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Tangy spicy Korean Cucumber Salad (Oi Muchim) is crunchy, cool, and refreshing. An easy-to-make Korean cucumber side dish that is healthy and delicious.
Now I see the secret of making the best person: it is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth.
Walt Whitman
Korean Cucumber Salad is addicting! Cool crunchy cucumber slices are tossed in a spicy slightly sweet dressing. Gochugaru chili flakes (Korean chili flakes) are what really make this dish, they have a sweet fruity smoky flavor with moderate heat, unique flavor, and are hard to substitute. Fortunately, they have become more popular and easier to find. We slice the cucumbers thick to hold more crunch and juice, cooling the spice of the chili flakes. It is quite satisfying to bite into! That said, feel free to cut in thin slices if that works best with what you are serving it with.
We love all the fresh cucumbers available at the farmer’s market right now! Here is some more inspiration for this delicious vegetable (or is it fruit?) 20+ Cool Cucumber Recipes.
Table of Contents
Ingredients In Cucumber Salad
Ingredient Notes
- Cucumber- English cucumbers, Japanese cucumbers, Armenian cucumbers, or Persian cucumbers- any thin-skinned variety with minimal seeds.
- Rice Vinegar– best for flavor but in a pinch substituting with apple cider vinegar, or champagne vinegar is fine.
- Green onions- or scallions add lovely flavor and color.
- Sesame oil– toasty deep flavor.
- Sesame seeds – for finishing the salad, and adding texture.
- Sugar– honey or maple syrup will work too.
- Gochugaru- dried Korean red pepper flakes, spicy but not super hot, start with less and add more to taste. This is a really unique flavor that is key is achieving the Korean taste. You could substitute with regular chili flakes or Aleppo chili flakes, or even cayenne pepper- but it will not give it that authentic Korean taste.
See the recipe card below for a full list of ingredients and measurements.
Why You Will Love This!
- Easy! This spicy cucumber salad comes together fast and easy.
- Flavorful! So refreshing and a perfect balance of salty, spicy, sweet.
- Healthy and Cooling! Packed with water, magnesium, vitamin c, calcium, and potassium, cucumbers are hydrating as well as anti-inflammatory, helping to reduce puffiness and redness and may help lower blood sugar levels.
Korean Cucumber Salad (step-by-step instructions)
In a colander, toss cucumbers with 1 teaspoon of salt and set over a plate for 30 minutes. (See notes for skipping this step).
Lightly rinse the cucumber slices. Use a towel to blot and dry removing excess moisture.
In a large mixing bowl whisk together the soy sauce, vinegar, honey, sesame oil, scallions, and Gochogaru chili flakes. Add the salted, rinsed, blotted, cucumbers to the dressing in the bowl and mix.
Serve sprinkled with sesame seeds and fresh cilantro. Leftovers will keep 3-4 days in the refrigerator, but after day two the cucumbers will become less crisp.
Korean Cucumber Salad FAQS
Gochugaru chili flakes ( or Korean chili flakes) have a really unique flavor that is key in achieving the Korean taste. You could substitute with ground gochugaru powder, gochujang, or even red pepper flakes or Aleppo chili but it is not going to give it that authentic taste.
It allows the cucumbers to release their liquid making the finished salad less watery and the flavor less diluted. It also gives the salad a refreshing crunch, keeping the cucumbers crisp.
In Korea, this means cucumber salad. In Korean Oi=cucumber, Muchim=to season or to coat.
Packed with water, magnesium, and potassium, cucumbers are hydrating as well as anti-inflammatory, helping to reduce puffiness, redness and may help lower blood sugar levels.
What to Serve with Korean Cucumber Salad
Korean cucumber salad is typically served as a summer banchan because of its cooling effects, along with Korean BBQ and rice.
More Cucumber Recipes You'll love!
Cucumbers are so cooing and refreshing in the warm summer months-and pair with amny things!
I hope you love this as much as we do!
Love this recipe? Please let us know in the comments and leave a 5-star ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating below the recipe card.
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Korean Cucumber Salad Recipe
- Prep Time: 30
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 5–6 cups 1x
- Category: salad, sidedish
- Method: tossed
- Cuisine: Korean
- Diet: Vegan
Description
Tangy spicy Korean Cucumber Salad (Oi Muchim) is crunchy, cool, and refreshing. An easy-to-make Korean cucumber side dish that is healthy and delicious.
Ingredients
- 4 cups cucumber, sliced into thick rounds or 1/2 moons (English cucumber, Japanese, Armenian, or Persian- thin-skinned, seedless is preferred)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce
- 3 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 1 tablespoon sugar (honey or maple)
- 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
- 2 scallions, sliced thin
- 1– 2 teaspoons Gochugaru Korean chili pepper flakes (spicy but not super hot, start with less and add more to taste)
- toasted sesame seeds
- fresh cilantro for garnish
Instructions
- In a colander, toss cucumbers with the 1 teaspoon of salt and set over a plate for 30 minutes. (See notes for skipping this step).
- In a bowl whisk together the soy sauce, vinegar, honey, sesame oil, scallions and Gochogaru flakes.
- Lightly rinse the cucumber slices and use a kitchen towel to blot and dry. Add to the dressing in the bowl and mix.
- Serve sprinkled with sesame seeds and fresh cilantro.
Notes
If short on time, you can skip the salting step- it is delicious either way, salting releases water from the cucumbers making the salad less watery and giving the the cucumbers a crisp texture.
Optional additions: 1 garlic clove, finely minced, 1 teaspoon fish sauce (leave out soy), thinly sliced carrots and onions.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cup
- Calories: 40
- Sugar: 3 g
- Sodium: 153.8 mg
- Fat: 2.8 g
- Saturated Fat: 0.4 g
- Carbohydrates: 3.8 g
- Fiber: 0.2 g
- Protein: 0.3 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
Keywords: korean cucumber salad, korean cucumber salad recipe,
My daughter loves any Asian recipe. She loved this so much that she took it to lunch at school. Her friends were jealous and thought I was the best cook in the world!
★★★★★
Awesome Melinda, love it!
It’s so tasty! It has just the right amount of heat that blends so well with the cooling cucumber slices!
★★★★★
Thanks Susan!
Incredible and healthy! Ate it all in one sitting.
★★★★★
Great to hear Joe!
So much flavor! We devoured this.
★★★★★
Awesome to hear Peter!
Just made this last night to go along side the Korean Chicken Wings. Very delicious. I didn’t find the Gochogaru flakes so I simply used paste. Refreshing and delicious!
Awesome to hear Kate!
made this about 1 hr ago, chilled it and it taste’s SOOO good, my new go-to cucumber salad recipe, thanks!
Yay! Glad to hear it. 🙂
The dressing is perfect. We loved it so much we added carrots, shredded red cabbage, and broccoli. Delicious!
★★★★★
Awesome Shawn! I’m so happy you gave it a go!
Oh my, so delicious! Thank you for this lovely recipe. It was very hot today, so I ate it for breakfast!
★★★★★
Great to hear Maggie! And thanks so much for the quick feedback and rating… very appreciated. ❤️
This looks really good! Currently, we have 2 cucumbers so that will be fine!!!!
Yes, give it a go!
Such lovely flavor and incredibly quick and easy to make. A perfect recipe to help put a dent in our cucumber harvest. I used Aleppo pepper because I had it on hand. I’ll definitely try the authentic version when able.
★★★★★
Glad you enjoyed Karen! Abundant cucumbers…yay!
All the things! Crunchy, sweet, sour…everything all at once. Easy peasy recipe.
★★★★★
Yes so good and easy!