This vegan Thai Cucumber Salad is sweet, savory and spicy! Sweet red onions and a flavourful Thai dressing turn plain cucumbers into something fancy. This Cucumber Mint Salad recipe takes less than 10 minutes!
❤️ Why you'll love this recipe
- This Thai Cucumber Mint Salad is quick and easy to make! It's cool, crunchy and refreshing. Adding sweet red onions and a flavourful Thai dressing turns plain cucumbers into something fancy-schmancy, all in less than 10 minutes.
- Fresh and crispy with slightly spicy Thai flavours, this recipe is a great way to showcase cucumbers at any time of year.
- It's particularly handy in the summer when our gardens are overflowing with cucumbers! You might like this Kiwi Cucumber Salad with Walnuts and Fresh Mint, too!
Looking for other salads that pair well with Thai Foods? Try this Thai Mango Salad with Peanuts!
🛒 Ingredients and substitutions
You'll find a complete list of ingredients with amounts in the recipe card below. But before we get to the full recipe, here are a few notes about some of the ingredients.
- cucumber (Long English): use one or two, depending on their size
- red onion: if you find your onion is too strong, soak the slices in cool water for 10 to 15 minutes then drain.
- fresh mint leaves
And for the spicy Thai dressing, you'll need
- rice wine vinegar: This vinegar has a mild flavour and acidity, ideal for a light Thai salad like this one. Apple cider vinegar would be much too strong for this recipe. Check your label: "seasoned" rice vinegar has both sugar and salt added and wil change the flavour of this dressing considerably.
- sesame oil: regular sesame oil. If you only have toasted sesame oil on hand, use half the amount and increase the amount of olive oil accordingly.
- olive oil
- sweet Thai red chili sauce: adds both sweetness and heat! (affiliate link)
🔪 Instructions
- Slice the cucumbers very thinly (no need to peel them). A mandolin works well for this job. You could also use a sharp knife or a spiralizer if you'd like.
- Next, slice the red onions thinly, leave them in rings, or chopped them finely, you do you!
- Give the mint leaves a rough chop.
- Combine the cucumber slices, onion slices and mint leaves in a small bowl.
- Whisk the dressing ingredients together, then toss with the salad and serve!
🔁 Possible Variations
Like a little crunch to your salad? Garnish your Thai cucumber salad with ¼ cup of finely chopped peanuts.
Like more heat? Add a sprinkling of dried red chili flakes, or a very small amount of finely chopped dried Thai red chili. These are very hot, so start with a tiny amount. You can always add more, but you can't take them away!
👍🏼 Helpful Tips
If you're planning to make this salad a day ahead of time, slice the cucumbers a little thicker or in chunks. While this salad will last for a couple of days in the fridge, the cucumbers do tend to become limp if they'be been sliced very thinly.
❓Reader's Questions
Yes! It's vegan and it's also gluten-free.
🍽 Serving Suggestions
This Thai salad makes a refreshing, crisp and crunchy side salad for your favourite Thai dishes. Try it with any of the following main dishes:
- Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce: Skewered and grilled chicken marinated in a flavorful blend of spices, served with a creamy peanut sauce for dipping.
- Easy Thai Baked Chicken: Slightly spicy Thai baked chicken marinated in coconut milk, garlic, ginger, cilantro, basil, coriander and lime!
- Easy Thai Chicken Skewers: These chicken skewers are sweet, spicy and succulent. They're marinated in a flavourful combination of tamari, ginger, garlic and Thai chili paste.
- Instant Pot or Slow Cooker Thai Mango Chicken: Sweet mangoes, spicy peppers and fresh lime combine to make this Thai Mango Chicken with coconut rice a family favourite.
- Spicy Thai Mussels in Coconut Milk: Fresh spicy Thai mussels steamed in an aromatic coconut broth make an impressive starter, lunch or light dinner.
- Thai Red Curry with Shrimp: Made with succulent shrimp in the yummiest Thai red coconut curry sauce, this easy dish can be served over jasmine rice.
- Thai Red Curry with Chicken: easy to make and takes less than 30 minutes to cook!
⏰ Storage Instructions
Store this cucumber salad covered in the fridge for up to 2 days. After that the cucumbers tend to become limp and lose their crunch.
🗒 More healthy salad recipes
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This recipe was originally published in 2015. It has been updated with new photos and additional information.
📖 Recipe
Cucumber Mint Salad with Thai Dressing
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 large long English cucumber
- ½ small red onion
- 1 small handful fresh mint leaves
- 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon sweet Thai chili sauce , gluten-free
Instructions
- Slice the cucumber and the red onion very thinly, using either a very sharp knife or a mandoline slicer or a vegetable spiralizer.
- Place in a salad bowl with the mint leaves.
- Whisk together the dressing ingredients and toss together just before serving.
Heather Mason @Nutty Nutrition
those cucumbers look so pretty! makes me want a spiralizer!
Flavour & Savour
Yes Heather, the spiralizer is a lot of fun! Zucchini, apples, cucumbers, beets, even broccoli stalks--and lots more.
keri
This looks wonderful! What brand of thai chili sauce do you use?
Flavour & Savour
Right now I'm using Thai Kitchen.