This light and refreshing Chinese smashed cucumber salad is a great snack, appetizer, or side dish on a hot day. Fresh cucumbers are smashed into bite-sized pieces and mixed with garlic, vinegar, and other sweet and sour ingredients for a surprisingly quick and easy dish with complex flavors.
A popular street food in China, this smashed cucumber salad recipe is also popular with home cooks and Chinese restaurants as well. Chinese smashed cucumbers can be made as little as 10-30 minutes depending on the steps you take.
In China, cucumbers are a massively popular snack food. They’re cheap, healthy, and refreshing on hot days. Smashed cucumber salad is a common and popular way to serve cucumbers, and you’ll find this dish made in many homes and restaurant menus across the country.
If you enjoy refreshing and light side salads in the summer, this is also a great option for cookouts and summer BBQs. If you’re looking for something different to surprise your guests with, this smashed cucumber salad is a great variation on other sliced cucumber salads typically seen at American cookouts.
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🥘 Ingredients for Chinese Smashed Cucumbers
Most of the needed ingredients are easily found in most grocery stores. If you do any Asian cooking on a regular basis, you’ll probably have everything on hand already.
Cucumbers – The biggest difference in this recipe will depend on the type of cucumber you use. Thin-skinned cucumbers with fewer seeds are best. English cucumbers are a popular choice here, as well as Persian and Japanese cucumbers. Don’t use regular American cucumbers here, they’re a bit too watery with lots of seeds.
Salt – Pre-salting is an optional but recommended step. After smashing the cucumbers, I recommend tossing them with Kosher salt in a colander or large bowl to pull out excess moisture.
Vinegar – Chinese black vinegar goes well here. Made from wheat and rice bran, Chinkiang vinegar has earthy, slightly sweet, malty notes. You can also substitute rice wine vinegar, which is a little more common in most grocery stores.
Garlic – Mince a few cloves of garlic so you have at least a teaspoon worth. Letting it sit with the vinegar for a bit will mellow the raw bite.
Soy Sauce – I recommend light soy sauce for this recipe. Low sodium is good too if doing the salting step since you don’t rinse the cucumbers afterwards.
Sesame Oil – A bit of toasted sesame oil adds a nice, nutty flavor that helps to mellow the acidity of the vinegar.
Sugar – A small bit of white sugar balances the sour flavors and adds just a bit of sweetness.
Sesame Seeds – White, black, or a mix of sesame seeds adds a nice texture to the cucumber salad. I like toasting them in a dry skillet for a few minutes before adding to the finished salad.
Chili Oil/Crisp – Optional, these ingredients can add a bit of heat to the dish. If using chili oil, I would drizzle the salad with about 2 teaspoons at the end. For chili crisp I used about 1 tablespoon and gave the salad a quick mix again after adding.
🔪 How to Make Smashed Cucumber Salad
You can skip steps like salting and draining the cucumbers, toasting the sesame seeds, and letting the garlic sit in the vinegar. If you’re in a hurry, you can make this Chinese smashed cucumber salad recipe in barely 10 minutes this way. If you’re not in a rush, I highly recommend doing those steps, however.
Starting with the cucumbers, slice the ends off, then cut them into 3-4” segments. Using the flat side of a cleaver, a rolling pin, or a meat mallet, gently smash the cucumber. It should split them into 4 spear-like pieces. Cut these pieces on a slight angle into bite-sized pieces about 1” or less. If a bit messy, you can smash the cucumbers in a zipper-lock plastic bag and tear the cucumbers by hand.
Place the cucumber pieces into a large bowl or a colander and sprinkle with the Kosher salt and toss to combine. Let the salted cucumber pieces sit for at least 15 minutes and up to 30 minutes.
While the cucumbers drain off their excess water, mince the garlic and add to a small bowl with the black vinegar. Let the garlic and vinegar sit for about 15 minutes to mellow the raw garlic. In a small pan, toast the sesame seeds over medium heat, shaking occasionally, until they smell nutty, about 3-4 minutes. Set aside to cool.
Once the cucumbers and garlic are ready, make the rest of the dressing. Combine the soy sauce, sesame oil, and sugar. Stir until the sugar is dissolved, then add the vinegar and garlic and mix to combine.
In a non-reactive mixing bowl, add the cucumber pieces and dressing and stir to combine. Add the toasted sesame seeds and chili crisp if using and stir again. Serve immediately or store in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
💭 Frequently Asked Questions
Smashing the cucumbers as opposed to just slicing them creates rough and irregular edges. This makes it easier for the cucumber pieces to absorb and hold onto the dressing.
Salting the cucumber pieces and letting them sit for a while draws out moisture from the normally watery cucumbers. This allows the cucumber pieces to be crisp and crunchy instead of watery. The dressing is salty and will draw more moisture out of the cucumbers, so waiting until you’re ready to serve the cucumber salad before tossing with the dressing also helps.
Once made, Chinese smashed cucumber is only good for a day or two, and best the day it is made. If you want to make it ahead of time, you can store the smashed cucumbers and the dressing in the refrigerator separately for up to one day and combine just before serving.
🍽 Recommended Equipment
You won’t need any fancy equipment to make this Chinese smashed cucumber salad, but here’s just a few items I recommend if you don’t have them already.
Non-reactive Bowl – Whenever mixing fresh fruits or vegetables, I recommend using a non-reactive mixing bowl. I like a large glass mixing bowl for this, but you can also use large serving bowls or plastic, basically anything but metal.
Meat Mallet – IF you don’t have a Chinese cleaver or rolling pin, a heavy meat mallet works well for smashing the cucumbers here. I prefer using this tool here on English (hot house) cucumbers.
Colander – You can use a large mixing or serving bowl as well, but I prefer to leave the smashed and salted cucumbers in a colander instead. This way they’re not sitting in the released water, and they drain themselves as they sit.
❄️ Storing & Making Cucumber Salad Ahead of Time
This is definitely a dish that is best served and eaten the day it is made. The dressing is salty, which will continue to pull more water out of the smashed cucumbers as it sits. If you have leftovers, you can store them in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 1-2 days, but it will become soggier as it sits.
If you need to make this ahead of time, follow all the steps up until combining the cucumber pieces and dressing. Store in the refrigerator separately for up to one day and then combine just before serving.
Smashed cucumber salad does not freeze well. If you end up with too many leftovers, I recommend cutting the recipe in half instead of trying to freeze it.
📋 Recipe
Chinese Smashed Cucumber Salad (Pai Huang Gua)
Ingredients
- 2 English cucumbers, about 1-1 ½ pounds
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 4 teaspoons Chinese black vinegar, or rice wine vinegar
- 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon white sugar
- 2 teaspoon sesame seeds, toasted
- 1 tablespoon chili crisp, or 2 teaspoons chili oil, both optional
Directions
- Starting with the 2 English cucumbers, slice the ends off, then cut them into 3-4” segments. Using the flat side of a cleaver, a rolling pin, or a meat mallet, gently smash the cucumber. It should split into 4 spear-like pieces. Cut these pieces on a slight angle into bite-sized pieces about 1” or less. If a bit messy, you can smash the cucumbers in a zipper-lock plastic bag and tear the cucumbers by hand.
- Place the cucumber pieces into a large bowl or a colander and sprinkle with the Kosher salt and toss to combine. Let the salted cucumber pieces sit for at least 15 minutes and up to 30 minutes.
- While the cucumbers drain off their excess water, mince 2-3 cloves of garlic and add to a small bowl with 4 teaspoons of Chinese black vinegar. Let the garlic and vinegar sit for about 15 minutes to mellow the raw garlic. In a small pan, toast the 1-2 teaspoons of sesame seeds over medium heat, shaking occasionally, until they smell nutty, about 3-4 minutes. Set aside to cool.
- Once the cucumbers and garlic are ready, make the rest of the dressing. Combine 1 tablespoon light soy sauce, 2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil, and 1 teaspoon granulated sugar. Stir until the sugar is dissolved, then add the vinegar and garlic and mix to combine.
- In a non-reactive mixing bowl, add the cucumber pieces and dressing and stir to combine. Add the toasted sesame seeds and chili crisp if using and stir again. Serve immediately or store in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
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