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Din Tai Fung is known for the soup dumplings, but their Din Tai Fung Cucumber Salad is also one of their most popular side dishes and extremely delicious! This cucumber salad is an extremely simple dish consisting of sliced, marinated cucumbers in a delicious sweet, spicy, soy-based sauce. It comes together in just a few minutes and only requires one bowl for a quick and flavorful side dish!
Watch the Din Tai Fun Cucumber Salad Recipe Video Below!
This copycat Din Tai Fung Cucumber Salad is an excellent side dish to go with rice, noodles, or dumplings and is a dish best served cold! It’s a great side dish as we begin to enter the summer time and goes great as a side dish with so many different types of foods or as a snack all by itself.
Ingredients You’ll Need to Make the Din Tai Fung Cucumber Salad
Luckily, you won’t need many ingredients to create this incredible dressing for this Din Tai Fung Cucumber Salad! These are probably items you already have in your pantry. Here is what you’ll need for the marinade:
- Light Soy Sauce (I use reduced sodium soy sauce for lower salt content)
- Rice Vinegar
- Sugar
- Garlic
- Chili Oil
- Sesame Oil
- Kosher Salt
Ingredient Tip
Ingredient Tips
RICE VINEGAR
If you don’t have rice vinegar, you can substitute for red wine vinegar or distilled white vinegar for this recipe.
CHILI OIL
I love using a homemade chili oil any chance I get. Try my homemade Chinese Chili Oil Recipe for the chili oil for a wonderful spice!
What Type of Cucumber Should You Use For the Din Tai Fung Cucumber Salad?
For Din Tai Fung Cucumber Salad, I recommend using either Persian or English cucumbers for a few reasons:
- They are seedless. I personally do not like seeds in my cucumber salads and try to remove them when possible.
- Persian and English cucumbers are typically sweeter and contain less water than regular cucumbers. This will result in a more crisp salad when marinated in the dressing!
You can find either of these types of cucumbers in your local market and they should be readily available. If for some reason you can’t find either of these types of cucumbers, regular cucumbers will work as well.
Recipe Instructions
Prepare the Cucumber Dressing
To prepare the Din Tai Fung Cucumber Salad dressing, mix together light soy sauce, rice vinegar, sugar, grated garlic, chili oil, and sesame oil. Whisk them together and your dressing is ready!
Prepare Your Cucumbers
Begin preparing your cucumbers by slicing them into 1/2″ rounds. Once your cucumbers are uniformly sliced, place them in a bowl and mix the cucumbers with salt, then let them sit for 30 minutes. Next, rinse off the salt and pat them as dry as possible with a kitchen or paper towel.
The salt will help to draw out excess moisture for the cucumbers through osmosis which will result in a more crisp vegetable.
Marinate Your Cucumbers
Once the cucumbers are as dry as possible, add them to the dressing and mix them well to get each piece coating in that delicious dressing. Let them sit in the marinade for at least 10 minutes then stack them up and enjoy!
If you are making Din Tai Fung Cucumber Salad ahead of time, make sure to transfer them into an air tight storage container up to 2-3 days in advance.
Garnish Your Din Tai Fung Cucumber Salad
Once the cucumbers are stacked beautifully, the final step is to add an additional drop of chili oil to each cucumber for that pop of color and spice! Serve and enjoy!
Recipe TipS
Recipe Tips
SLICING THE CUCUMBER
Try to be as uniform as possible when slicing the cucumbers. I prefer 1/2″ rounds, but you could go as thin as 1/4″ rounds as well. The uniform slicing will help with stacking and presentation of your Din Tai Fung Cucumber Salad!
STORAGE
You can make Din Tai Fung Cucumber Salad 2-3 days ahead of time! Make sure to store them in the fridge in an air tight container with the dressing.
If you liked this Din Tai Fung Cucumber Salad recipe, check out some of the most popular recipes on the blog! Please consider leaving a review and letting me know your thoughts about the recipe. It really helps out the blog!
- Din Tai Fung Fried Rice
- Din Tai Fung Green Beans
- Beef and Broccoli
- Sesame Chicken
- String Bean Chicken
If you tried this Din Tai Fung Cucumber Salad or any other recipe on my website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below!
Din Tai Fung Cucumber Salad
Ingredients
- 1 lb cucumber, Persian or English
- 1/2 tbsp kosher salt
- 2 tbsp light soy sauce
- 2 tbsp rice vinegar
- 1/2 tbsp sugar
- 2 cloves garlic, grated
- 1/2 tbsp chili oil
- 1/2 tbsp sesame oil
Instructions
- Chop cucumbers into ½” rounds and place in a large bowl with salt for 30 minutes. Rinse off the salt with water and place them on a paper towel. Pat the cucumbers as dry as possible.
- In a bowl, mix together soy sauce, rice vinegar, sugar, grated garlic, chili oil and sesame oil.
- Add your dry cucumbers to the bowl and mix with the dressing to combine. Let marinate for 10 minutes and enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I can’t get enough of this!
A refreshing side to any dish. I halved the sauce to the same 1 lb of cucumbers and it was plenty seasoned for me. Thanks for an easy to follow recipe!
This is my go to cucumber recipe! Thank you so much for sharing. Now I can cure my craving!
So easy to make and just as delicious as DTF! Will definitely be making these more often!!
Better than the restaurant version.
Really delicious! I love cucumbers and am happy to have another way of enjoying them! Thanks for a great recipe.
Thank you Tish! I’m glad you’re enjoying the recipe!
First thank you for all of you fabulous recipes! I have a question! I don’t have chili oil or the ingredients to make it so, Is it ok to use the oil from the Fly By Jing Zhong Sauce?
Yes, absolutely! I’m so glad you’re enjoying them!
I have always gone far out of my way to visit any Din Tai Fung location I come across so that I could order this salad. It is so spot on, and your recipe made it incredibly simple! Huge thank you for sharing this! I’ll be using this dressing recipe for everything in the future 🙂
Thank you so much, Berenis!! It makes me so happy that you enjoyed it! 🙂
This was so delicious! Thank you for sharing!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Katherine! Thanks for the kind message
I tried this recipe a couple of days ago and I am hooked! It is so good! It reminds me of the cucumber salad you get at Thai restaurants, with a spicy / tangy twist. It is so easy to make. I have made it both ways – salting the cucumbers and not salting the cucumbers. I think the dressing absorbs better when you salt them and let them sit, per the recipe. I have never dined at Din Tai Fung – there is one in my city, so now I am planning to go check it out in the future. . I am currently low carb, so with sweetener swapped out for the sugar, this fits into my current macros. Thanks for this delicious recipe!
Thanks for the kind words Mary! I’m so glad you enjoyed it!