Thai Cucumber Salad

A classic Thai cucumber salad offers a taste combination of sweet, sour and salty with a touch of heat. For some the addition of 3 tablespoons of sugar in the dressing maybe too much, so do drop the amount in the recipe but for the Thai palate this level of addition is traditional and authentic.

I like to serve this salad with baked fish or roasted meats, with of course bowlfuls of slightly sticky, plainly boiled Thai jasmine rice.

15 minutes

no cooking - just chill 30 minutes

Ingredients

500g cucumber

- peeled, deseeded, sliced
Thai Dressing
4 tbsp rice vinegar
3 tbsp cool water
3 tbsp caster sugar
Large pinch of salt

- sea salt
1 small red onion

- thinly sliced
2 green Thai chillies

- trimmed, deseeded, thinly sliced
Garnish
2 tbsp dry roasted peanuts

- coarsely chopped (optional)

Instructions

Prepare cucumber:
01 Remove the top and root of the cucumber. Peel and cut in half. Using a teaspoon scrape out the seed/pulp centre. Slice thinly on an angle. Keep to one side.
Make Thai dressing:
02 In a small bowl add vinegar, sugar and salt and stir well until the sugar dissolves. Set aside.
03 In a large mixing bowl add the sliced cucumber, sliced red onion and Thai chillies. Pour over the Thai dressing and mix well. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
Serve:
04 Transfer to an attractive serving bowl and scatter with peanuts if desired.

Notes

I like to use the short Lebanese cucumbers for this recipe but of course a long telegraph cucumber will also work well. If the sugar content is too high reduce to only 1 tablespoon.