Summer
by: Bob Vivant
August28,2012
4.5
8 Ratings
- Serves 2-3
Jump to Recipe
Author Notes
It’s hard to beat an ice cold cucumber salad on a hot day. Unfortunately, they can be find very one dimensional at times. This light but flavor-rich salad was inspired by Deborah Madison’s recipe for Cucumber Salad with Chile and Peanuts from her book Local Flavors. It’s a bit fussier than your standard cucumber salad, but well worth the extra five minutes it will take you to mince some ginger and zest your lime. —Bob Vivant
What You'll Need
Ingredients
- 1 large cucumber, thinly sliced
- 1 large or a few small radishes, cut into matchsticks
- 1 fresh hot red chile pepper, diced (Remove the seeds for a milder salad.)
- 1 clove garlic, finely minced
- 1/2 teaspoonfresh ginger, grated or finely minced
- 1 lime, zest and juice
- 1 tablespoonrice vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoonfish sauce
- 2 teaspoonssesame oil
- 1 teaspoonhoney
- 1 teaspoonblack sesame seeds
- 2 tablespoonssalted and roasted peanuts, roughly chopped
- Fresh Thai basil, mint, or cilantro or a combination of them, chopped
Directions
- Place the cucumber slices, radishes, and chile pepper in a large bowl, toss to mix.
- In a small bowl whisk together the garlic, ginger, lime zest and juice, rice vinegar, fish sauce, sesame oil, and honey. Drizzle the vinaigrette over the cucumbers and toss until thoroughly mixed. Refrigerate for 30 minutes to allow the flavors to deepen.
- Before serving add the sesame seeds, peanuts, and herbs and toss again.
Tags:
- Salad
- Asian
- Vegetable
- Chile Pepper
- Cucumber
- Honey
- Lime
- Peanut
- Radish
- Sesame Oil
- Vinegar
- Summer
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18 Reviews
grammarcat November 9, 2020
Delicious - I doubled the recipe for a small dinner party in November (so not just for summer) where I also served asian glazed salmon and a couple other (plainer) sides. The salad was gone. It is super delicious. There is something about fish sauce that really gives a special flavor that is hard to duplicate otherwise. I had lots of fresh lime juice and zest, and the black sesame seeds. I mixed the salad to get the flavors, but then it was less visually appealing. But still awesome and colorful.
Deborah September 12, 2016
Just made this salad and served it with barbecued Thai Chicken. Delicious! The 2 dishes matched each other and both out the best in each. I added a little more honey to balance the tartness of the lime juice. Will definitely make this again. The flavours are so zingy and fresh. Thanks.
Melanie July 9, 2016
Delicious side dish for a summer cook out!
roserenae August 11, 2015
where can i find the caloric / nutritional breakdown on this?
Brenda N. August 11, 2015
If you Google "How to find nutritional value of a recipe" it will show you several sites where you can go enter the ingredients. I have used the one from Spark People, and it was easy to use.
Brenda N. June 9, 2015
Great recipe! Easy and good. I substituted some jalpenos for the red chile, as I had those on hand. Omitted the sesame seeds because I didn't have any. Man, this was yummy and leftovers were just as good the next day.
MiamiMom July 17, 2014
Wow! This was fantastic. Used regular sesame seeds, bottled lime juice (I know, I know) and didn't have time to marinate. We inhaled it. Next time I'll double it. Mmmmmmmmm.
Petite F. March 13, 2014
Love this!! very refreshing!
sumradagnoth August 18, 2013
made this last night - super refreshing on a hot summer night in south florida!
Steven P. August 17, 2013
This sounds delicious and so refreshing! I have a request: Can anyone suggest a good substitute for fish sauce since my husband is highly allergic.
Thanks!
bugbitten August 18, 2013
Not to be facetious, but could you be more specific about the fish sauce allergy? My wife is allergic to figs, of all things!
Steven P. August 18, 2013
Oh my! Never heard of that one. He's highly allergic to all things fish and seafood. Which is unfortunate, as fish and seafood are among my favorites.
bookgeekgirl August 21, 2013
You might try a bit of soy sauce as a substitute for fish sauce. It's not exactly the same flavor profile, but it will give you a little bit of the salty/umami flavor you would have gotten from fish sauce. Or just skip it -- there are plenty of other things here to give you good flavor.
Steven P. August 22, 2013
Thank you! Soy sauce makes sense. I appreciate your contribution, Bookgeekgirl!
susan G. August 15, 2013
The salad makes a good crunchy spike over a boring taco filling. I added sliced onions, since we can't get through a meal without them. I'll come back to this in a more expected context. A keeper!
Cosmos August 14, 2013
Didn't have peanuts so added a little peanut butter to mixture. Very tasty!
QueenSashy August 14, 2013
Yum. Congrats on the wildcard.
bugbitten January 31, 2013
Thanks for this, I'll make it to go alongside Nasi Goren.
