Make this super quick and simple Korean cucumber salad full of garlicky, crunchy cucumber slices, rich sesame oil, and a hint of gochugaru spice. Learn how to get the crunchiest pieces of vegetables for this refreshing salad.
What’s Korean cucumber salad?
Korean cucumber salad is a side dish (banchan) often served in South Korean restaurants. We typically have it at our favorite restaurants like Mo Ran Gak or Yigah in Orange County, California.
It offers a fresh, crunchy, and mildly spicey bite to steaming meat dishes and soups. It’s traditionally called oi muchim (오이무침). In Korean, oi means “cucumber,” and muchim means “to mix with seasoning.”
These days, you’ll find many variations of this simple cucumber salad. It even went viral on TikTok after Logan talked about how much he loved eating the salad daily.
Ingredients in this cucumber salad
A basic Korean cucumber salad is made of cucumbers, gochugaru (Korean pepper flakes), salt, sugar, and roasted sesame oil. It’s the perfect way to use extra cucumbers or add refreshing veggies to your meal. This recipe uses a mix of:
- English or Persian cucumbers: These varieties are the best cucumbers for Korean cucumber salad. Both of these varieties have a sweet and mild flavor, less watery consistency, fewer seeds, and thin skin, which make them easy to eat raw.
- Additional vegetables like shredded carrots, sliced onions, and sliced scallions are optional. However, they add more flavor and texture to the salad.
A savory and sweet seasoning brings lots of flavor to these veggies:
- Gochugaru: Korean chili powder that’s super potent and adds lots of spice. Gochugaru is a Korean staple, and it’s one of the main flavors in this recipe. This recipe starts at a lower scale of heat with ½ teaspoon; however, feel free to amp up the spice level based on your preference.
- Soy sauce: Low-sodium soy sauce adds a salty and savory flavor to the salad, so you don’t need to add any extra salt.
- Garlic: Aromatic and spicy raw garlic pairs well with the fresh bites of cucumber and onion. If you want more garlicky goodness, try grating the garlic instead of mincing because it releases a more intense flavor.
- Roasted sesame oil and seeds: For a nice flavor of richness, roasted sesame oil is a Korean staple, and the seeds offer a nice additional texture.
- Cane sugar: All things need balance, and cane sugar adds a slightly sweet flavor to this salad to round out the spice and savory taste. You also can use honey or rice syrup.
- Rice vinegar: This brings a good balance of acidity to the savory, spice, and sweet seasoning levels.
How to get extra crunchy texture
To get crispy cucumbers and onions, prep them appropriately before mixing in the seasoning. Yellow onions can be astringent and spicy raw, so I soak them in an ice bath for 3-5 minutes before blotting them dry. The ice bath helps keep the onions extra crispy and softens the flavor.
Even though we use less watery cucumbers, we still want to remove as much water as possible so they remain crunchy in the salad. Gently blot the sliced cucumbers with paper towels to remove any excess water. This recipe does not require disgorging cucumbers (aka salting them and squeezing out extra water), like Chinese cucumber salad or Sunomono salad (Japanese cucumber salad), because it’s made to be eaten immediately and not sit in the marinade for long. So we don’t need to worry about purging out all the water to keep the crispy texture for long periods.
Tips for making this cucumber salad
While you can prep ingredients beforehand, I would combine them until right before serving. To prepare the salad, mix the seasoning ingredients and set aside to allow the sugar to dissolve while you prep the vegetables. Once you’ve got the crispy onions and cucumbers sliced, mix together the seasoning and vegetables. Taste test the seasoning and adjust the spice level or saltiness. Serve it immediately to get the best texture.
Refrigeration
If you have extra Korean cucumber salad, place it in a food storage container with a lid and refrigerate it for up to one day. Oi muchim is best served immediately when the textures of the cucumbers are the crunchiest. I wouldn’t recommend making a huge batch for more than one day because excess water comes out of the cucumber and causes the salad to become soggier as time goes on.
Korean Cucumber Salad
Ingredients
- ¼ c sliced yellow onion
- filtered water
- Ice
- 1 c sliced Persian or English cucumber ⅛ inch slices (2 Persian cucumbers or ½ English cucumber)
- ¼ c sliced green onion
- 2 tbsp shredded carrots
- 1 tsp minced garlic
- 1 tsp roasted sesame seeds
- 1 tbsp low sodium soy sauce
- ½ tsp gochugaru / Korean red pepper flakes add more if you like spicy
- ½ tsp roasted sesame oil
- ½ tsp cane sugar
- ¼ tsp rice vinegar
Equipment Used
- knife and cutting board
- measuring cups and spoons
- paper towels
- mixing bowls
- spatula
Instructions
- Slice the ¼ c sliced yellow onion thinly to ⅛ inch thick and then cut in half.
- Place all the onion pieces in a bowl with filtered water and Ice and separate all the pieces. Let it soak for 5 minutes.
- Strain and then dry thoroughly with a paper or kitchen towel.
- Slice the 1 c sliced Persian or English cucumber into ¼-inch thick pieces and blot them dry over a paper towel.
- In a bowl, combine the ¼ c sliced yellow onion, 1 c sliced Persian or English cucumber, ¼ c sliced green onion, 2 tbsp shredded carrots, 1 tsp minced garlic, and 1 tsp roasted sesame seeds.
- In another bowl, combine the seasoning ingredients: 1 tbsp low sodium soy sauce, ½ tsp gochugaru / Korean red pepper flakes, ½ tsp roasted sesame oil, ½ tsp cane sugar, and ¼ tsp rice vinegar. Whisk until the sugar is dissolved.
- Pour the seasoning over the salad and mix to evenly coat.
- Serve immediately.
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