Chinese Smashed Cucumber Salad

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5 from 13 votes

Chinese Smashed Cucumber Salad

This Chinese Smashed Cucumber Salad is a classic Chinese appetizer that's sweet, savory and so refreshing!

Prep Time5

Cook Time10

Course: Appetizer

Cuisine: Chinese

Servings:

Author: Chris Joe

Ingredients

2 lb cucumber Persian or English
2 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp sesame oil
3 cloves garlic finely minced
1 tsp ginger grated, optional

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

In a large bowl mix together soy sauce, rice vinegar, sugar, salt, garlic, ginger and sesame oil.
Cut cumbers into 1.5" pieces; carefully smash them with the large end of your knife. Remove the inner flesh and seeds from each piece of cucumber.
Add the smashed cucumbers to the dressing and mix together. Marinate for 10 minutes. Serve!

Notes

KEY TIPS:

I recommend Persian or English cucumbers. This is due to two reasons:

They are seedless. I personally do not like seeds in my Asian 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 delicious dressing!

Wipe Down Your Cucumbers Well: After washing your cucumbers, wipe them down to remove any excess water and prevent from watering down the salad. The cucumbers are already high in water content, so we want to avoid any more water diluting the delicious dressing!

Smash With Caution: I like to smash my cucumbers with the flat side of my knife (cleaver). However, if you have not used this technique before or are not comfortable, please do not use your knife! You can use anything heavy to smash your cucumbers. Here are some other kitchen tools you can use:

Meat mallet

Rolling pin

Pestle

A clean can

Scrape Out Inner Seeds and Flesh: This is optional but highly recommended! I like to take one extra step to further prevent my Smashed Cucumber Salad from being too watery. After smashing the cucumber pieces, I like to scrape out some of the inner seeds and flesh of the cucumber and discard.

Storage

Chinese Cucumber Salad can be made in under 10 minutes and then stored in an airtight container for 3-4 days in the refrigerator. It's perfect to enjoy during the week, especially in the summer! It's cooling, refreshing, and added bonus: super fun to make! The smashing of the cucumbers (while can be skipped) is sometimes a great stress reliever :)

Nutrition