Spicy Cucumber Salad Recipe

This Spicy Cucumber Salad Recipe is really amazing. It has everything going for it including crunchy, sweet, acidic, nutty, and spicy flavors. Plus it's beautiful and so easy to make- a perfect side dish ready in just 20 minutes. A mere 7 ingredients and a couple simple techniques go a long way towards making the humble cucumbers so flavorful. 

This cucumber salad recipe was inspired by and remains similar to the Italian cucumber salad my mother used to make for me growing up. Though hers wasn't spicy, it was always one of my favorite recipes she made. I loved the sweet and sour agrodolce taste of her cucumber salad, which contained just cucumbers, onions, distilled vinegar, and sugar.

Agrodolce literally translates to "sour sweet" in Italian, and is one of my favorite flavor profiles. In fact, I recently wrote a round-up of of 11 other agrodolce recipes, all from my website! You can find that here. 

How to make Spicy Cucumber Salad

This Spicy cucumber recipe has the same backbone but builds on my mom's recipe with 3 extra ingredients: Calabrian Chili Peppers, sesame seeds, and a second type of vinegar.

The spicy and nutty elements are inspired by the Korean-style cucumber salad recipes that have become quite popular recently. I guess you can call it a crossover dish. Whatever you call it, it's is a must-make.

Ingredients

This Simple Cucumber Salad comes together in just 20 minutes and requires just 8 ingredients, including salt.

• 2 Garden cucumbers (AKA wax cucumbers)
• 4 oz of white onion, sliced (approximately ⅓ of an onion. Red onions are a good alternative if that's what you have on hand)
• ¼ cup of white distilled vinegar
• ¼ cup of any other light colored vinegar (such as rice wine vinegar, red wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar, or white balsamic vinegar)
• 2 teaspoons of white sugar
• 2 teaspoons of Black Sesame Seeds
• 3 Calabrian Chili peppers packed in oil, such as these.
• 2 teaspoons of Kosher salt

See recipe card for exact amounts.

Instructions

Step 1: Prepare the cucumbers. Part of what I love about this recipe is the presentation of the cucumbers. Using a vegetable peeler, remove half of their skin in strips. Then score them with a fork. Then slice them into rounds. Scoring them with a fork creates more surface area to catch the delicious dressing and also makes them look pretty.

Step 2: Brine the cucumbers. Place the cucumbers, sliced onions, and salt in a medium or large bowl. Then toss well using your clean hands, and set them aside for 5 minutes. **Salt draws water out of fruits and vegetables through the process of osmosis... Which is good because you want the cucumbers to wilt slightly but still remain crunchy. In fact many vegetable salad recipes call for this same salting process. Don't worry, the cucumbers stay crisp!

Step 3: Toast the Sesame Seeds and Chop the Calabrian Chili Peppers. While the cucumbers release some of their water content, toast the sesame seeds in a small, dry nonstick pan over medium heat for about 1 minute, or until fragrant. Then remove them from the pan and set them aside. Slice 3 Calabrian Chili Peppers and set aside. If you can't find jars of Calabrian Chili's at your grocery store, you can buy them on Amazon (affiliate link)

Step 4: Drain the cucumbers. Drain the excess moisture / water from the bottom of the bowl of salted cucumbers. As mentioned in step 2, the salting step draws out moisture. The draining step eliminates the moisture in order to prevent a watery cucumber salad.

Step 5: Dress the cucumbers. Add the simple dressing of sugar, white distilled vinegar, and your other light vinegar of choice to the bowl of cucumbers. Use your hands once more to toss and combine.

Step 6: Add the toppings. The final step is to plate your crunchy cucumber salad on a platter or in a wide serving bowl and top with the toasted sesame seeds and 3 sliced Calabrian chili peppers. My favorite whole Calabrian Chili brands are Dellalo and Tutto Calabria, which you can purchase on Amazon.

Top Tips

1. For the best results, don't skip on scoring the cucumbers with a fork. You'll love how they look, and that rigid texture great for soaking up as much delicious dressing as possible. This has a similar effect as smashing cucumbers, which you may have seen in Chinese Smashed Cucumber Salad recipes. 
2. Using 2 types of vinegar makes this super simple cucumber salad just a little more complex. A rule of thumb I live by is that 2 acids almost always tastes better than one.
3. Don't burn the sesame seeds! They're tiny, so they toast quickly. The lightly crunchy sesame seeds with their nutty taste really add a complex component to such a simple dish.
4. Serving the cucumber salad in a wide bowl creates more surface area for the sesame seeds and chili peppers to touch. Therefore, the flavors will distribute more evenly to the entire salad. 

How to Choose Good Crisp Cucumbers

Choosing fruits and vegetables can be a little stressful and unpredictable. But it doesn't have to be! 

The secret to choosing the crunchiest cucumbers is to find the thinnest and firmest ones possible. These will have fewer seeds than fatter, softer cucumbers.

The same technique goes for choosing eggplant and zucchini squash.

What to serve it with

This light and crisp cucumber salad is such a great dish to pair with a more hearty main course. For example, it makes an excellent side dish to stir fry's, meaty pasta dishes, noodle dishes like ramen, and chicken cutlets. The acidity cuts right through starchy, protein-filled meals. 

This recipe has also made a great appetizer as part of a larger appetizer or antipasto spread. It's just so versatile! 

Plus, the fact that it's naturally gluten-free and dairy-free makes it really versatile for dinner guests. 

Substitutions

• Seed-free: If you'e allergic to seeds, you can optionally top the Spicy Cucumber Salad with toasted nuts instead, such as walnuts, pine nuts, cashews, or macadamia nuts. If you're allergic nuts too, simply leave out this component.
• Chili Oil or chili crisp: If you can't get your hands on a jar of Calabrian Chili peppers packed in oil, you can replace this ingredient with a drizzle of chili oil, spoonful of chili crisp, or a sprinkle of cayenne pepper, crushed red pepper or Korean chili flakes. (Gochugaru)
• Types of Cucumbers: English Cucumbers, Persian Cucumbers, Mini Cucumbers, and Japanese cucumbers also work. But I prefer to make this spicy cucumber salad recipe with Garden Cucumbers because they're larger, meaning you can peel off half their skin for a pretty flower-like appearance and still have enough skin remaining to hold the slices together. 

Variations

• Fresh Herbs: Add a handful of fresh cilantro, mint, and/ or basil for a little extra flavor.
• More Spicy: Double the number of chili peppers you add to the top of the dish. OR make a spicy dressing by adding a teaspoon of red pepper flakes or gochugaru (Korean red pepper flakes) to the cucumbers while they soak in the sugar and vinegar mixture.
• Less Spicy: Just top with a pinch of red pepper flakes, which are less spicy than Calabrian chili peppers.
• Creamy: Every so often, my mom would add a tablespoon of sour cream to her cucumber salad recipe. Though I have to be in the mood for the creamy version of this recipe, it can be a nice change up every once in a while. 
• More aromatics: You can add a glove of smashed raw garlic, grated fresh ginger, or citrus zest for an extra burst of flavor. 

Cucumber Salad FAQ

How do you keep cucumber salad from getting watery? As mentioned in Step 2, salting the cucumbers ahead of time draws out a lot of the cucumbers' water. Even just 5 minutes of soaking helps remove some watery-ness. Then just dump out the resulting cucumber water or pour it into a glass and save it to make cucumber margaritas!

How is this cucumber salad different from pickles? This spicy cucumber salad is essentially a quick-pickle recipe. Most pickles are made using hot pickling liquid to impart flavor on the cucumbers. Whereas this recipe actually relies on the salting/ brining step to speed up the pickling process. Removing excess water makes the cucumbers less water-logged, allowing them to soak up more vinegar more quickly.

What other type of vinegar should I use?  One of my favorite things about this simple recipe is that it allows you to get a little creative. It calls for 2 types of vinegars, one being white distilled vinegar because its nice and strong. The second is up to you! Use whatever light vinegar you have on hand. Rice vinegar, white balsamic, and red wine vinegar are all excellent in this recipe. 

Storing Leftover Cucumber Salad 

Since this Spicy Cucumber Salad is similar to pickles, it keeps in the refrigerator for a while. Store leftovers in a jar or airtight container and refrigerate for up to 2 weeks. 

Can you freeze Cucumbers? 

I do not prefer the taste or texture of cucumbers once they have been frozen. They tend to turn mushy once defrosted.

Instead of freezing the leftovers, just do your best to eat them within 2 weeks. They make a great side dish for any easy weeknight dinner, especially in the summer. They're just so refreshing. 

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