Our Most Popular Summer Side Dish Of All Time

When the heat of summer is well underway, I often find myself standing in the kitchen, eating fresh, crunchy vegetables and just about nothing else. This happens for many reasons, the main ones being that when it’s too hot, I just don’t feel like cooking and summer offers so much amazing, tasty produce.

Cucumbers are one of my favorite refreshing vegetables to snack on in summer, and it seems like it’s one of yours, too. Our most popular summer side dish of all time is this super simple 5-minute cucumber salad that is so easy—it takes the cucumber just one snappy step further than munching it on raw.

The Inspiration Behind This Recipe

Our recipe developer Robin drew inspiration from Japanese cuisine in creating this recipe, particularly in sunomono (roughly translated to “vinegared things”) which are served as the meal begins and between courses to awaken the palate.

Robin says, “A traditional sunomono salad recipe includes salting the sliced cucumbers to draw out moisture and soften them. Then the cukes are rinsed and dressed with vinegar, sugar, soy sauce, and sesame oil. In this recipe, I just slice my impeccably fresh cukes and toss them with a simple, sunomono-inspired dressing.”

This recipe gets the best of both worlds then, keeping the preparation simple while still getting the fresh, bright flavor of Japanese sunomono.

Ways to Switch It Up

There are only 5 ingredients in this cucumber salad: cucumbers, rice vinegar, sugar, salt, and green onions. If you want to add more flavor and texture, Robin suggests adding halved cherry tomatoes, chopped fresh cilantro, or crumbled feta or goat cheese. She also mentions you can swap the rice vinegar for fresh lemon juice.

I think you could take inspiration from other cucumber salad recipes and add thinly sliced red onion, a little bit of toasted sesame seeds or toasted sesame oil, and other fresh herbs like dill or mint. If you want some added spice, a touch of chili crisp might be a nice addition. For a different textural experience, skip the thin slice and cube, chop, or even crush the cucumbers before adding to the vinegar dressing.