Asian Cucumber Salad
This Asian Cucumber Salad has Vidalia Onions and cilantro, and this is a cucumber salad I’ve been making for years when the weather gets hot. You can skip the cilantro or use other sweet onion if you prefer, but no matter how you make it, this is a salad I bet you’ll enjoy as a side dish all summer long.
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This favorite Asian Cucumber Salad that has Vidalia Onions (or any sweet onion) and cilantro was inspired by those thinly sliced cucumbers marinated in rice vinegar that are sometimes served with sushi. And I love this type of light and refreshing salad that’s perfect for days when it’s really scorching outside.
And even though I love the salad with the addition of sweet onions and cilantro, I think this rice vinegar dressing is also delicious on plain cucumbers, so if you don’t like all the ingredients (or want fewer carbs without the sweet onion), just go for it with the cucumbers.
This is one of those cucumber salads thats perfect to keep in the fridge, where it will stay good for a day or two so you can keep having a nibble. And truthfully I love this combination of flavors so much I’ve even been known to make it in the winter when it’s not really cucumber salad season at all.
What ingredients do you need for this recipe?
(This is only a list of ingredients; please scroll down for complete printable recipe. Or if you use the JUMP TO RECIPE link at the top of the page, it will take you directly to the complete recipe.)
- cucumbers
- Vidalia onion or other sweet onion
- cilantro
- Unseasoned Rice Vinegar (affiliate link)
- Monkfruit Sweetener (affiliate link) or other sweetener of your choice
- Asian sesame oil (affiliate link)
- garlic puree or Minced Garlic (affiliate link)
- hot pepper flakes (optional)
- coarse ground black pepper to taste
What cucumbers should you use for Asian Cucumber Salad?
This salad would be amazing with garden cucumbers or the the small Persian Cucumbers that are available now, and if you have those you can skip the step of scraping out the seeds. But if you have larger cucumbers with seeds just scrape out the seeds and slice cucumbers as shown in the photos. Of course, fresh garden cucumbers are always great, but I’ve made this salad many times in the winter with mini-cucumbers or European cucumbers.
Can you make the Asian Cucumber Salad without cilantro?
I’m a cilantro fan, so for me cilantro is an essential component in the salad, but I do realize that it doesn’t taste good to everyone. If you’re someone who doesn’t enjoy the taste of cilantro, this salad would also be delicious with thinly sliced green onions or mint, or just omit the cilantro if you prefer!
What helps make this Asian Cucumber Salad low in carbs?
I made this salad with Monkfruit Sweetener (affiliate link) but use any low-carb sweetener you prefer for this salad. Be sure to use unseasoned rice vinegar, which doesn’t contain sugar.
How low in carbs is Asian Cucumber Salad?
This cucumber salad recipe has 8.4 net carbs per serving as written. If you want to make the salad lower in carbs for Keto, omit the sweet onion (or use less), which will make it quite a bit lower in carbs. Or switch out the sweet onion for red onion or regular white or yellow onions, which will also be a lot lower in carbs.
More Cucumber Salads You Might Enjoy:
Check out 30 Low-Carb Cucumber Salads for more tasty cucumber salad ideas!
How to Make Asian Cucumber Salad:
(This is only a summary of the steps for the recipe; please scroll down for complete printable recipe. Or if you use the JUMP TO RECIPE link at the top of the page, it will take you directly to the complete recipe.)
- If you have fresh garden cucumbers or European cucumbers I’d leave more strips of green peel showing, but regular cucumbers from the store should have quite a bit of the peel cut away.
- For large cucumbers I’d scoop the seeds out with a spoon for this salad, see photo of the cucumber with the seeds scooped out.
- I used four medium-sized cucumbers, which gave me a nice pile of sliced cucumbers.
- Chop up one Vidalia onion or other sweet onion, making pieces that are not too large.
- Mix together unseasoned rice vinegar, Monkfruit Sweetener or sweetener of your choice, Asian sesame oil, and garlic puree to make the dressing. I like a tiny pinch of hot pepper flakes in this too but it’s optional
- Put sliced cucumbers and onions in a large Ziploc bag with the dressing and let marinate in the refrigerator for 2 hours or longer.
- When you’re ready to eat, drain the cucumbers and onions into a colander and chop up a generous amount of fresh cilantro, crisped in ice cold water in a salad spinner (affiliate link) if needed.
- You can use sliced green onion if you’re a cilantro hater, or skip it completely. Some people might enjoy mint, but it’s a strong flavor in this salad.
- Mix the cilantro into the onions and cucumbers, season with fresh ground black pepper, and serve.
- This will stay good in the fridge for several days, although cucumbers are more crisp when it’s freshly made.
Make it a Low-Carb Meal!
I think this Asian Cucumber Salad would taste great with Very Greek Grilled Chicken, Grilled Cuban Flank Steak, Thai-Inspired Ground Turkey Stir Fry, Maple Glazed Salmon, or Grilled Boneless Pork Chops for an amazing low-carb dinner.
More salads with cucumbers I make over and over:
- Tomato Cucumber Avocado Salad
- Cucumber Salad with Parsley and Feta
- Al’s Famous Hungarian Cucumber Salad
Asian Cucumber Salad
Asian Cucumber Salad is a perfect salad to cool you down when the weather gets hot. But if I can find good cucumbers, this salad with cucumber, sweet onions, and cilantro is a salad I'd enjoy any time of year. And of course you can omit the cilantro if you prefer.
Ingredients
Ingredients:
- 4 medium cucumbers
- 1 large Vidalia onion (see notes)
- 1 bunch cilantro
Dressing Ingredients:
- 1 cup rice vinegar (see notes)
- 3 T Monkfruit Sweetener (see notes)
- 2 tsp. Asian sesame oil
- 2 tsp. garlic puree (see notes)
- pinch hot pepper flakes (optional)
- coarse ground black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Peel cucumbers in large stripes if using garden cucumbers or peel even more if using store-bought cucumbers.
- Cut cucumber in half lengthwise, and scrape out seeds if they’re large, then cut up cucumbers into half slices.
- Peel onion, cut in half both ways, then cut onion into small slivers of onion.
- Combine rice vinegar, sweetener, sesame oil, garlic, and hot pepper flakes (if using) to make the dressing. I'd start with 3 T of sweetener and taste to see if you want more.
- Place cucumbers and onions in Ziploc bag or plastic bowl with snap-on lid and pour the dressing over cucumber mixture.
- Let it marinate in refrigerator 2-3 hours. (You can leave it slightly longer if needed, but I prefer this when the cucumbers are still slightly crisp.)
- Just before serving, wash, dry, and chop cilantro. (Don’t be afraid to use some of the stem; it is considered a delicacy in parts of Asia.)
- Drain cucumbers and onions and combine with chopped cilantro. (You can use sliced green onion if you’re a cilantro hater, or skip it completely. Some people might enjoy mint, but it’s a strong flavor in this salad.)
- Season the salad with fresh ground pepper and serve.
- This will keep in the refrigerator a day or two, but the vegetables won’t be as crisp as when it's freshly made.
- Of course this is best made with fresh-from-the-garden cucumbers, but if you only have cucumbers from the store, it’s still very good!
Notes
You can use any sweet onion if you don't find Vidalia onions at your store.
Garlic Puree is called Ground Garlic in Asian grocery stores.
Don’t use seasoned vinegar which contains sugar. I would mix the dressing with 3 tablespoons of Monkfruit sweetener, then taste to see if you want a bit more sweetener.
This recipe created by Kalyn and was inspired by thinly-sliced marinated cucumbers served with sushi.
Nutrition Information
Yield
8Serving Size
1Amount Per Serving Calories 64Total Fat 1.7gSaturated Fat .3gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 1.3gCholesterol 0mgSodium 15mgCarbohydrates 10gFiber 1.6gSugar 5.7gProtein 1.5g
Nutrition information is automatically calculated by the Recipe Plug-In I am using. I am not a nutritionist and cannot guarantee 100% accuracy, since many variables affect those calculations.
Low-Carb Diet / Low-Glycemic Diet / South Beach Diet Suggestions:
As long as you use Monkfruit Sweetener or another sweetener or your choice and avoid seasoned rice vinegar, Asian Cucumber Salad is a perfect salad for low-carb or Keto diets, and also for any phase of the original South Beach Diet. For Keto diets, you could use less sweet onion for even lower carbs.
Find More Recipes Like This One:
Use Cucumber Recipes or Salad Recipes to find more recipes like this one. Use the Diet Type Index to find recipes suitable for a specific eating plan. You might also like to follow Kalyn’s Kitchen on Pinterest, on Facebook, on Instagram, on TikTok, or on YouTube to see all the good recipes I’m sharing there.
Historical Notes for this Recipe
This cucumber salad with Asian Flavors was first posted in 2006 after a friend made it for me, and I’ve been making it ever since. It was updated with greatly improved photos in 2023 and was last updated with more information in n2024.
30 Comments on “Asian Cucumber Salad”
I love the way you peeled the cucumber: what a pretty presentation!!!
Thank you!
Made it with mint tonight to go alongside some souvlaki. It was EXCELENT!
Quick, cool and delicious. What a perfect summer salad.
Cooling cucumber salad. Love. And count me among the cilantro lovers. This sounds fabulous.
Kalyn, I am curious about using the Splenda
it doesn't leave an aftertaste like other sweeteners?
this seems like a very refreshing, wonderful dish for the heat we are having
To me, this sounds like the ultimate summer salad. Refreshing and easy to put together. Lovely, Kalyn!
Looks so fresh and crisp with all that cilantro.
This salad sounds so simple and tasty. I love simple salads like this. Now I just need a garden full of cucumbers!
Kalyn what a yummy summertime salad. Looks really easy to make and so healthy too!
Sounds so refreshingly delicious!
Heading to our Farmer's market this weekend will keep this in mind. Especially like the rice wine sweetner. sounds delicious and cooly refreshing
This sounds delicious and refreshing Kalyn. And I like the suggestion for it to go with the scallops. Yum!
Bea, didn’t mean to miss you. Please come on the picnic with us, you can translate. I did take French in school, but that was a loooong time ago.
Virginie, the Armenian cucumbers are curved, and the skin is pale green with ridges going the length of the cucumber. And they are definitely more bitter than other cucumbers (although when cucumbers are bitter, usually people aren’t watering them enough.)
I don’t know if it’s your armenian ones. Here, there are sold in asian stores and are very bitter.
Steven, someday I’ll post some photos of my house on the blog and you’ll see why I doubt if I’ll ever move. I live in a house that’s nearly 100 years old and my brother in law (a contractor) completely gutted it and remodeled the inside. I LOVE my house. (I bought this house in 1988 for $45,000 and now it’s beautiful.)
As far as you moving to Utah, you don’t want to live in Park City. Although it’s beautiful (and very hip to live there) the growing season is so short you can hardly grow anything there!! There are lots of good fixer-uppers in other parts of Salt Lake though! Not that I normally am recruiting people to move here, but in your case it would be great to live by you!
kalyn
I’m waiting for that perfect house in Park City, you know the fixer upper for under a million that doesn’t exist?LOL!
I’d say move here, but I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.
Looks fresh fresh! Love it! Take us with you!
Steven, please consider moving to Utah. I have some good friends who are men, but I don’t have any men friends who garden, cook, AND appreciate Diet Coke. I am impressed!
I love the salad and if I were cutting back on the sugar, I’d be tempted to leave out the Splenda entirely, much as I adore Diet Coke with Splenda. I like fresh, acid flavors and the rice vinegar and cilantro is just the ticket.
Christine, I think we both love scallops. My sister tells me she doesn’t like them and I just can’t understand it.
Anonymous, thanks for taking the time to let me know.
Judith, I was planning to add your blog.
Virginie, I’ll be interested to hear about the Asian cucumber. (Wonder if this is what is often called “armenian” cucumbers here?)
Sher and Mae, thanks to both of you. I am really loving the new camera, although I still have a LOT to learn and sometimes I get some really bad shots. But that is the beauty of digital, just delete them.
Stunning photo Kalyn! You’ve captured each item’s very colour. Love the sound and look of this.
Those cukes do look great! Another picture with that fine new camera?
Thank you for your details. I’ll tell you about the asian cucumber as soon as I try it.
Thanks, Kalyn for stopping by my blog the other day.
Your recipe today is right on time – I was needing a new way to use the sudden excess of cucumbers from my garden.
Do you link to garden blogs as well as food blogs? If you do, I would love mine to be included among your list. It’s called “A to Z Gardening” at http://www.atozgardening.com/blog/
Thanks!
Kalyn – Just thought I’d let you know I love your blog and I read it regularly. Thanks!
This sounds delicious and refreshing Kalyn. And I like the suggestion for it to go with the scallops. Yum!
Alanna, how about if we BOTH go to France together? How fun would that be?
Virginie, I’d love to meet you too. I’ll add a link for Splenda, which is not aspartame, it’s a sweetener made from sugar but with no calories. It’s not something I use a lot, but I like it in something like this where I don’t want to sue sugar.
I don’t know about Asian cucumbers, but try it and let me know what you think.
You’re right Ak, it would be so nice to really meet you it a picnic. Anyway, for the moment, the picnic is vitual and it is better than nothing… Welcome to France girls ! Thank you for your contribution Kalyn. I didn’t expect so much. A very fresh and… green recipe. What is the sweetner you use (spanda, something like that), is it aspartam, or rice syrup, etc. ? I really like this mixing. Do you think it would be too bitter if we use asian cucumber, to make it more exotic ?
Your brother’s, Blogher, why NOT a picnic in France, for real?! And the cukes look GREAT …