Sweet and Sour Cucumber Noodles make a fun and refreshing salad! Spiralized cucumber noodles are tossed in a yummy homemade sweet and sour dressing and topped with toasted sesame seeds.
Sweet and Sour Cucumber Noodles
I’ve been eating bowl after bowl of cucumber noodles lately. They’re just so good!
My current cucumber noodle salad creations are quick, easy, and ridiculously refreshing.
When I’m feeling fiery I had a little sriracha chili sauce to the dressing.
Paul, however, adds a lot… and then runs circles around the room squealing and fanning his mouth. It’s beyond entertaining!
Cucumber Salad Ingredients
- fresh lemon or lime juice
- extra virgin olive oil or avocado oil
- rice vinegar
- sea salt
- dill
- garlic powder
- fresh minced garlic
- fresh chopped cilantro
- honey
- English cucumber
- toasted sesame seeds for topping
- chopped green onion/scallions for topping
so… how do you make cucumber noodles?
It’s easy! Simply grab a giant English cucumber, a spiral slicer (though a veggie peeler works too), and go nuts!
When you have a spiralizer handy it’s so crazy simple. Slice off the ends of each cucumber (a flat base attaches best) and sandwich it between the blade and the pointy end of the handle.
Then crank it and watch as your cucumber turns into tasty veggie noodles! Even my kid can use it, so it’s totally foolproof and as much fun to make as it is to eat!
Sweet and Sour Cucumber Noodles
Ingredients
- 3 TBSP fresh lemon or lime juice
- 3 TBSP extra virgin olive oil
- 2 TBSP rice vinegar
- ¼ tsp salt plus extra, to taste
- ⅛ tsp dill (fresh or dried)
- ⅛ tsp garlic powder
- ½ tsp fresh minced garlic
- 1/4-1/2 cup fresh chopped cilantro plus extra to garnish
- 2 TBSP honey
- 1 large English cucumber
- toasted sesame seeds and chia seeds for topping
- chopped green onion/scallions for topping (optional)
Instructions
- Grab a giant English cucumber, a spiral slicer/veggie peeler, and go nuts! Spiralize the cucumber into "noodles" using the spiral slicer.
- Whisk everything but the cucumber and sesame seeds together and pour over noodles.
- Let them sit at room temperature to soak up all the yummy dressing or pop it in the fridge for later.
- Before serving, sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds and/or chia seeds and optional (but tasty!) garnish chopped green onion.
- Crushed peanuts or cashews are great as a topping here too! It's ridiculously easy to customize based on what you have available as well as what you prefer taste/topping-wise.
- Serve at room temperature for maximum flavor.
Notes
Nutrition
Current Reads
I’m anxiously awaiting next week’s release of Ruin and Rising, the third and final installment of Leigh Bardugo’s Shadow and Bone series. The first book was entertaining, the second was AMAZING and the third? I need it. Yesterday.
I’m also butt-crazy in love with Allie Brosh’s Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened. It’s essentially my happy place in book form and already has a permanent spot on my nightstand out of sheer necessity. Crap day? All I have to do is read the goose chapter and I’m guaranteed a good pants-wetting belly laugh. I’ll probably end up purchasing the kindle version for travel because simultaneously crying, laughing and, peeing yourself on an airplane is the only way to fly.
More Spiralized Veggie Recipes
- Spiralized Thai Zucchini Noodle Salad with Sriracha Dressing
- Greek Spiralized Cucumber Salad
- Creamy Pesto Zucchini Noodles with Shrimp
- One-Pot Spiralized Zucchini Noodle Miso Soup
- Healthy Carrot Salad (Spiralized or Shredded)
If you get a chance to try these Sweet and Sour Cucumber Noodles, let me know! You can leave me a comment here (LOVE checking those daily!) or tag @PEASandCRAYONS on Instagram so I can happy dance over your creations. I can’t wait to see what you whip up!
I love this recipe but it appears to have changed a lot. What was the old recipe?
Hi Jen! There’s a similar but quite different version in another post. Are you looking for this one? Spiralized Carrot and Cucumber Noodle Salad with Chickpeas
This is such a fun way to use cucumbers!! So tasty and easy to make.
Thanks Liz! So glad it was a hit! xoxo
This was such a hit! Thank you for this awesome recipe.
Yay!!! You’re super welcome!
Little confused by your instructions. Last 3 ingredients would be honey through the cucumber and then the sesame seeds for the garnish. So are you saying to mix the dressing which is lemon/lime juice through cilantro and let it sit for later? Then are you supposed to add the dressing to the spiralized noodles and then drizzle the honey and rice vinegar? Hate to sound stupid, simply not clear to me?
Terribly sorry for the confusion, Pat. I’ll have the wording updated this afternoon. This was one of the earlier recipes I wrote for my blog when my recipe writing skills were still pretty amateur and I was trying to figure out how to order ingredients. (These days it’s in order of when the ingredient is used/added, as it should be). You can honestly whisk all the liquids together add all the ingredients except the sesame seeds (I like them added before serving to add texture) and let it sit a bit to meld the flavors.
can you freeze this salad?
Hi Marsha! I don’t believe so.
This looks so good! I cannot wait to try it, it would be perfect for summer! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Abby!
These were super tasty! I used two English cucumbers and I loved the dressing. I served this with sushi and a salad! Perfect summer dinner! Thanks for the recipe!
So stoked you enjoyed it Crissy! This sounds like my dream dinner – sushi, salad, and cucumber noodles – heaven! 🙂
In the cucumber salad, it looks like the photo has green onions in it.
Is that missing from your recipe?
Hi Kathryn! The recipe is just for the dressing itself, but I could write up the whole thing if you need it? I kind of wing the amount based on how much cucumber I want to scarf, lol! I add the dressing to spiralizied cucumber and top with green onion and sesame seeds 🙂 As much or as little as your heart desires!
I’ve meaning to try some cucumber noodles and these look amazing. I think this recipe be my first attempt. I love that it’s Paleo too!
Your pictures are stunning! I love the colors and clarity. I’m a new vegan and always looking for ways to change things up. I guess I could substitute the honey with a little sugar or agave nectar? I love how crisp and refreshing this looks. Thanks for the recipe.
Aw thanks Amy! Photography is my obsession, love learning more about it as I tinker! Agave would work great!
Hi!!
What a fun, beautiful website! This recipe looks DELICIOUS, perfect for summer AND for a baby shower I’m throwing this Autumn!!
I’m a pastry chef (In FL!) in the midst of starting my own business -so my attempts at blogging are lacking! LOL
Can’t wait to read your other recipes!
Mine was so birthday cake yesterday. More specifically, for the husband. It was his birthday on Sunday and I just got around to making a super chocolatey cake yesterday. Delish. And seriously, if you figure out how to stop these babies from growing, TELL ME!!!
It’s gems like these that make me love you all the more: Play on playa’
Beer: I want one. 🙂
Definitely plank-stagramming.
It was delicious and I was tempted to tell my friends it was all down to my brain. Lucky they know me too well and knew I lack the creativity to do that….or the talent with a knife.
So I’m going to have to buy that book… and probably a spiralizer since I can’t seem to find one at and Bed Bath & Beyond by me… does that count as a B? 😉
Those biotches that plank for 5+ minutes? So on IG while they plank!!! I guarantee it! How was the salad apart from the finger assault!? Does it get Aussie approval?
I made your Thai cucumber salad a few weeks ago and nearly cut off my finger in the process. Thanks for that. it was a BI*!H to mend. That’s my B word for you.
And burpees. Oh burpees. Whenever I had them on a workout circuit, I traded it for planking. When I say planking, I mean sitting on the mat on instagram.
They’re amazingly worth it 🙂 I have a huge book problem and had to put myself on a book budget last year because I ordered so many hardcovers I overfilled the bookcase and nearly blew up our amazon account. I think I read well over 100 that summer alone! #pleasehelpme #iloveit
She is too cute! Love that tutu!
Now you have convinced me to order the Bones and Shadow book and the really hilarious Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened book on my Kindle. Hopefully the husband won’t kill me since I am currently harboring 6 library books on my bedside table and a bunch more books other people gave me to read are hiding in my drawer to be read. I have a problem! 🙂
Why would I ever want to know more about such a torturous activity!? [Just kidding I’m totally reading it! Haha thanks Nicole!]
Bowl of cucumbers as well – sometimes noodles, sometimes sliced … but cucumbers … I can’t get enough of!
And I LOVE your taste in books. Will be checking out the Leigh Bardugo series! I just finished God and Monsters, the last installment of Daughter of Smoke and Bone series. I’ve done my reflection and am ready for the new series 😉
Just you in case you don’t want to know a little bit burpee history 😉 😉 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/02/burpee-history_n_5248575.html
Thanks Kim =)
Thanks Rachel!!!! They are really hard for me too; it’s more like a full body faceplant than an exercise!
They’re FANTASTIC! Any which way!
She’s getting a ferret when she’s older. Done deal.
ahhhhh!!!! CONGRATS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! <3
Def try cucumber! You’ll love it! And the book is so funny I can’t help but read it every time I feel a bit down. The first time I read the goose story I cried so hard, laughing, that Paul thought I was drunk. Haha!
I’ve just amazoned that book purely on your recommendation. I hope it still registers the affiliate-link-thing, I had to transfer to Amazon UK.
BABY!!! I had one last week lol. A baby boy. And we call him Peanut (his name is really Jonathon).
You should totally buy her a kitten.
Cucumber noodles!?! Why didn’t I think of that! I have a spiralizer but have only done zucchini and sweet potatoes. Cucumbers are definitely going to be making an appearance in our house soon!
Where do I buy a spiralizer?
Hey Linda! I bought mine 4/5 years ago from amazon [The Paderno one – love it!] and they still sell them today. I think a few other kitchen stores sell them as well!
It has a similar fantasy element to it! You’ll like it! And yesssssss the third of the Smoke and Bone series is out!!!! It’s long but the perfect wrap up for the series! I’m in love with the story!
I’ve tried zucchini noodles, but never cucumber noodles. Love that idea for a light summer lunch! Besides my own children… you just may have the cutest baby EVER! 🙂
Is Shadow and Bone anything like Smoke and Bone series? Did that third book come out yet either? I struggled through the first half of the first book, but quickly became addicted to that series too 🙂
It’s SO ADDICTIVE! The first of the Shadow and Bone series is a little slower than most because of all the world-building but once it picks up steam; ohmygosh! Book 2 had me running in circles afterwards dying for the next. You’ll have to keep me posted on your progress! It takes me forever to finish a book because it’s either sleep or read at night and I usually choose sleep but when one catches my attention…. eff sleep!
Damn, I was just looking through Amazon books the other day and reminded I need to start that series so I can read the 3rd when it comes out. LAST. DAY. OF. SCHOOL tomorow! I cannot WAIT to be a SAHM again for a while – maybe then I’ll be able to read some!
I shall give you a B! I took the baby boy (ya know, the 10 year old one) & the mama to the beach last week. We were in this lil town visiting my oldest friend, in Havelock 🙂 it’s near Craven and Morehead (not even joking lol )
Awesome. You are awesome =)
mmm i love blueberries lately! xo jillian – cornflake dreams
I too am loving the CrossFit kool-aid lately…to the point that I skipped my 5 mile run this morning for today’s WOD + an additional mile run…who am I?!
Ahhhh she IS getting so big, and she’s so stinkin’ cute! 🙂