the garlic was very pronounced (not necessarily a bad thing!). By the time we ate, it had mellowed.

Everyone loved this salad. Went great with the Baked Sushi!

Skipped the extra (non-sesame) oil and the cayenne. Delicious accompaniment to basil chicken and rice.

We've made this probably half a dozen times, and it's honestly amazing each and every time. We did add a bit of red onion from the garden and let that sit in the dressing a bit, just to add a slightly different flavor, but this is perfect on its own merit.

Following some of the comments, I cut the grape seed oil from 3 TBSP to 2 TBSP (and used EVOO because that was what I had); followed recipe otherwise. This recipe made plenty of dressing so I cooked some buckwheat noodles and made this a cold cucumber noodle salad - great on a warm evening!