Smashed Cucumber Salad (拍黄瓜): The 3-Minute Cold Dish That Goes With Everything

拍黄瓜 is the dish that appears on Chinese tables in about ninety seconds flat, usually while everything else is still cooking. It is cold, sharp, garlicky, and it resets your palate between rich dishes.

Why you smash instead of slice

A knife gives you a clean, sealed surface. Smashing creates ragged cracks and fissures with far more surface area, and those cracks hold the dressing instead of letting it slide off into the bowl. It also bursts some cells so the cucumber seasons itself from the inside. This is the entire trick.

What you need

• 1 large cucumber (about 300 g) — Persian or Lebanese are best, they have fewer seeds
• 1 tsp fine salt, for drawing water
• 2 cloves garlic, finely minced
• 1.5 tbsp Chinkiang black vinegar
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp toasted sesame oil
• 1 tsp chilli oil or chilli flakes
• 1 tsp toasted sesame seeds (optional)

Method

1. Lay the cucumber on a board and crack it lengthwise with the flat of a heavy knife, then tear or cut into irregular 3 cm chunks.
2. Toss with 1 tsp salt and leave 5 minutes, then drain off the liquid that collects. Skipping this is how you get a watery salad.
3. Whisk garlic, vinegar, soy sauce, sugar and sesame oil in a bowl.
4. Pour over the cucumber, add chilli oil and sesame seeds, toss and serve immediately.

Five variations

• Garlic-heavy northern style: double the garlic and skip the sugar.
• Sichuan style: add a pinch of ground Sichuan pepper and use chilli oil with sediment.
• With wood ear mushrooms: add a handful of rehydrated, blanched wood ear for crunch.
• Creamy: stir in 1 tbsp of tahini or Chinese sesame paste.
• Coriander: a handful of roughly chopped coriander leaves on top.

→ Chinese Tomato and Egg Stir-Fry: The 5-Minute Recipe Everyone Gets Wrong

→ 7 Chinese Dinners You Can Actually Cook in 15 Minutes