I have made smashed cucumbers before, but I used cumin, lime and cilantro to season them. This version was pretty tasty as well. I served these to accompany Chinese carry out. They were good enough to just spoon over the rice and eat as a main dish! And they went nicely with chicken and ribs from the grill. I used Persian cucumbers from my garden to make this dish several times over the summer.
I had no idea what an English Cucumber was ... had seen them, but never tried them. I have tried many of Chef John's recipes. And have always enjoyed them ... so I decided to try this one. I followed the recipe as is ... I did not have anything but my hammer fist to beat the cucumbers (which came wrapped in plastic from the store). After beating them ... I rinsed them off and followed the rest of the recipe. I did not know how much crushed pepper to use so I used 1-teaspoon ... which was just right (for me). This dish was awesome!!! Thank you Chef John!!! I will save this and share this recipe with everyone ... kudos!
LOVE IT! The traditionally Asian ingredients of the dressing give this salad a unique personality and the smashing technique really IS fun! A great change from sour cream-and-dill-based cucumber salads (although we like those, too)!
I used a little more sesame oil have made this for every pot luck since it posted. I'm making it again today. It's so delicious and simple.
I would use half the garlic next time.
Great salad and easy to make. Let cucumbers rest for several hours in salt and sugar to extract excess water. One English cucumber per person
this was absolutely delicious.. we made this with a regular cucumber and unseasoned rice vinegar.. i'm not sure if smashing did much of anything but we felt letting the cucumber drain with sugar and kosher salt really made a huge difference.. i'll definitely be doing that more often when making cucumber salads.. ty so much for the recipe
I am new to cooking , I loved it, my kids loved it. The only question I had and was do you rinse the cucumbers after they have been draining and covered with salt and sugar.Do you rinse the cucumbers and then add it to the dressing. I didn't because it didn't say so, I don't know if it is common knowledge to do so (rinse), but it was very delicious.
I love this recipe so refreshing and light at the same time! Thank you Chef John!
To be fair, I made LOTS of changes:
First, the cucumbers were not smashed until after I cut them into cubes because I did it already and then looked up a recipe for cucumbers salads...I added some erythritol sweetner (1 TBSP) because I thought I might like it better if it were a little sweet, and I did. I also used some roasted and salted sunflower seeds because I didn't have any peanuts. They were quite good in this. It was not a hit at our Labor Day gathering, but it wasn't a complete bust either. I was just looking to use up a surplus cucumber, so it was ok.
