Pickled Cucumber Side Dish, cooked at home

Turn Asian pickled cucumbers into a spicy salad to eat with rice. Korean chili flakes and a hint of sugar makes a savory Korean side dish to serve with rice. It’s a great way to enjoy pickled cucumbers.

Summer in Korea is quite hot and humid. People often complain that they lost their appetite and looking for something that spikes up their lost appetite.

Cool, crunch, and slightly spicy and sweet, this pickled cucumber salad can stimulate the lost appetite in the hot summer. This is one of common summer Korean side dishes in any Korean table and it is unfussy to make.

If you like fresh cucumber recipes, try our kitchen-made cucumber kimchi, and Korean Spicy Cucumber Salad. You will like the taste of those dishes.

Korean Pickled Cucumber

Look for air-vacuumed pickled cucumber in the refrigerate section of Korean stores. These cucumbers are pickled in unfussy salt, vinegar, sugar brine and ready to tackle with flavors you are going to add.

How the dish comes together

Slice thinly.

You want to soak them in the cold water for 10 minutes to dilute the brine solution a little.

Squeeze them to death, because you love her. But we don’t mean it literally. You know that, right?

Add the Korean chili flakes, sugar, sesame oil, garlic powder, green onion, and sesame seeds.

Mix all together with your hand. That’s all there’s to it!

For some wicked reason many Koreans like to eat this pickled cucumber salad with leftover rice dumped in cold water. We know it sounds weird to dump the rice in the cold water, but it is actually pretty good to eat that way with this salad.

This was our unfussy lunch and we were happy. And so was our stomach.

• Yield: 8 people
• Prep: 15 minutes
• Cook: 5 minutes
• Total: 20 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 lb Korean pickled cucumbers, thinly sliced
• 1.5 tablespoon Korean chili flakes (gochugaru)
• 2 teaspoon sugar
• 1 green onion, finely chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon Korean plum extract (maeshil cheong), optional
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1-2 teaspoon toasted sesame seeds

Method

1. Soak the cucumber slices in cold water for 10 minutes to dilute the brine a little. Drain and squeeze out the excess water.
2. Place the cucumber slices in a mixing bowl, add the rest of the ingredient, and toss well. Adjust the amount of sugar according to the sweetness you desire. Serve with rice.