Cucumber Salad + Creamy Gochujang Dressing
sincerely a pretty great salad for a hot day
the hot weather has certainly arrived in Orlando and today i was craving something light and refreshing which ended up in me making this pretty scrumptious salad. this dressing is honestly addicting as its perfectly creamy and spicy — the way it hugs onto the cucumber noodles just makes these two a match made in heaven. the dressing also comes together in no time at all and even makes enough to have left over dressing. which trust me you are going to want to have some left over as this will probably have you on a salad craving for at least a couple days.
you can make the cucumber noodles however you like — typically I would maybe use a different attachment on my mandolin to get actual “noodles” however this time around I was missing that attachment and decided to try taking a different approach. regardless of the shape of the noodles the salad was still super yummy so don’t be afraid to play around with what you have in your kitchen.
on the topic of using what we have in our kitchen - if you have been followin me for a little while you may have noticed I use Peanut Butter and Co. in a variety of my recipes. they have a variety of really great flavors — my latest favorite is cinnamon swirl. its so good that I literally just eat it off a spoon. for recipes like this one I use the smooth operator peanut butter for a dressing that is nice and creamy.
if you are a peanut butter lover you can shop my affiliate link and use my code DMG for a 10% off discount to you. let me not forget to also share that these peanut butters are also organic / non-gmo and they have a really nice selection of plant-based options….including chocolate ones
Cucumber Salad + Creamy Gochujang Dressing
yields 2 servings / prep time is about 30 minutes
1 - “seedless” cucumber ( sometimes called English cucumbers )
Ingredients for the dressing
yields about 1 1/2 cups
1/2 cup - smooth peanut butter ( I used Peanut Butter & Co. )
2 tbsp - gochujang paste
2 tbsp - soy sauce
1/2 tbsp - minced ginger
1 clove - minced garlic
1/4 cup - lime juice
1 tbsp - rice wine vinegar or mirin
1 tbsp - maple syrup
1 tsp - chili crisp
1/2 cup - hot water
Garnishes
olive oil
flakey salt
chopped peanuts
chopped green onions
What you may need:
mandolin to slice cucumber into noodles ( or something comparable )
blender or Nutribullet
bowl and whisk
jar for storing dressing
Ingredients
Step 1 - Prep + make the dressing
There is nothing worse than going to make something and realizing you don’t have the stuff ! First things first gather your mise en place, and wash the cucumbers.
To make the dressing simply add all the ingredients for the dressing in a bowl and whisk till smooth. Once mixed evenly, pour the dressing into a squeeze bottle, jar or food safe container and pop in the fridge to sort of set and let the flavors develop as the salad prep is being done.
Step 2 - Shave the cucumber noodles
If you have a tool to make cucumber noodles than feel free to give that a try. My attachment for making noodles decided that it did not want to be found so I went about shaving my cucumber noodles a bit differently.
Looking at the cucumber horizontally I cut off the top and bottom and then cut the cucumber into 3rds. This made each segment about 4 inches long. From there I cut each of these segments into quarters and then began shaving thinly on the mandolin until I had shaved up all my cucumber.
Step 3 - Plating
In a bowl toss the cucumber noodles with a bit of the dressing to evenly distribute the dressing. To curl the noodles to get them to look the way I did them in the photo. You will just need maybe a pair of food tweezers to pick up each noodle and sort of curl it around your finger making a little circle or ring. Keep doing this with one noodle at a time until you have enough cucumber rings and are happy with the overall aesthetic.
Once you have finished this part, all that is left is to drizzle or spoon over the noodles some more of the dressing before garnishing with a bit of olive oil, chopped peanuts, chopped green onions and flakey salt.
If you make it, please tag me on Pinterest or Instagram so I can see! It’s my favorite thing to scroll through stories and see what you all are making.
And of course feel free to leave any questions, comments or reviews! This is the best place to reach me, and I’d love to hear from you <3