Thai Spicy Cucumber Salad
This spicy cucumber salad is crunchy sour, salty, and spicy.
One of my favorite dishes is Thai papaya salad (som tum). This spicy cucumber dish is the sister to papaya salad. It contains the same spicy garlicky savory flavor.
Cucumbers are very different to the green papaya that is more commonly used. Cucumbers generally have more liquid. This will make your cucumber salad juicer and have more liquid (sauce) than the typical papaya salad. This extra juice is great with eating with noodles and adds that extra slurp to your dish.
The fun part about making this dish is using a Thai mortar and pestle (you can use any mortar and pestle you have).
The tricky part of the recipe is using your knife to make slivers of cucumbers. See photos below. It takes practice but once you do it a few times it’s quite simple.
The best things to eat alongside this dish is grilled meats, Thai beef jerky, Thai sausages, pork cracklings, and noodles. See other recipes below that pair nicely with this dish:
How to cut your cucumbers:
Cut cucumbers in julienne silvers. See photos below. Cut the Persian cucumber in half if cucumbers are large (this makes it a little easier to cut). Hold cucumber in one hand and with the other hand using a sharp knife cutting vertical lines of the cucumber.
Then cut the cucumber in opposite direction to cut slivers off the cucumbers. This can be very tricky and dangerous so go slow when cutting your cucumber. I use the seeded middle (this will make it juicier) but this is optional.
Steps to make your spicy cucumber salad:
In a mortar, add garlic, Thai chili pepper, and sugar. Using the pestle pound ingredients.
Add thin soy sauce and fish sauce (or vegan fish sauce). Squeeze lime into mortar. Mix well using spoon and pestle.
Add tomatoes and use the pestle gently pound/smush on grape tomatoes.
Add the slivers of cucumbers and gently pound and stir with the pestle and spoon.
I made this recipe vegan friendly, however, adding additional shrimp paste/crab or dry shrimp will also add to the flavors.
Taste and add more fish sauce (vegan fish sauce) as desired.
Let me know if you enjoyed it!
Thai Spicy Cucumber Salad
Ingredients
- 2 Persian cucumber
- 3 garlic cloves
- 1-10 Thai chili pepper use as many as you like
- 2 tsp sugar
- 2 tbsp thin soy sauce
- 2 tsp fish sauce or vegan fish sauce
- 1 lime
- 10 grape tomatoes
Instructions
- Prep all your vegetables. Wash cucumbers, Thai chilies, grape tomatoes, and lime. Cut grape tomatoes in half and remove stems from Thai chilies.
- Cut cucumbers in julienne silvers. See photos above. Cut the Persian cucumber in half if cucumbers are large (this makes it a little easier to cut). Hold cucumber in one hand and with the other hand using a sharp knife cutting vertical lines of the cucumber. Then cut the cucumber in opposite direction to cut slivers off the cucumbers. This can be very tricky and dangerous so go slow when cutting your cucumber. I use the seeded middle (this will make it juicier) but this is optional.
- In a mortar, add garlic, Thai chili pepper, and sugar. Using the pestle pound ingredients.
- Add thin soy sauce and fish sauce (or vegan fish sauce). Squeeze lime into mortar. Mix well using spoon and pestle.
- Add tomatoes and use the pestle gently pound/smush on grape tomatoes.
- Add the slivers of cucumbers and gently pound and stir with the pestle and spoon.
- Taste the salad and add salt (or fish sauce/vegan fish sauce) and sugar to your liking. The salad will have a pungent, spicy, salty, savory, and sour flavors.
- Serve with sticky rice, vermicelli noodles, grilled meats, or your favorite side dish.