Chinese Cucumber Slinky Salad Recipe

Chinese cucumber slinky salad goes by many names on the internet: cucumber snake salad, cucumber spiral salad, cucumber tornado salad... but the DNA-like helix shape is done in essentially the same way for all of these.

The 'Chinese' part comes with the dressing, which is a simple spicy-savoury-sweet dressing that's usually used for 拍黄瓜 pāi huáng guā, 'smacked cucumber' salad. Making a cucumber slinky salad is a fun way to present a cucumber, although admittedly a bit fiddly to eat as you're dealing with one long cucumber. But it's super fun to make, and doesn't need any fancy skills to make it.

You can also watch me make this on YouTube here:

Ready? Let's go.

Ingredients:

1 cucumber
Water
1 tbsp salt
1 tsp Chiu Chow chilli oil
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tsp black Chinkiang vinegar
1 tsp honey
1 tsp toasted sesame seeds
3 cloves garlic, chopped

Method:

1. Slice the stalk and end off the cucumber, and place two chopsticks on either side of it on a chopping board.

2. Make thin, horizontal slices all along the cucumber – the chopsticks will stop your knife from going all the way through it.

3. Turn the cucumber over onto its other side, still sitting in between the chopsticks. This time, make diagonal cuts all the way down.

4. Place the cucumber in a large dish of water that's been mixed with the salt, and soak for half an hour.

5. Meanwhile make the dressing by mixing everything together.

6. Drain the cucumber. When you're ready to serve it, arrange it in a spiral on a plate, and spoon over your spicy dressing. Serve immediately after dressing.

Enjoy, and have fun.