Crispy, crunchy, tangy, and juicy, everyone loves a cucumber salad. In this video, Nicole makes three of the best recipes ever for a creamy, marinated, and Asian cucumber salad.
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00:00Watch when I stir it, how juicy it's gotten.
00:03There's no way this one worked, but it did.
00:06Boingy.
00:07Boing, boing, boing, boing.
00:09Crispy, crunchy, tangy, juicy.
00:11Everyone loves a cucumber salad.
00:13I have three of the best cucumber salad recipes.
00:16Dang, I was doing so good.
00:17You look dead in the eyes right now too.
00:18Do I?
00:19Yeah.
00:20I've got one of our top rated recipes at All Recipes,
00:23a creamy cucumber salad.
00:24I also have an old school favorite,
00:26just a marinated cucumber tomato salad
00:28and a TikTok viral sensation, the Asian cucumber salad.
00:32Starting with the creamy one.
00:34This seems to be the one everyone is looking for,
00:37a creamy cucumber salad.
00:39It's cool, it's crunchy, but also creamy.
00:42I'm gonna just use the regular cucumber.
00:45These are probably the least expensive
00:48and the most readily available.
00:49So for this recipe, I'm going to peel the cucumber
00:52because that is what the recipe says to do.
00:55And this is one of our top rated,
00:58so I don't wanna mess with that.
00:59This is called Dad's Creamy Cucumber Salad.
01:03It's not my dad, but it's a good dad.
01:05Okay, so I'm just gonna thinly slice this.
01:08With the cucumber goes some sweet onion.
01:11So I've got Vidalia onions here.
01:12This is a great time to highlight that summer veggie.
01:15A lot of times, cucumber salad recipes
01:17call for you to salt the cucumber.
01:19That's to draw out some of the moisture
01:21so that they still taste super crunchy,
01:23but they're not watery when it mixes
01:26with the dressing, and I'll cover it with plastic,
01:27and I'm just gonna leave it here,
01:28sitting at room temperature.
01:30Shall we take a break?
01:32It's been 30 minutes, so now we drain it into a bowl,
01:37and you wanna let it sit for another 15 minutes or so.
01:40In the meantime, let's make the dressing.
01:43For the dressing, the main ingredient, mayonnaise.
01:47Okay, this is our creamy cucumber salad.
01:50This is where the creamy comes in.
01:51To the mayonnaise, sugar.
01:53Our cucumbers have the salt,
01:54so the sugar's gonna balance that out.
01:56I'm also going in with a tablespoon of white vinegar.
01:59Dill and cucumbers, I mean, if you know, you know.
02:03It's the best.
02:05It makes the most sense, people.
02:07That's weird. Dill-licious.
02:10Dill-licious, dill pickles.
02:13Cucumbers are pickles, I mean.
02:15Okay, in with the fresh dill,
02:17and then just garlic powder and a teaspoon of black pepper.
02:21Looks good, huh?
02:22Looks really good.
02:24Chef's approval.
02:26It's about to get real.
02:27Here we go.
02:28Now the magic's about to happen.
02:29And then we pour our dressing right over the top.
02:32And now toss it up to coat.
02:35That right there is gonna be
02:36your best creamy cucumber salad.
02:39Let's see how we did.
02:43Mm, that jumps right off at you.
02:47It's so fresh and so tangy.
02:49The dressing alone has a really hint of tangy sweetness,
02:53but then when you've got that salty crunch
02:55from the soaked cucumbers, that is a perfect balance.
03:01Roscoe, come taste this.
03:02Ooh, Lord.
03:05That was really good.
03:06It was really good.
03:07The sugar's what's up, dude.
03:09But with that salty cucumber flavor.
03:11Ain't nothing but a cucumber pie, man.
03:14And then I would just serve it up just like this.
03:17I'm gonna add on a little more fresh dill
03:20and a little cracked pepper on top.
03:23The perfect creamy cucumber salad.
03:26Let's go old school next.
03:27Okay, this old school marinated cucumber and tomato salad
03:32is like one of my favorite childhood dishes.
03:35This is the way I had cucumber salad growing up.
03:37This is the way my mom made it.
03:38So maybe we can call this one Mom's.
03:40We had Dad's and now this is Mom's.
03:42I'm going in with a combination of red wine vinegar
03:45and just plain white distilled vinegar.
03:47Two tablespoons of each.
03:49And then you gotta add some oil.
03:50I like my cucumber salad like really tangy.
03:53And then a little bit of sugar to balance it out.
03:55Some kosher salt.
03:57A good grind of pepper.
03:59Okay, now the dressing is gonna get flavored more
04:02by the fresh veggies that go in.
04:04So for this salad, I love using a salad cucumber.
04:07The garden cucumber.
04:09These are like super crunchy.
04:12And then I only peel them like halfway.
04:14So I just kind of stripe peeling.
04:17I like to cut these cucumbers for this salad
04:19a little thicker.
04:21That way they stay really crunchy.
04:23You can just hear how crunchy these are.
04:25See what I mean?
04:27All right, and then we just toss those
04:28right into the dressing.
04:30For this one, we can handle a little more pungency.
04:32So I'm just going with a regular yellow onion.
04:35I'm gonna slice it up into rings.
04:38All right, so then just separate
04:40the sliced onion into rings.
04:42Okay, so we'll give that a toss.
04:45As the water comes out of that cucumber,
04:47it's going in as part of the dressing.
04:49So it just kind of adds like a little
04:50fresh juice to our dressing.
04:53Okay, so homegrown tomatoes.
04:55And the way we've always cut them for this salad
04:57is in little wedges.
04:59Cucumber being the star of the show,
05:01so you don't want to have more tomatoes
05:03than cucumbers here.
05:04Now what I like to do here
05:06is kind of salt your tomato separately,
05:09just to be sure that it gets on there.
05:13See how pretty that is?
05:14It's just like fresh.
05:17The easiest thing you've ever done.
05:19Of course, it's gonna be good now,
05:21but it's gonna get better.
05:22So I'm gonna let this one hang out in the fridge
05:25till I'm ready to serve it.
05:28Taste test.
05:29Watch when I stir it, how juicy it's gotten.
05:32See all that flavor.
05:34Let me go in for one of those PB's.
05:39Perfect bites.
05:41A little of that.
05:43A little of that.
05:49Mm, mm, oh, that's so good.
05:53It just doesn't get any fresher, juicier,
05:56more perfect, more simple than this.
06:00I don't know if you can hear it.
06:00Can you hear it?
06:02So good.
06:03I love the onion,
06:05because it adds just a little bit of like a pungency
06:07that balances out the sweet cucumber.
06:09Should I give Roski a bite?
06:10Just trying to surprise you.
06:11You caught me with a chicken in my hand.
06:13That's okay.
06:13Look at that.
06:14Not the first time.
06:15Look at that, drip, drop, drip, drop.
06:17Ooh.
06:18I didn't soak those cucumbers.
06:20You didn't?
06:21Uh-uh.
06:22It's good, huh?
06:23I've said it 1,765 times.
06:26The simplest things sometimes are the best.
06:29They're always the best, actually.
06:31Okay, let's get back to that final viral cucumber salad.
06:34I've seen this salad all over TikTok,
06:36and it looks absolutely delicious.
06:39Everybody does the old mukbang videos with that,
06:41and just the crunch and the juiciness,
06:43and you know it's a little bit spicy.
06:45If you've done one and two,
06:47I bet you haven't done this one.
06:48So it's all about the way you cut the cucumbers.
06:50You're gonna place your cucumber on the chopsticks,
06:54and then we're going to cut on the diagonal
06:57all the way down to the chopstick.
06:59And then you flip the cucumber over,
07:03and you go straight across.
07:06I know I didn't do it right.
07:07Just mind your own business, okay?
07:09I bet you haven't done it either.
07:11Okay, let me try it again.
07:13We flip it over, and now we go straight across.
07:19Shh, it's okay.
07:21They don't have to be perfect.
07:22That's what we want.
07:24That's how you create all the nooks and crannies
07:26for the flavor to come in.
07:27There's no way this one worked.
07:29There's no way.
07:29You got it.
07:30But it did.
07:32But it did.
07:34But it did.
07:35All right, now that we have all of our splinkies done,
07:38we salt them.
07:39And you wanna get all the salt into the nooks and crannies.
07:42This is, again, gonna draw out all that water
07:45and keep these super crunchy.
07:47All right, so I'm just gonna let this sit
07:48for about 20 minutes.
07:49Go get a cocktail.
07:51The other elements to the salad
07:53which add great crunch factor are some green onions
07:55and also a regular onion.
07:57All of these cucumber salads are super cheap
08:01because cucumbers are just inexpensive all the time.
08:04Now, we're gonna drain and rinse our cucumbers.
08:08Okay, so fill the bowl up with water.
08:11Get all that salt out of there.
08:13And then we wanna pat it dry.
08:15I still don't understand the science
08:16behind getting all the water out
08:18and them still being crunchy.
08:20Just trust the process.
08:21It's gonna be delicious.
08:23All right, so we've got our white onion,
08:25green onion in there going in with the cucumbers.
08:28Then in goes the Korean chili flakes.
08:33A little brown sugar.
08:34A little sesame oil.
08:36Some rice vinegar.
08:37I'm using a low-sodium soy sauce
08:39since the cucumbers have been salted.
08:41All right, and then some toasted sesame seeds.
08:44Smells so good.
08:46Sesame.
08:47Oh, my mouth started watering.
08:48Diggin' right in, but not mukbang style.
08:54Mm!
08:58Feel like the cucumber.
08:59Roscoe, come here.
09:00Look at that right there.
09:01It's like a filet.
09:02Hold on.
09:03Boingy kicks goin' in the mouth.
09:06Mm!
09:08It's like a seaweed salad.
09:09Doesn't it make you just like?
09:11Boing, boing, boing, boing.
09:13Oh, it's spicy.
09:15If you show up with this,
09:16people aren't even gonna know what to think.
09:19This is just like, makes your taste buds dance.
09:21Makes you happy.
09:23And then I'm just gonna add a little more
09:25toasted sesame seeds for garnish.
09:27I might have saved the best for last.
09:29Y'all have to make this.
09:31This salad made the cucumber cool again.
09:34I mean, you know the expression, cool as a cucumber?
09:38All these salads are cool,
09:40and they started with the cucumber.
09:43So crunchy and juicy.
09:48I hope you're gonna give one of these salads a try
09:50if you haven't already.
09:52Every one of these are bursting with flavor.
09:54So good.
09:55I don't know which one's my favorite,
09:56but it definitely turned a humble cucumber
10:00into something special.
10:02I'm not here to give y'all any kind of ASMR mukbang video.
10:10I've literally never heard this word in my entire life.
10:12A mukbang?
10:12Who's old now?
10:13Just out of this conversation,
10:15who would you say is older?
10:19Okay, now you can turn it off.
10:23Turn it off!