This Chinese Cucumber Salad is simple and refreshing, with a mild garlic flavor balanced with the perfect amount of salt and rice vinegar. The secret is making a mild garlic oil in addition to a little bit of raw garlic!
What’s Different About This Cucumber Salad?
Chinese cucumber salads are hugely popular these days. Smashed, chopped, salted, chili oil-ed, and vinegar-ed they’re a great option for easy summer dinners, as an appetizer, or served with bowls of noodles for an easy vegetable.
The flavors for a cucumber salad are often strong and spicy. This Garlic Cucumber Salad results in a mild flavor that’s a non-spicy alternative to my mom’s Smashed Asian Cucumber Salad, which is loaded up with raw garlic, chili oil, soy sauce, and cilantro.
What’s more, I’ve found that a lot of Garlic Cucumber Salad recipes out there offer up substitutions and mixtures of Chinese black vinegar or rice vinegar, and highly variable ratios of raw garlic to cucumber, and soy sauce to sesame oil.
I’ve come to have a new appreciation for a simple, pure garlic Chinese cucumber salad—and the ratios to get there! It can be tricky to pull off if you’re not paying attention!
Perfect for Summer Cucumbers
My mom grows cucumbers in our backyard every summer, so we have cucumbers all season for quick and tasty cucumber salads like this one, which round out dinners and offer a cooling dish to combat the summer heat.
In fact, the cucumbers you see here are from her garden! As you’re selecting cucumbers, it’s best to use ones that have fewer seeds like English or Persian cucumbers, but you can use any kind you have on hand––just be sure to deseed as needed.
Chinese Cucumber Salad Recipe Instructions
First prepare the garlic. When you’ve minced all of the garlic, set aside the equivalent of 1 clove.
Mix the oil and the rest of the garlic together, and set over medium-heat in a saucepan. Cook lightly for 2-3 minutes. Some foam will appear as the water in the garlic escapes. Do not let the garlic brown! This process takes about 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool.
Chop the cucumbers into quarters lengthwise and then into ½-inch chunks. Transfer to a bowl.
Add the garlic oil, salt, sugar, pinch of MSG if using, sesame oil, and rice vinegar. Finally, add the reserved minced raw garlic.
Stir thoroughly to coat everything.
For the best results, let sit for at least 20 minutes in the refrigerator to let the flavors meld.
Chinese Cucumber Salad
Ingredients
- 6 cloves garlic (minced very finely, almost like a paste)
- 3 tablespoons oil
- 2 English cucumbers (or 8-10 Persian cucumbers; if you can't find seedless cucumbers like these, just de-seed regular cucumbers)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt or salt to taste
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1/8 teaspoon MSG (optional)
- 1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
Instructions
- First prepare the garlic. When you’ve minced all of the garlic, set aside the equivalent of 1 clove.
- Mix the oil and the rest of the garlic together, and set over medium-heat in a saucepan. Cook lightly for 2-3 minutes. Some foam will appear as the water in the garlic escapes. Do not let the garlic brown! This process takes about 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool.
- Chop the cucumbers into quarters lengthwise and then into ½-inch chunks. Transfer to a bowl. Add the garlic oil, salt, sugar, pinch of MSG if using, sesame oil, and rice vinegar. Finally, add the reserved minced raw garlic. Stir thoroughly to coat everything.
- For the best results, let sit for at least 20 minutes in the refrigerator to let the flavors meld.
Jackie Charlesworth says
I have now made this salad three times. The first time I just put the garlic into a mortar and pestle with salt and added it to the cucumbers with the rest of the ingredients. It was for a smaller portion .
Then I made it again using lemon juice plus the ingredients.
Finally I had to make a lot of it so followed your recipe without putting the garlic through the mortar and pestle route . I cooked the garlic finely minced in the oil, without burning it and for the 2 minutes added all the ingredients including the prescribed 2 tsp salt. It was way way way too salty. So I drained off the liquid and took two more large garlic cloves and put them into themortar and pestle, which as you know with very little salt turns the garlic into liquid. Added it to the mix and was satisfied. Thank you for the inspiration have masses of cucumber in the garden and so am happy to adapt.
PS have been a subscriber for ever.. love our site.
Kaitlin says
Hi Jackie, thanks so much for your insights! This is really helpful feedback for us and for other readers. I adjusted the salt level to reduce by a 1/2 teaspoon, but my aim for the recipe was to make a very flavorful, almost pickled quality. Heavy salt helps draw out the water and yield a saucy mixture that coats the cucumber.
That said, I appreciate that you’re open to adapting it to your tastes :)
Bobi Pixley says
Question – Do you strain the cooked garlic from the oil before adding to the salad? Or, do you add the cooked garlic along with the oil it was cooked in to the salad?
Thank you!
Barbara says
I’m wondering the same thing!
RICK says
I LOVE THIS DISH! WHAT IS THE DIPPING SAUCE YOU HAVE PICTURED?
Katie says
I think those are cups of tea, not dipping sauce.
wendy says
What best to go with this salad? A noodle dish?
Kaitlin says
Whatever you want! It’s meant to be a very flexible summer side dish, but noodles would be great alongside :)
Gayle Smith says
Can’t wait to try cucumber salad!
Kaitlin says
Thanks, Gayle! We can’t wait, either :)
Shane says
Just tried this recipe and I think 2 tsp is way too much salt. I used 1 tsp and it was already pretty salty. Not sure if I did anything wrong?
Judy says
Hi Shane, you didn’t do anything wrong. Feel free to adjust the salt to taste. I’ll also make this change in the recipe, thanks to you :-)
Bobby says
Made these today and they came out very good. Thanks.
Bill says
Hi Bobby, you’re welcome. I’m going to make this today also :)
Alison says
Hi, how long can this keep in the fridge? :)
Judy says
Hi Alison, you can keep it in the fridge for an hour before serving, or longer if you don’t mix the sauce in. Cucumber sweats too much liquid when (salty) sauce is added.