Spicy Edamame Salad with Smashed Cucumber
This Spicy Edamame Salad is tossed together with crunchy cabbage, smashed cucumbers and carrots then drizzled with a sweet and spicy sauce. The perfect easy, lunch that can be prepped in less than 20 minutes.
I’ve been really loving and appreciating all the smashed cucumber salad recipes I’ve seen from some of my favorite Asian creators. After seeing the version from The Foodie Takes Flight, I wanted to use it along with some other ingredients to assemble a quick and easy lunch salad for all my friends either still working from home or taking meals with them.
It does give me Edamame Crunch Salad vibes for sure, but less chopping and easily prepared and served as your wish.
Why You’ll Love Crunchy Edamame Salad
- Can be made in less than 20 minutes
- Uses simple ingredients you likely already have at home
- Loaded with antioxidants including anthocyanins from the cabbage, beta-carotene from the carrots and flavonoids from the cucumber, which help to reduce chronic disease risk
- Perfect for those that want something light that doesn’t require any cooking
- A great grab and go option for lunch
Key Ingredients and Substitutions
- Cucumber: I recommend using either an English and Japanese cucumber. You can also use Persian cucumbers. These varieties have less seeds and moisture in the middle, which helps keep them nice and crunchy.
- Cabbage: For color, I always love to use purple cabbage, but this works for green cabbage as well. To save time, feel free to use pre-shredded cabbage.
- Carrots: You can use pre-shredded carrots to save time with shredding it yourself.
- Edamame: Frozen edamame works great. Just make sure to thaw in water before assembling.
- Sauce: This sauce is a combo of sweet, salty, umami, spicy and tangy. It is made up of soy sauce, chili garlic sauce, sesame oil, chili crisp oil, green onions, sesame seeds, garlic, lime juice and sweetener. Feel free to add more or less to the suggested amounts provided in this recipe until you get the flavor your like.
How to Make Spicy Edamame Salad
Place your cucumber on a flat cutting board and with a rolling pin or the flat side of your knife, smack down on the cucumber to split it. Now, cut them into 1-inch pieces.
This step is optional, but it does help keep your cucumbers nice and crispy. Place the cucumber in a strainer sitting on top of a bowl along with a pinch of salt and sugar. Allow the cucumbers to sit and draw out excess liquid for at least 15 minutes as you prepare the remaining vegetables.
Place your frozen edamame in a bowl and cover with warm water and allow to sit and thaw. To a small bowl or jar, prep your sauce by combining all the sauce ingredients and whisking together. Make sure to taste and adjust the flavor to your liking.
Drain your cucumbers and place on a clean kitchen towel or paper towel and pat dry, then drain your edamame and place in a mixing bowl along with the cabbage, carrots and herbs. When ready to serve add the cucumber and pour over your sauce. Give everything a good toss to coat and serve.
Expert Tips
- Tailor the spice to your preference. The recipe currently is set to give you guidelines, but you can taste your sauce and add more of the spicy elements like more chili garlic sauce or chili oil based on your preference. If you are nervous about spice, leave it out, taste and see how you like it and add spice in small increments until it’s to your liking.
- Add more of what you like to your sauce. I highly recommend that you taste test your sauce before pouring over your veggies. This gives you an option for modifying it more to your liking. You may want it saltier, sweeter, or tangier. In which case, add small amounts of the things you want to help make it exactly how you like it.
- To make this dish gluten-free, replace the soy sauce with a gluten-free alternative. You can use coconut aminos, just note it will be slightly sweeter so you may need less sugar overall. Other options include Bragg’s Liquid Aminos, Gluten-Free Soy Sauce, or Gluten-Free Tamari.
- Add a pinch of salt and sugar to your cucumbers to keep them crispy. The salt draws out excess moisture from your cucumbers and the combination of the salt and sugar also helps to flavor the cucumbers before adding the sauce. Learned this tip from Tiffy Cooks.
Frequently Asked Questions
It can! I would suggest storing the cucumber and sauce separately to help preserve the color of your salad and keep everything looking fresh. So if you have a 3 compartment container, place rice or quinoa in one section, the cucumber in another and the veggies and edamame in the last section. Store the sauce in a separate sauce container and combine everything when ready to eat. Personally, I combine everything together and it stays crunchy with no problem, but the purple from the cabbage does leak into the other veggies, which can make them look weird. They taste totally fine, so if you’re visual, separate everything.
Store the cucumbers, sauce and remaining veggies in airtight containers in the fridge for up to 3 days. When serving, toss your veggies and cucumbers together, then pour over with the sauce.
Drawing out excess water from the cucumber can help it stay crispier over time. You can do this by adding some salt and sugar to it and letting the excess moisture draw itself out (think of it kind of like a modified version of pickling).
How to Serve
This salad is a great base and does provide a number of antioxidants, fiber, and protein. To make this a more complete meal, I love to serve my salad over some rice or quinoa and a few slices of avocado. I’ve also really enjoyed this with extra chili crisp oil on top because I love things spicy, but that is totally optional. You do you!
More Fun Vegan Salads to Try
- Dominican Bulgar Salad — Tipili
- Roasted Potato Salad with BBQ Chickpeas
- Lemon Orzo Salad with Asparagus
- Kale Crunch Salad
- Roasted Cauliflower and Chickpea Salad
- Vermicelli Noodle Salad with Peanut Sauce
Spicy Edamame Salad with Smashed Cucumber
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 0 minutes
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 3–4 servings 1x
- Category: Salad
- Method: No Cook
- Cuisine: Asian Inspired
- Diet: Vegan
Description
This Spicy Edamame Salad is tossed together with crunchy cabbage, smashed cucumbers and carrots then drizzled with a sweet and spicy sauce. The perfect easy, lunch that can be prepped in less than 20 minutes.
Ingredients
Salad Prep
- 1 English or Japanese cucumber
- Pinch of Salt & Sugar
- 2 cups shredded red cabbage
- 1 cup shredded carrots
- 2 cups frozen edamame, thawed
- 1/8 cup or more cilantro or parsley, roughly chopped
Sauce Prep
- 2 tbsp soy sauce or gluten-free soy sauce
- 1–2 tsp toasted sesame oil
- 1–2 tsp chili garlic sauce
- 1 tbsp lime juice (about one lime) or rice wine vinegar
- 1–2 tsp sugar or maple syrup (adjust to taste)
- 2 stalks of green onions, sliced
- 1–2 cloves garlic, grated or crushed with a garlic press
- 1 tbsp sesame seeds
- 1–2 tsp chili crisp oil, optional (but does give more flavor and heat)
For Serving
- Cooked rice or quinoa
- Avocado
Instructions
- Place your cucumber on a flat cutting board and with a rolling pin or the flat side of your knife, smack down on the cucumber to split it. Now, cut them into 1-inch pieces.
- This step is optional, but it does help keep your cucumbers nice and crispy. Place the cucumber in a strainer sitting on top of a bowl along with a pinch of salt and sugar. Allow the cucumbers to sit and draw out excess liquid for at least 15 minutes as you prepare the remaining vegetables.
- To a small bowl or jar, prep your sauce by combining all the sauce ingredients including just the white part of the scallions (save the rest for garnish) and whisking together. Make sure to taste and adjust the flavor of the sauce to your liking.
- In a mixing bowl add the cabbage, carrots, edamame and herbs.
- Drain your cucumbers and pat dry with a paper towel or clean kitchen towel.
- When ready to serve add the cucumber and pour over your sauce. Give everything a good toss to coat and serve as desired with extra sesame seeds and sliced scallions.
Notes
Tailor the spice to your preference. The recipe currently is set to give you guidelines, but you can taste your sauce and add more of the spicy elements like more chili garlic sauce or chili oil based on your preference. If you are nervous about spice, leave it out, taste and see how you like it and add spice in small increments until it’s to your liking.
I highly recommend that you taste test your sauce before pouring over your veggies. This gives you an option for modifying it more to your liking. You may want it saltier, sweeter, or tangier. In which case, add small amounts of the things you want to help make it exactly how you like it.
To make this dish gluten-free, replace the soy sauce with a gluten-free alternative. You can use coconut aminos, just note it will be slightly sweeter so you may need less sugar overall. Other options include Bragg’s Liquid Aminos, Gluten-Free Soy Sauce, or Gluten-Free Tamari.
The salt and sugar over the cucumbers help to draw out excess moisture from your cucumbers and the combination of the salt and sugar also helps to flavor the cucumbers before adding the sauce.
If you tried this recipe or any other recipe on the blog, then let me know what you thought in the comments below! And if you loved it, don’t forget to rate it too. Feel free to follow on Instagram, Pinterest, and TikTok for the latest nutrition tips and recipe videos.
★ Catherine
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Smashed cucumber is delicious addition to this dish. It’s so fresh and nourishing. Love your recipes.