This Spiralized Thai Cucumber Salad is the perfect refreshing accompaniment to any Thai dish, and is especially delicious served with satay or rich curries. Affiliate links have been used to link to items that I am discussing–and that I love or I would not recommend them!
I did it! I got my butt in the kitchen, I cooked some food and took photographs, I joined the hordes and bought and used a spiralizer, and I finally unpacked the last of the boxes that were packed by professional movers way back in Pennsylvania when Sammy was about 8 months old.
Yes you read that right.
So I guess pick a milestone! I am definitely having issues getting my life back in order since returning from Italy, so cooking and photographing a simple meal felt pretty big. And yeah I finally caved on the spiralizer–and it was so much fun I have no idea why I resisted so long. As to the boxes…. only my very longest readers may remember that we moved a lot when we first got to Ohio, while we were building a house, and because of that some kitchen (I know! Kitchen!) boxes were not unpacked at all for the short term stays in different houses. And then by the time we got here, it just felt like we had learned to live without whatever was in the boxes for so long it didn’t feel pressing…
So what started pressing? Meet Persephone!
I am super excited to tell you all about her, but I am going to save most of it for a later post, involving cats in Italy. And no she didn’t come from Italy. But anyway, much like her namesake she will be dividing her time between up with us and the basement (primarily because I have serious issues with cats on the counter and a lot of family members with allergies, including me!). This meant getting the basement clean–which meant hauling those boxes upstairs and checking them out.
What a treasure trove of food photography props! Ha! And several long lost items I have been searching for. And of course some items that will be donated to Good Will. And a lot of paper to throw away–have you seen the way professional movers pack things!?
Anyway. Back to the other stuff I am excited about. I decided somewhere near the end of my time in Italy that I was going to take the plunge and buy a spiralizer. What decided me? Carrot thread (noodles) salads! That texture just sounds awesome to me. I don’t know how sold I am on the whole noodle substitute angle. But I love the idea of it for salads! Or just for the sake of the texture that is created by the threads. After hemming and hawing, I went with the Paderno World Cuisine Spiralizer Pro, 4-Blade
, primarily because I am in love with the idea of the angel hair blade, which only comes in the “Pro” version.
I started with a thicker “noodle,” figuring it might be easier, for this salad. The Thai Cucumber Salad itself is technically a redux, but it was on my blog so long ago I actually thought the occasional post without pictures was acceptable. And once upon a time I swear it was not nearly as gauche as it feels now! Traditionally I have always made this salad (I make it frequently) with thinly sliced cucumber–but another benefit to the spiralizer–or a mandolin–is that it gets the slices super thin, which in turn gives you more surface area for the delicious dressing to cling to. The dressing itself is nothing unusual, but it is traditionally Thai and that is where I learned to love it.
I first made this recipe eons ago from Nancie McDermott’s excellent Real Thai: The Best of Thailand’s Regional Cooking
, but it has been so long since I even consulted the book that I could not tell you how much my recipe is adapted. As you will see, the recipe is super simple!
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup white vinegar
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 pinch of salt
- 3 English cucumbers, spiralized (or thinly sliced)
- 1 red onion, spiralized (or finely chopped), or equivalent of shallots
- approx. 1/2 cup cilantro, roughly chopped
-
Bring the water, vinegar, sugar and salt to a boil and then remove from heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Set aside to cool completely.
-
After the dressing has cooled, toss all ingredients together and serve. It can be made ahead by a few hours and left to chill, covered, in the fridge. When I make this, I often keep adding more cucumber to the dressing (it will be quite liquid-y, it is really more of a pickle in some ways) as the days go by to have excellent leftover cucumber salad.
I will never agree that veggie noodles taste anything like real noodles…but they are delicious in their own right! Love these Thai flavors and yay on so many accomplishments!
Love this cucumber salad. I make one all the time but haven’t used angle hair spiraled cucumbers yet…that would be fun! Oh, and the paper….I know what you mean! I’ve moved 20x in 28 years, that’s a lot of paper! Hate unpacking!
What a fun twist on one of my favorite salads! And Persephone is adorable! Congrats on the new family addition 🙂
I love using my spiralizer, I can’t wait to try this recipe. Thanks!
I love the Thai flavors in this. Cucumbers are my favorite to use in salads. Love this idea!
Congrats on Persephone, Laura, and way to go on the boxes!
I know how easy it is to live without stuff, but I am married to a ‘all the boxes are unpacked, photos hung and cords tucked against walls before I go back to work’ kind of guy, so each move we unpack it all.
Except the Christmas ornaments.
I will not replace noodles with vegetables, but I really like the idea of different cuts of veggies in a salad.
Well done!
I love cucumber salad! I just pulled a ton of cucumbers out of the garden this morning (seriously, like 30) and I’m sure this will be in my future!
I love my spiralizer! I have yet to use it with cucumbers; I will have to try this recipe very soon! Looks delicious. 😀
Persephone is so cute! I just adopted a kitten in February, and though he is adorable, he is a handful! He eats anything and everything he can chomp down on (like even kale and tomato cores). Such a little monkey!
Anyways, I think I need a spiralizer because I want to make this salad! And I happen to be growing some Thai basil on my balcony and I bet it’d be perfect in this dish 😉
Looks great, but what happened to the Thai chilies?
I don’t think I have ever been served a spicy cucumber relish… although even if I had I would leave them out because my daughter cannot handle anything spicy. 🙁
Love this salad, and love Persephone! I have to check – I think I have a “spiralizer” already. It’s Japanese and I don’t think the instructions are in English, but it may be time to bring it out and play again!
My husband got me a spiralizer for valentine’s day and I’m LOVING it!!! I’ve been looking for more spiralizer recipes and this one sounds perfect!
I haven’t gotten my spiralizer out yet this summer…mainly because we haven’t seen much zucchini in our CSA share yet and that’s what I tend to use it for. However, I know we’ll be getting plenty of zucchini soon, and this looks absolutely wonderful! I’m definitely making it!
Love this recipe. However, I cannot have refined sugar. Can you suggest a replacement for it and what amount. I have a spiralizer and love using it. Thanks. Persephone is so cute!
These are guesses, so I hope you will report back and let me know how it goes! If Agave is not too processed, I think it would be fantastic. I think, but am not quite as certain, that coconut sugar should work. Also, SE Asian palm sugar would be fine. As to amount, I would start with 3/4 of the amount of sugar and then taste it. It should be sweet, but balanced with sour.
Thanks for the info. I will try the suggestion and let you know how it was.