Our best cucumber salad recipes from around the world include everything from a Japanese style cucumber cabbage salad made with quintessential Japanese ingredients – sesame seeds, roasted seaweed, rice vinegar, Japanese soy, and sesame oil – to a Middle Eastern style salad of crunchy cucumber spears tossed piled onto butter bean purée or hummus if you prefer.
We’ve got lots of recipes for cucumber salads from Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean – such as a Burmese cucumber salad with crispy fried shallots and a dressing of fruit vinegar and sesame oil, a perfect side to a rich oily curry, and a simple Korean cucumber salad that makes for a cooling accompaniment to spicy Korean fried chicken.
We’ve also got recipes for salads with cucumbers that serve as very satisfying stand-alone meals. There’s our radish cucumber salad with salty feta, peppery rucola and fresh herbs, and a shredded chicken salad with cucumber, carrot, daikon, and sesame chilli oil. Both make deliciously light yet filling salads that are brilliant for a casual lunch or dinner.
There’s no denying cucumbers are fantastic in summer salads. Keep them refrigerated until ready to use and thanks to their high water content, they remain crunchy, cold and cooling – hence the expression ‘cool as a cucumber’. But we can happily munch into cucumbers year-round, as they’re such great sides to warming curries, chillies and stews.
Cucumber Salad Recipes From Around The World
These are our best recipes for cucumber salads and cucumber sides from everywhere from Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean.
Japanese Style Cabbage and Cucumber Salad Recipe with Sesame Seeds
This Japanese style cabbage and cucumber salad recipe is made with quintessential Japanese ingredients such as sesame seeds and roasted seaweed, which give it a fantastic texture, while the dressing of rice vinegar, Japanese soy sauce, sesame oil, and grated ginger give it a delightful tartness.
The salad is a breeze to make and can be made within ten minutes. Although let it sit longer and it tastes even better as the cabbage softens and the flavours meld together. When the texture is to your liking, transfer the salad to a pretty Japanese bowl, sprinkle some more sesame seeds on top, and serve.
The salad is the perfect side to Japanese comfort food dishes such as Japanese fried chicken, pork tonkatsu and katsu burgers. As is this Japanese potato salad recipe.
Japanese Style Cabbage and Cucumber Salad Recipe with Sesame Seeds
Cucumber Salad Recipe for Crunchy Cucumbers on Creamy Butter Bean Purée
This Middle Eastern style cucumber salad recipe makes a deliciously simple salad of crunchy cucumber spears that are tossed in our easy vinaigrette and fresh herbs, and piled onto a creamy butter bean purée. Full of texture and flavour, and quick to come together.
Another of our best cucumber salad recipes, this Middle Eastern inspired cucumber salad couldn’t be simpler and has loads of texture and flavour – it’s crunchy, creamy, fresh and herby, zesty and tangy – and a fantastic side to Mediterranean-style chicken, seven-spiced meatballs and kofta kebabs.
Like my roasted cauliflower on hummus, this cucumber salad is inspired by Middle Eastern recipes we love, such as the wonderful hummus-based dishes like balela salad (village salad on hummus and chickpeas) and hummus bil lahme (spiced minced beef on hummus), and Turkish specialties such as Antalya piyaz, a salad of tomatoes and boiled eggs piled on a white bean purée similar to this butter bean dip.
Cucumber Salad Recipe for Crunchy Cucumbers on Creamy Butter Bean Purée
Burmese Cucumber Salad Recipe with Sesame Seeds, Green Chillies and Crispy Fried Shallots
This Burmese cucumber salad recipe makes a crunchy cucumber salad with sesame seeds, green chillies, purple shallots and crispy fried shallots with a dressing of fruit vinegar and sesame oil. It’s based on cucumber salad recipes from Myanmar I’ve adapted from my favourite Burmese cookbook, the charming vintage cookbook, Cook and Entertain the Burmese Way (1978) by Mi Mi Khaing.
This Burmese cucumber salad makes the perfect accompaniment to this Indian-style Burmese curry and our classic Burmese chicken curry. They’re two of our favourite chicken curry recipes and probably some of our favourite chicken recipes full stop. It’s also fab with this Burmese egg curry.
We eat the lot with Burmese coconut rice and other salads from Myanmar that are made to be served with rich oily curries, such as this Burmese raw cabbage salad, our Shan tomato salad recipe or this Shan vermicelli noodle salad.
Burmese Cucumber Salad Recipe with Sesame Seeds, Green Chillies and Crispy Fried Shallots
Creamy Cucumber Sour Cream Salad Recipe with Shallots and Dill
My easy cucumber sour cream salad recipe will make you one of my family recipes, a creamy cucumber salad with shallots, lemon, vinegar, pickles, sour cream, and fresh dill. My Russian-Ukrainian grandmother served this sour cream cucumber salad more as an appetiser than a main salad, as part of a spread of zakuski that was served when everyone sat down to the table.
Small plates of gherkins, radishes, smoked salmon, rollmops (pickled herrings), salamis, cured meats, hard cheeses, black rye bread, buckwheat pancakes called blini, boiled eggs with caviar or devilled eggs, the Russian ‘eggplant caviar’ called ikra, and baskets of piroshki, minced meat-filled pastries – all washed down with vodka, of course.
Big bowls of salads, such as a Russian garden salad, pink beetroot potato salad and Olivier salad were taken to the table just before the warm mains were served. There’d be golubtsy, cabbage rolls stuffed with a savoury filling; kotleti, delicious deep-fried chicken meat patties; and casserole pots brimming with pelmeni and vareniki, boiled dumplings.
Creamy Cucumber Sour Cream Salad Recipe with Shallots and Dill
Radish Cucumber Salad Recipe with Salty Feta, Peppery Rucola and Fresh Herbs
Our radish cucumber salad recipe makes a healthy salad that’s packed with flavour and texture. The radish, cucumber and green beans provide plenty of crunch, the green peas give sweetness, the crumbly feta lends saltiness and creaminess, while the rucola adds peppery notes, and the herbs fragrance and fresh flavours.
It’s the kind of salad that can serve as a substantial accompaniment to a roast chicken for a comfort food meal or in smaller portions alongside, say, a piece of crispy grilled salmon or even a great hunk of steak to add freshness as much as colour to protein-forward dishes.
We usually divide the salad of the size you see in the image below between two big bowls and it’s plenty for lunch on its own. For dinner, we enjoy the salad with braised chicken with olives and capers, and Hassleback potatoes on the side, and we’re very satisfied.
Radish Cucumber Salad Recipe with Salty Feta, Peppery Rucola and Fresh Herbs
Shredded Chicken Salad Recipe with Cucumber, Carrot, Daikon, and Sesame Chilli Oil
This shredded chicken salad recipe with cucumber, carrot, daikon, and sesame chilli oil makes a deliciously light yet filling salad that’s perfect for a casual lunch or dinner, and it’s another of our best cucumber salad recipes.
Created to use leftovers of a carrot and daikon slaw, we added shredded poached chicken, crunchy diced cucumbers, sesame chilli oil dressing, and a sprinkle of sesame seeds and fresh coriander.
One of our most popular chicken breast recipes, which are the most searched-for chicken recipes on our site, if you’ve made our poached chicken breast recipes and shredded chicken salad recipes, such as our Vietnamese chicken salad recipe, our Lao shredded chicken salad recipe, and our bang bang chicken salad recipe, you’re going to love this chicken salad, packed with crunchy cucumbers.
Shredded Chicken Salad Recipe with Cucumber, Carrot, Daikon, and Sesame Chilli Oil
Cambodian Cucumber Salad Recipe for Nhoam Trasak
Our Cambodian cucumber salad recipe for nhoam trasak makes a fantastic filling salad that you can eat year-round. Traditionally shared in Cambodia, where, like most salads, it’s place at the centre of a table and eaten family-style with rice and an array of other dishes, you can easily serve this as a satisfying single-bowl meal for lunch or dinner.
This is a fantastic year-round salad if you’re lucky to live in warmer climates, such as Southeast Asia, or a colossal country like Australia where you can source cucumbers from one state or another throughout the year.
The addition of fried bacon, smoked dried fish and dried shrimp make this Cambodian cucumber salad filling and a great year-round salad for me, in the same way that I can tuck into a salade Niçoise or Caesar salad mid-winter, especially if Terence adds a salmon fillet to the former and fried chicken to the latter!
When you’re using dried shrimp, always soak it a little first, then when you’re ready to combine your salad, dry it off thoroughly, and pound it in your mortar and pestle. If you’ve not used a mortar and pestle before, we have a few tips.
Cambodian Cucumber Salad Recipe for Nhoam Trasak, a Fantastic Year Round Salad
Classic Korean Cucumber Salad Recipe for the Refreshing Korean Side Dish
Another of our best cucumber salad recipes, this classic Korean cucumber salad recipe makes a light refreshing salad or side dish that you can serve with spicy Korean fried chicken, Korean meatballs, and stir-fried ramen, or any salty, fried Korean drinking food or anju.
Or let the salad sit for longer and serve a smaller portion of a softer cucumber salad as an array of Korean salad starters or banchan before Korean barbecue. We love to eat it with Korean corn cheese, Korean potato salad, and Korean cabbage salad.
I also enjoy eating this cucumber salad as a cooling side for Korean spicy udon noodles, Korean japchae (glass noodles), bokkeumbap (kimchi fried rice), Terence’s jazzed-up Korean ramen noodle bowl with sliced pork, boiled eggs, Asian greens, and my Korean spicy ramen noodles and meatballs, which featured this cucumber salad on the side.
Classic Korean Cucumber Salad Recipe for the Refreshing Korean Side Dish
Cucumber Yoghurt Salad Recipe for a Cooling Middle Eastern Side Dish
One of our favourite Middle Eastern recipes, this cucumber yoghurt salad recipe makes a cooling Middle Eastern salad or side dish called khyar bi laban that is typically served with grilled meats such as kebabs and kofta.
You can serve this cucumber salad as a mezze or dip like Greek tzatziki, alongside other Middle Eastern dips such as hummus and baba ghanoush, and salads such as fattoush and tabbouleh.
The salad is also thinned out when it’s referred to as a cucumber yoghurt sauce when it’s given a lighter consistency than a dip, and is served like an Indian raita to and this cucumber yoghurt salad called khyar bi laban,
Cucumber Yoghurt Salad Recipe for a Cooling Middle Eastern Side Dish
Tzatziki Recipe for an Easy Authentic Greek Yoghurt Cucumber Dip
This easy tzatziki recipe makes an authentic creamy Greek yoghurt cucumber dip that has cousins in other Mediterranean cuisines, from Turkish cuisine to the cuisines of the Levant of Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Palestine, and Indian cuisine.
Super easy to make, tzatziki is also very versatile. Traditionally served as a meze and eaten as a dip with pita, tzatziki is also served as a side and sauce with lamb meatballs, souvlaki and other grilled meats. Dip pita into tzatziki, just as Arabic flatbreads are used to scoop up khyar bi laban in the Middle East.
Tzatziki Recipe for an Easy Authentic Greek Yoghurt Cucumber Dip
Authentic Easy Indian Raita Recipe for a Cooling Accompaniment to Any Spicy Dishes
This easy Indian raita recipe makes a deliciously refreshing yogurt based side or salad of diced cucumber, tomato and red onion with fresh fragrant mint and coriander. It’s another of our best cucumber salad recipes.
And it’s another cooling accompaniment to any spiced dish, from curries to biryanis. It can be eaten with pickles, relishes, flat breads or papadams. And it’s also a perfect side to this Punjabi chole or chickpea curry and tamarind eggplant.
Authentic Easy Indian Raita Recipe for a Cooling Accompaniment to Curries
Please do let us know in the comments below if you make any of our cucumber salad recipes as we’d love to hear how they turn out for you.
