Sweet Thai Cucumber Salad

Servings: 8 Prep: 10 mins Cook: 0 mins Total: 40 mins

Several months ago, I wrote a recipe for Thai Fish Cakes, which turned out to be surprisingly popular! There are times when I’m fairly sure I know a recipe will do well and times I feel a recipe will not be very popular, but… still loved by a small select few. I expected the Fish Cakes to be the latter. However, when I posted it, it soared across Facebook, apparently landing in front of Mark Sisson who decided to share it on his blog! That day was the most traffic I had on my website, in the first year. WHOO HOO!

At the base of that recipe was a small little note suggesting that people serve this with a Thai Cucumber Salad, followed by brief instructions. Interestingly, I received a few comments on that note, with people actually trying it and suggesting it was, indeed, a perfect pairing! Here’s where my old age shows and I have some fuzzy recall… At the time, I remembered getting an email, or a Facebook comment, or… a comment on Pinterest or… SOMETHING. The person appeared to be doing back flips over the cucumber salad idea at the base of the fish cakes. When I read that, I made a mental note to bring forth a full recipe.

Here is that recipe!

Variations: I’ve seen many variations on this. Fun additions are toasted peanuts, red Thai chilies, shredded carrots, slivered red bell peppers, green mango, lime juice, cilantro leaves, mint leaves, etc.

Delicious served with:

Sweet Thai Cucumber Salad
Ingredient
Calories
Fat
Protein
Carbs
SA’s
Fiber
Net Carbs
2 each (602g) english cucumber, sliced into very thin rings
92.6
0
0
23.2
0
3.5
19.7
1 medium (110g) red onion, very thinly sliced
44
0
1
10
0
2
8
2 each (13.33g) jalepeno chillies, seeds removed and thinly sliced
4
0.1
0.2
0.8
0
0.4
0.4
1/4 cup (60g) rice wine vinegar
19.8
0
0
4.2
0
0
4.2
1/4 cup (50g) ‘Swerve’ or other sugar replacement
0
0
0
50
50
0
0
2 tbsp (36g) fish sauce
12.6
0
1.8
1.4
0
0
1.4
1 tsp (4g) salt
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
Grand Totals (of 8 servings):
173
0.1
3
89.6
50
5.8
33.8
Totals Per Serving:
21.6
0
0.4
11.2
6.3
0.7
4.2 g
0.2%
Fat
3.2%
Protein
96.6%
Carbs

Sweet Thai Cucumber Salad

Sweet Thai Cucumber Salad

5 from 1 vote
Print Rate
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes
Servings: 8 Servings
Author: DJ Foodie

Ingredients

  • 2 each english cucumber sliced into very thin rings
  • 1 medium red onion very thinly sliced
  • 2 each jalepeno chillies seeds removed and thinly sliced
  • 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
  • 1/4 cup 'Swerve' or other sugar replacement
  • 2 tbsp fish sauce
  • 1 tsp salt

Instructions

  • Mix the ingredients together. Allow to sit and macerate for at least 30 minutes, mixing occasionally. This is REALLY excellent if left to sit overnight!
  • Eat!

STANDARD FTC DISCLOSURE: In order for me to support my blogging activities, I may receive monetary compensation or other types of remuneration for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial and/or link to any products or services from this blog. Please note, I only ever endorse products that are in alignment with my ideals and I believe would be of value to my readers.

* Learn More: More about this recipe and nutrition …

11 thoughts on “Sweet Thai Cucumber Salad”

  1. Does fish sauce have a "fishy" odor or flavor? I detest all things fish, and have avoided this ingredient for obvious reasons. But, I keep seeing it pop up in low carb recipes. Is it worth a try?

    Reply
  2. it reminds me of my mom’s cucumber and onion salad, she mixed 1/3 cup cider vinegar, 1/3 cup water, 1/3 cup sugar. I make it with Spenda or Swerve!
    I’m not big on heat, but I’d like to try your recipe!

    Reply
  3. I love Thai food, and I like fish. However, I hadn’t tried using fish sauce in a recipe until quite recently. I bought some for a particular recipe, not really knowing what I was getting. I was overwhelmed (in a BAD way) by the smell – it was disgusting! Maybe I got a bad brand, or a bad bottle – but I threw the bottle away and vowed never to try THAT again! Jennifer, given your hatred of "all things fish," I’d very strongly recommend you pass on fish sauce!

    Reply
  4. Add some green onion and Korean hot red pepper flakes (Gochugaru) and you have Korean Cucumber Kimchi! I am definitely going to try your version and mine too! Thanks for making it a full recipe feature.

    Reply
  5. Aida, honestly I?m not that big on heat, either. I do like a small amount of heat in some things, but largely just as contrast. In this case, it?s sweet and salty and the little bit of spice actually really fits in there ? especially with the cool crisp cucumbers. I think you?ll like this one! <br /><br />

    Sandy B, that?s just how fish sauce is. I don?t even know how someone could distinguish between a good bottle and one that has gone bad. Hopefully, there?d be some kind of visual. There?s a type of French sauce called a ?Gastrique?. It?s essentially caramelized sugar, with vinegar. I used to work at a restaurant in my early 20?s that a crispy fried chicken wings dish, tossed with a sort of Vietnamese Gastrique ? except that the twist was ? rather than vinegar, they used fish sauce. It was an INCREDIBLY popular dish, so we needed to make a lot of the sauce. Imagine a big gurgling hot cauldron of caramelized sugar bubbling away ? THEN imagine pouring a quart of fish sauce into the 360 degree vat of browned sugar. It IMMEDIATELY foams up and instantly the kitchen was FILLED with clouds of scalding hot fish sauce vapor. The stench was INCREDIBLE! In fact, it was such a potent aroma that we had to make the sauce at the end of the night, after all the customers had gone home. It would take the kitchen a full night to air out. Fish sauce is a HORRIFIC aroma ? HOWEVER!! It also TASTES AMAZING! <br /><br />

    Emily ? thanks for the note! 🙂

    Reply
  6. I made half the recipe, because I only had one cucumber left in the garden that was ready to be picked. Instead of a jalapeno, I used a Lemon Drop Chili from the garden. It was HOT HOT HOT!! I can’t remember if I used 4 or 5 of those individual sized packets of Truvia, but there was no sweetness to it at all. As of this moment, my sinuses are completely drained and I have this lovely warm glow going on. LOL. I will making this recipe frequently!!

    Reply
  7. LOL!! Heather … that was funny! Surprised that the Truvia didn’t sweeten it enough. That stuff is stronger than most sweeteners. In any event … sounds like you enjoyed it. Thanks for the info, too! 🙂

    Reply
  8. I believe the word is “marinate”.  Macerating would not work. ??
    —Reply posted by DJ on 2/27/2015
    Hi Claire, marinate is definitely an appropriate word, but it’s not quite what I meant. Here’s the definition of macerate: “(especially with reference to food) soften or become softened by soaking in a liquid.”.

    Reply

Leave a Comment

Pin
Share
Email
Tweet
Reddit
WhatsApp
Share