Easy Asian Cucumber Salad with sesame oil, rice vinegar, and garlic is a cool and crisp side dish that is easy to toss together at a momentโ€™s notice. Level up any meal with this refreshing dish!

Easy Asian Cucumber Salad with delicious sesame garlic dressing. So flavorful and vibrant!

Do you ever crave something tangy, crunchy, and just all around refreshing?

That, mโ€™dear, is cucumber salad!

Have you tried it?? Cucumber salad is a very common side dish at Japanese restaurants, and one of my favorite Mexican restaurants serves it up with their tostadas as well. For this recipe, weโ€™re going with the Asian approach.

Asian Cucumber Salad requires very few ingredients and leaves you feeling nice and chill on these hot days. 

Fresh summer salads like this and my Cauliflower Potato Salad, Roasted Summer Vegetable Quinoa Salad, Curried Chicken Salad and Avocado Greek Tuna Salad are amazing for keeping your warm weather eats cool, fresh, flavorful, and nourishing.

Whip it up for any weeknight, picnic, barbecue, you name it! Folks love it because it just tastes so fresh, and itโ€™s just so easy to toss together in 5 minutes flat!

The only caveat is the longer the salad sits, the more amazing it tastes. Having the forethought to prepare the salad at least one hour (ideally twelve hours or longer) ahead of time will win you the best result!

Easy Asian Cucumber Salad that you get at Japanese restaurants. Quick, flavorful, delicious!

Letโ€™s chat about the ingredients!

What Type of Cucumbers to Use for Asian Cucumber Salad:

Truly, any type of cucumber will be lovely in this salad recipe. It is customary in Asian-style cucumber salads to use Japanese or Persian cucumbers, which are smaller than regular and English cucumbers. 

If you can find them, use them! Japanese and Persian cucumbers arenโ€™t common in grocery stores in my area, so I use one large English cucumber.

More often than not, the cucumber salads I get at Sushi or Japanese restaurants comes with chunks of chopped seeded cucumbers, rather than sliced. You can remove the seeds of the cucumbers before chopping if youโ€™d like to go this route.

Easy Asian Cucumber Salad that you get at Japanese restaurants. Quick, flavorful, delicious!

Dressing for Cucumber Salad:

The ingredients you need to dress the salad are so simple you likely already have them! Rice vinegar, sesame oil, liquid aminos (or soy sauce or coconut aminos), garlic, and a touch of pure maple syrup is all you need! 

You can swap the rice vinegar for white vinegar or cider vinegar (but truly, rice vinegar is my favorite) if need be. Switch the sesame oil for avocado oil if you donโ€™t like the flavor of sesame oil, but the sesame oil provides a great deal of flavor so donโ€™t skip it unless you donโ€™t like it!

How to Make Cucumber Salad:

Stir together the rice vinegar, sesame oil, liquid aminos (or soy sauce or coconut aminos), garlic and pure maple syrup in a mixing bowl.

Asian Cucumber Salad with a delicious garlic sesame dressing

Run a vegetable peeler down the side of the cucumber in 3 or 4 strips and slice the cucumber thinly.

Add the sliced cucumber to the mixing bowl and stir well to combine.

Allow the salad to marinate at least 1 hour before serving – ideally 12 to 24 hours. The longer it sits, the more flavorful it will become!

Easy Asian Cucumber Salad that you get at Japanese restaurants. Quick, flavorful, delicious!

Pro Tip: stir the cucumber salad periodically if you can. This ensures all of the slices will be well-saturated in the dressing.

Bring it with you to all your summer gatherings!

Easy Asian Cucumber Salad with delicious sesame garlic dressing. So flavorful and vibrant!

Easy Asian Cucumber Salad

4.75 from 4 votes
This easy Asian Cucumber Salad recipe is light and refreshing and comes together quickly for an amazing side dish!
Prep Time 15 minutes
Total Time 15 minutes
Servings: 4 Servings

Ingredients

Instructions

  • Stir together the rice vinegar, sesame oil, liquid aminos (or soy sauce or coconut aminos), garlic and pure maple syrup in a mixing bowl.
  • Run a vegetable peeler down the side of the cucumber in 3 or 4 strips and slice the cucumber thinly.
  • Add the sliced cucumber to the mixing bowl and stir well to combine.
  • Allow the salad to marinate at least 1 hour before serving - ideally 12 to 24 hours. The longer it sits, the more flavorful it will become!

Notes

*You can also use mini Japaneseย  or Persian cucumbers - use 6 to 8!

Nutrition

Serving: 1of 4 ยท Calories: 35kcal ยท Carbohydrates: 5g ยท Protein: 1g ยท Fat: 1g ยท Sugar: 3g
Author: Julia
Course: Side Dishes & Snacks
Cuisine: Japanese
Keyword: asian cucumber salad, cucumber salad, cucumbers, gluten free, paleo, side dish, vegan, vegetarian
Did You Make This Recipe?I want to see it! Tag @the.roasted.root on social media!
Quick and easy Asian Cucumber Salad made with just a handful of ingredients you likely already have!

Julia Mueller
Meet the Author

Julia Mueller

Julia Mueller is a recipe developer, cookbook author, and founder of The Roasted Root. She has authored three bestselling cookbooks, – Paleo Power Powers, Delicious Probiotic Drinks, and The Quintessential Kale Cookbook. Her recipes have been featured in several national publications such as BuzzFeed, Self, Tasty, Country Living, Brit.co, etc.

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Questions and Reviews

    1. Hi Brandi! Absolutely feel free to use any type of sweetener you’d like in a 1:1 replacement. I hope you enjoy the salad!

  1. You don’t include sesame seeds in the recipe, but you do show them in the pics of it being made, can you tell me if you have toasted the sesame seeds or left them untoasted

    1. Hi Daisy! I use raw sesame seeds and add a couple of shakes to the salad, which I believe would equate to about 1 teaspoon. Hope you enjoy!