This classic Korean cucumber salad recipe makes a light refreshing salad or side dish. Serve the salad crunchy as a cooling accompaniment to spicy Korean fried chicken, meatballs and stir-fried ramen, or any salty, fried Korean drinking food (anju). Or serve a smaller portion of a softer cucumber salad as an array of Korean salad starters (banchan) before Korean barbecue.
Our quick Korean cucumber salad is next in our series of recipes for Korean dishes we love that I’ve been sharing recently, which has included Korean street food favourites, starters called banchan served before Korean BBQ, and Korean drinking food dishes called anju. So far I’ve shared recipes for Korean corn cheese, Korean meatballs, Korean potato salad, and Korean cabbage salad, and more to come.
If you’re a lover of Korean food, try our recipes for Korean spicy udon noodles, Korean japchae (glass noodles), bokkeumbap (kimchi fried rice), Korean fried chicken, 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.
I’ll be sharing more Korean recipes soon, so if you’re a fan of Korean food, do bookmark this page or click on the heart on the right side of the post to save it to your own private account of favourite recipes and stories.
Korean Cucumber Salad Recipe for the Refreshing Korean Side Dish
You’ll enjoy this Korean cucumber salad if you’re a cucumber fan. We’re big lovers of cucumbers, especially when they’re fresh, crunchy and juicy, like long Persian cucumbers. Cucumbers are 95% water, which is why cucumbers so cooling, refreshing and hydrating, and why they’re in so many home-style salads from my family’s simple Russian garden salad, this Middle Eastern farmers salad and village salad called fattoush.
If you are a cucumber lover, we’ve got loads of cucumber recipes for everything from Eastern European cucumber dill pickles and Thai cucumber relish to cucumber salads, dips and sides, including a traditional Greek tzatziki, a dip of cucumber and Greek yoghurt, a Middle Eastern cucumber yoghurt salad called khyar bi laban, and Indian raita, a cooling side of diced cucumber, tomato, shallots, fresh mint and coriander that’s perfect with spicy curries.
We’ve also got recipes for a Cambodian cucumber salad, Burmese cucumber salad, Japanese cucumber cabbage salad, my Russian-Ukrainian grandmother’s cucumber sour cream salad, our radish cucumber salad, this cucumber and shredded chicken salad with carrot, daikon and chilli oil and my favourite cucumber salad, featuring cucumber spears tossed in our easy vinaigrette and fresh herbs, piled onto a creamy butter bean purée.
Tips to Making this Korean Cucumber Salad Recipe
I only have a few tips to making this Korean cucumber salad recipe, as it’s one of the quickest and easiest recipes of this series of Korean salads and side dish recipes.
You want one fresh long, narrow cucumber that doesn’t have a lot of seeds, which is why I prefer a young Persian cucumber. The older cucumbers have lots more seeds at its juicy centre and are better for Middle Eastern salads and Mediterranean style salads. Slice the cucumber as finely as you can.
Make the dressing in a small jug with spout (or small dish) as it only makes a small amount, and that’s all you really need for a salad of this size, otherwise it will be too soggy. Making the separately means the flavours will more evenly distribute.
This salad dressing contains just three ingredients – sesame oil, light soy sauce, and rice vinegar. I also add the sesame seeds and finely sliced chives (or finely sliced scallion or spring onion), so they distribute through the layers of cucumber slices.
I sprinkle on more sesame at the end as garnish. I love a mix of white sesame seeds and black sesame seeds, but I can only find white sesame seeds right now unfortunately. Use what you have on hand.
Korean cooks typically add a little sugar to their Korean cucumber salad. Go for it, but it’s not for us. You can also spice up the salad dressing with a little Korean gochugaru (Korean chilli flakes) or any chilli flakes or chilli powder for that matter, which is what I do sometimes.
Lastly, if you like a crunchy cucumber salad, pour on the dressing and prep the salad at the last minute, just before serving. I prefer a cooling crunchier salad as a side for Korean fried chicken, spicy meatballs, or spicy ramen noodles.
But if you’re looking for a softer cucumber salad to serve as one of an array of Korean salad starters called banchan, then make the salad with dressing ahead of time and refrigerate until just before serving.
Korean Cucumber Salad Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 cucumber - finely sliced, preferably a long Persian cucumber
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- 1 tbsp light soy sauce
- 1 tbsp rice vinegar
- 1 tbsp sesame seeds
- 12 chives - finely sliced, or 1 young scallion or spring onion
Instructions
- To a medium sized bowl, add the cucumber slices.
- To a small jug with spout or small bowl, add the sesame oil, light soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame seeds, and finely sliced chives or scallion or spring onion slices, and stir to combine. Taste and adjust to suit your palate.
- Pour the dressing over the cucumber slices and stir to combine so they’re coated in the dressing.
- Transfer to a serving dish or bowl and sprinkle on some more sesame seeds. For a crunchy cucumber salad serve immediately; for a soft cucumber salad refrigerate until you’re ready to serve.
Nutrition
Please do let us know in the comments section, below, if you make our Korean cucumber salad, as we’d love to know how it turns out for you.
