Spicy Sesame Smashed Cucumber Salad
1
Points®
Total time: 10 min • Prep: 10 min • Cook: 0 min • Serves: 4 • Difficulty: Easy
Cucumber salads are wonderfully crisp and refreshing, especially during the hot days of summer. The smashing technique we use here makes this version even more delicious, creating jagged edges to hold onto sauce and opening up the cucumber’s texture to take in more flavors from the dressing—here, a simple combination of rice vinegar, sesame oil, sambal, salt, and garlic. Mini cucumbers work particularly well because they require less elbow grease to smash, and, with their thin skins, they seem especially crunchy.
Ingredients
Unseasoned rice vinegar
1 Tbsp
Toasted sesame oil
2 tsp
Sambal oelek
2 tsp, up to 3 tsp, or chili garlic sauce
Kosher salt
½ tsp
Garlic
1 clove(s), grated
Persian (mini) cucumber
1 pound(s)
Sesame seeds
1 tsp, toasted
Instructions
1
In a medium bowl, whisk together the vinegar, oil, sambal, salt, and garlic; set aside.
2
Trim off and discard a small slice from each end of each cucumber. Arrange 1 cucumber on a cutting board and place the flat side of a large chef’s knife onto the cucumber. Press down on the knife with your body weight, until the cucumber is smashed. It should naturally break into 3 or 4 lengthwise pieces. Pull these pieces apart, then cut them crosswise into 1-in diagonal pieces. Repeat the process with the remaining cucumbers. Add the cucumbers to the dressing, and toss to coat. Sprinkle evenly with sesame seeds.
3
Serving size: about ¾ cup
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