Cucumber Salad Recipe

i think the combination of cucumber and coconut is quite strange for me as indonesian. but it is interesting. i just wanna try it, and i do. the ingredient is “abundant” in my place

Sounds great! Hope my wife makes it. Going to ask her now.

Are you kidding me? This looks so delicious and healthy. Time to add this to my diet for sure! Thanks for another great recipe. Cheers!

I love cucumbers and this looks delicious!

looks great.. this is a pretty common side dish in western India and must appear on our table 2-3 times a week at least..we don’t generally do the coconut or the ghee part tho’..
sanjeev Kapoor is pretty famous in India, and some of his recipes can be really intricate.. i don’t think you will regret buying his book.
thanks..

this looks delicious! i love cucumbers they are totally refreshing i could eat them with any meal

Beautiful and delicious! I just made this to accompany a spicy Nepali dish, throwing in some chopped mango on a whim. It plays so well with the tropical flavors and spiciness of the salad. Thanks for another fabulous recipe.

What a stunning recipe – and such an interesting flavour combo… Thanks for this!

Hi Heidi,
don’t worry about switching ingredients in Sanjeev’s Kapoor’s recipe. He is a very practical and flexible chef and keeps abreast with the current generation of women who have little kitchen experience in India.

This sounds delicious! I’m getting tired of all my basic salads…I’m so excited to make this and mix it up a little!

This was a wonderful salad, I loved the new combination of flavors. I was nervous about toasting all the different ingredients, but I did it in a skillet over a gas stove, and it worked out just great. The peanuts and coconut have enough natural oil to toast nicely in a dry skillet. I love toasted coconut and cucumbers, and the hint of savory from the toasted cumin seeds was so delicious. I will definitely make this again.

Made this tonight- SO DELICIOUS. I didn’t have cilantro so I skipped it, used Sunflower oil, and Danielle’s Coconut chips instead of toasting my own (because of laziness). Absolutely delicious, and a perfect pairing for Rock Cod.

I’m in love with all of the textures in this salad. It’s just marvelous!

Just finished dinner and served this salad as a side. Delicious! I used lime instead of lemon and the flavors (coconut,peanut, cucumber, cilantro, lime) reminded me more of Thailand than India…
Congrats on the book! I’ve been working my way through it this weekend. LOVE the millet muffins and the avocado and mustard seeds is dangerous!!! Thanks!

Hi Heidi!
I just want to say that I’m having so much fun cooking from your new book. My husband and I have been enjoying the dishes every night!
Keep up the good work!

I love Asian salads although for some reason rarely make them. This will go on the list for next week.

Hi Heidi
I’ve been followiong you for a long time. You a great and with such a sensibility …. I think that’s the key of a gourmant.
Tis salad looks absolutely lovely, despite the fact that i can not eat cocumber. neverthless I’am going to chamge it for boiled spinach and something else. Its amazing the coconut, the cummins. keep giving us such good, gourmet and healthy way of eating

Made this wonderful salad when my mum came to visit two days ago. Today I mixed leftovers in an all-green-leaves-salad including basil, lemon balm, mint and parsley with a great deal of sugar as they do in Turkey. Yummy – the mix of chillie and sweet flavor. Give it a try!

Your photography is beautiful and this looks delicious!

Man o man! This looks great! I just got my copy of Supernatural Everyday, so I will have to add this to the already long list of new things to make!!! I’m quite excited! Thank you Heidi!

This looks beautiful and crunchy! Can’t wait to get home and try it out. Also, I just got my copy of Super Natural Every Day in the mail, and it’s a stunning thing. Excellent work and congrats. I look forward to making everything in it.

Love the fresh and crunch idea. Might try with sunflower seeds as I can’t eat peanuts.

Also try the same recipe with peel and grated carrots, it will be as delicious as this 🙂

Wow. That looks amazing. A great spring side dish. Can’t wait to try it.

I love the look of this salad; it’s been so warm here in the bay that the thought of eating anything hot is highly unappealing! And peanuts–whether or whole or ground–make everything better!

My man and I made this for supper tonight, along with the millet/farro risotto recipe you posted yesterday. Sneak tastes promise quite the delicious meal!! Thanks!

How ironic…I just got back from a trip to China and had a cooking lesson from a friend there who taught me how to make a Chinese Cucumber Salad. It was similar to this with crushed peanuts, sugar, and a Sichuan hot pepper paste. You would love it!! If you’re interested you can find the recipe on my blog.

A couple of very interesting looking cookbooks, I’ll check the library, right now I have to save my bucks for a necessary home improvement project. I can at least cook the recipe you adapted, thanks.
~Brenda

I love the simplicity of this and will definitely try it this summer. Thanks for sharing these resources. All the best.

Looks fabulous. I wouldn’t have paired peanuts and cucumbers. Since I love them both, I’ll be trying this soon. Thanks!

love it! the addition of toasted coconut is fantastic and what a beautiful element it adds to your already perfect photos.

I love cucumbers; perfect for Spring and Summer Salads and this is a great recipe, Heidi. Love the coconut…such a perfect touch!

Heidi,
Love this salad. I have never tried it with coconut though, seems like a great idea. Sometimes I also add thick yogurt to it and that gives it a nice creamy raita texture.

Nigel Slater is, hands-down, my desert island author, the one I’d grab in a fire, right after my children. Might take two trips, given his output, but I’d do my best: he delivers every time.
How to Cook Indian I’ve not yet seen, but you’ve piqued my interest immensely. I can all but taste this salad. Looks perfect for the glut of summer cukes coming down the pike, and like just the right sort of lunch for a sweltering day.

I made this salad today and really enjoyed it. Although the mustard and cumin seeds were not very strong so I would add more next time. Also, when the ghee touched the colder ingredients it became opaque and solidified. This doesn’t affect taste, but was visible.
Great recipe!

perfect summer salad recipe! im already sick of arugula, this is just what i needed!

I did want to post this on your toasted pumpkin seed recipe but comments appear to be closed. Just wanted to stop in and say thank you. I would never have come up with such a creative flavour as black tea and butter. They turned out great and I was so pleased to use all of my pumpkin leaving no waste!

Wow, what flavors in this salad! So rich with the coconut and peanuts… but light and crunchy as well. And a bit smokey too, I imagine. This looks wonderful!

Sounds good Heidi, I have all of those ingredients in my fridge at the moment so will have to give this a try.

Heidi, thanks so much for posting this recipe! My family and I are here in Bali for 5 months without my beloved stash of cookbook and I am always looking for fresh ways to use all of the gorgeous ingredients growing nearby. This recipe will be perfect!
-E
Plus, toasted coconut may just be one of my favorite things!

Drool!

This looks so delicious. I’ve never thought of adding peanuts and coconut to a cucumber salad, but it sounds so delicious. I’ll have to try it. And I love that you are so into adapting recipes… even your own. It just makes everything less stressful if you don’t have to have every single ingredient every time… and teaches you how to throw things together to fit a certain flavor profile but still have it taste good.

This looks like such a refreshing salad, it would definitely make the perfect spring lunch!

Love it. Looks delicious, hearty, and refreshing.

Nice! For the brave fellow cooks out here, another salad you might want to try is mixing something like jumbo Planters peanuts, finely chopped red onions, lemon juice, chopped cilantro, chopped green chilis, red chili powder, and salt to taste. Perfect with chilled beer or hard liquor 🙂
HS: Yes please

thanks for another yummy looking recipe – i think this will be dinner tonight; just need to decide what to pair it with to fill up my always hungry man, although am contemplating adding in something directly to it like sauteed chickpeas?
ps – i’m really enjoying the new cookbook so far. great recipes plus always inspiration for me to adapt to what i have on hand.

Heidi , This one is an all time favorite at home, In addition to cucumber, I add finely chopped broccoli, bell peppers and substitute the cucumber with cabbage or moong spouts. The main ingredients for the tadka are curry leaves and a generous sprinkle of asafoetida and its a meal by itself and sometimes we add all this to thick yogurt for a wholesome raita.

Really yummy sounding salad! I’ve been searching for a good Indian cookbook for a while, I’ll have to check this out!

Thanks so much for the recipe! I just had a salad like this for the first time and was dying for a recipe. It’s like you read my mind!

Cucumbers and peanuts are a surprising combination, but I’ll bet this is light and delicious!

I love those big curls of toasted coconut 🙂 Cucumbers are making a reappearance at the greenmarket right now so the timing of this recipe is perfect for me, too.

This looks like a delicious salad! I love Indian food, but it can be hard to track down all the traditional ingredients in the U.S. Its nice to know you can improvise with what you have on hand!
By the way, it was a pleasure meeting you in Portland last week and I have been enjoying your cookbook immensely! It is the perfect amount of inspiration and instruction. I made the chick pea stew with saffron, adding some extra veggies that were on their last limb and it was great. I also made roasted chickpeas as a topping to some other dishes and last night I made a variation of the carnival cookies.
Thanks for all the hard work you put into the book!

this is going to pair perfectly with my citrus marinated grilled chicken tonight. perfect timing and thanks for giving me something new to add to my repertoire.

This sounds wonderful and refreshing. I love the sound of the cucumbers with coconut, peanuts, serrano chiles and the spices. I can feel my tastebuds exploding just from reading the recipe.
I can’t wait to try this. Thanks for sharing.

how lovely: all my favorite salad ingredients!

Oooh! This looks so delicious, Heidi! Perfect for summer. I love the addition of cumin and black mustard seed – sounds so intriguing. I will certainly be trying this soon! 🙂

This looks amazing! I love cucumbers, and peanuts, and coconut (in savory dishes) so this is pretty much perfectly timed for my new goal of increasing veggie intake and decreasing my meat! Plus I happen to have a 1/2 bag of dried coconut flakes left over from baking last week. I can’t wait to try this over the weekend! Thanks for always posting such inspiring recipes.

I didn’t think I’d like this at first, but then I read through the whole recipe and now I can’t wait to make it! Your relaxed approach to it all (“the sky didn’t fall”) is why I keep coming back here and trying things I might not have before.

I am in love with this cookbook, so perfect — am hoping I can someday write something like this!! thanks for highlighting it…also just picked up whole living and enjoyed the story on you

Wow, the textures and flavors sound amazing in this dish! A wonderful side for the summertime. Would also be great in a wrap!

This looks wonderful. I’d never have thought to put dried coconut in it, but then, that’s why I love your blog so much! Just need a lassi to drink with it and I’m set for the evening. 🙂
Thanks!

This sounds amazingly fresh, perfect for the warmer days ahead. I need to step outside my my box and start cooking with more ingredient combos like this, they sound so good together!

This definitely sounds like one worth bookmarking. I love simple cucumber salads and with the peanuts and coconut this sounds like a fun and unusual take.

Thank you Heidi, this sounds like the perfect salad for the season! I just received your book in the mail last week and I’ve used it every single weeknight since then. What a great job – the recipes are wholesome and delicious and the photographs are absolutely stunning. Congratulations to you!
I’m also really glad you’re using Sanjeev Kapoor’s book – I grew up watching his cooking show religiously every weekend and he still remains one of my favorite chefs of all time.

yum! perfect salad for spring.
love your new cookbook, by the way! you’re such an inspiration.

Hi Heidi,
I admire you giving Sanjeev Kapoor’s recipes a try. He is one of the “simple speaks volumes” philosopher when it comes to cooking.
While Indian cooking is quite forgiving if one does not follow the recipes exactly, I hate to tell you that Fresh Coconut is incomparable to the dried version. In the western world, people are intimidated using the fresh version. If grating it fresh coconut is unthinkable(villagers in India would never forgive anyone for not knowing the skill of cracking a coconut, if not shelling it from its fibrous shell), the good news is that most Indian stores do sell grated fresh coconut in the freezer section, which can get you closer to the real coconut taste. The coconut milk in the coconut flesh is something ethereal.
Growing up, we would have the tender coconuts brought down the tree, and would drink the juice and scrape the sides of the tender coconut for a snack. I cannot forget the buttery, custardy, melting pieces of coconut flesh.
A lot of south indian recipes in that book use fresh coconut generously(including Sambhar). Sakhiya
HS: Hi Sakhiya! I think your comment is a great place to start the conversation. I love the idea of building on ideas and ingredient combinations. In this case, I started with his base recipe, but when an ingredient wasn’t readily available to me, I just start trying to think about what might taste good. So, yes, I agree – there is nothing quite like fresh coconut, but toasted dried coconut still tasted good here, and brought other textures and dimensions to the dish as well. Next time I’ll give it a go with fresh, and I’ll be able to compare notes – fun as well.

I am totally going to adapt this for the cleanse I am leading and I can taste it now, thank you Heidi!!!

This looks perfect, and just right for this warm damp season. The best part is that – with minor adjustments – I think my kids might actually eat it!

Wow interesting combination of ingredients! I wouldn’t have thought of that on my own, but it looks beautiful. Sounds like a fun twist on a summer cucumber salad.

I’m not typically a huge fan of Indian food, but this looks so good. It looks l ike it has great flavor and texture combinations.

What a great combination of ingredients! I’m ready to eat this salad right now for breakfast!

This looks like an awesome snack! Thanks for sharing.

It’s great when you come across a cookbook you wouldn’t normally choose, and end up loving it. Gotta shake things up and try something new sometimes. Thanks for sharing, I look forward to your coverage of Nigel Slater’s book- LOVE him!

What a perfect salad for spring! Although I have a romaine/spring mix salad for lunch today, this will definitely add some extra excitement to other lunches! You have proved to the world that eating healthy isn’t BORING! Thank you!

Yummy, this looks amazing. Love cooking with peanuts

This seems to be the perfect combination of cooling veggies for summer with warming spices to keep the salad bright and interesting.
For those with peanut allergies, I would recommend using shelled and toasted sunflower seeds to get a similar crunch and toasty flavor (not quite the same peanutty flavor quality of course). I also like sunflower seeds as a cheaper alternative to pine nuts, which seem to cost as much as gold these days.
HS: Great idea Abbey.

This looks fantastic – love the serranos in it.
With all of your recipes I have bookmarked, I need to take a year and cook everything Julie/Julia-style. 🙂

You magically always sort out dinner, Heidi. It is a unique gift of yours.
I agree with your attitude on styles of cooking I don’t know much of, like the Indian one. I don’t want to completely change the flavours, but traditional recipes can still be a great inspiration without tracking down the ingredients to the latest exotic one. By the way this is something I often do with your recipes as well since I have trouble finding mexican ingredients, which you use quite often. It works, most of the times!

It might be time I join the group, I have never even experimented with Indian inspired dishes (I’m probably the only one….) – what better time than now! This looks like a great welcome to the summer salad season!

Wow, what a totally unique and delicious-sounding salad! I love this!! And pretty, too 🙂

Looks divine. Will be my mother’s day gift to myself! Yummy refreshing lunch while the chaos of children swirl around.

What an interesting combination of ingredients! All separately I enjoy, so why not together.

For those of us with peanut allergies, which nuts might make acceptable alternatives?
HS: Someone else suggested sunflower seeds, which I thought sounded like a great idea.

i’ve never really been one to love cucumbers, but i have to say that this sounds incredibly flavorful and refreshing!

How fun to walk around after your book signing and pick out a cookbook! This salad dish looks delicious. The crunchiness of the cool cucumbers and the peanuts would be a nice combination. I find main courses easy enough but finding sides like this is good too.

Heidi this looks delish!!
I love cucumbers AND I love peanuts or anything peanut sauce related.
This is perfect for me.
I also won Helen of Tartlette’s give away for your book and I posted about it a couple days ago…but just wanted to thank you so much for the book. It’s amazing, beautiful, and you inspire me SO MUCH. Your recipes, your photography, your accomplishments..I want to be like you when I grow up 🙂
HS: Thanks for all the nice words Averie – your cinnamon-sugar chickpeas look really intriguing! Might have to give those a go.

Why have I never thought of this?! Genius!

What a nice combo of flavors!

I cannot wait to get Nigel’s new book. This dish looks wonderful too. I typically use cucumbers in cocktails – and really need to incorporate them into my salads, that’s where they belong! 🙂

“I forgot to grind the peanuts – the sky did not fall.” – This made me grin. 🙂 I wish I could be as adventurous as you are. Looking forward to trying this.

This sounds so perfectly refreshing!

Wow, this looks wonderful!

I’ve followed your blog for a long time, but am commenting for the first time. I am delighted to see this salad make it into your blog. Being from India, I make this salad on a fairly regular basis. Some variations that I use: 1. Add curry leaves (kadhipatta) to the ghee after the cumin. It imparts a wonderfully fresh flavor to the salad. 2. Use steamed and coarsely mashed butternut squash instead cucumbers (with some yogurt to thin it out). That makes it into a wonderful raita.
Thanks for the wonderful blog!!
HS: Love the butternut squash idea – I’ll totally give it a go later in the year! Thanks for the tip KJ.

Interesting, and unlikely combination of such wonderful ingredients.

Mmm, yum!
Lately I’ve been making mine by shaving cucumber (with the slicer on the side of the grater) and I like boiled peanuts with mine. They add the saltiness for me, and they are nice and soft.

I liked so much your todays recipe, i also cook a salad from India What a coincidens!

This is a perfect meal for those of us who eat higher raw (using a cold-pressed sunflower oil). I love that it if fresh and light but there is depth to the spices and seasoning.

Once I cooked cucumber chutney with all these ingredients except peanuts. It was pretty good. The idea of making a salad with them inspires me so much, it seems better than my chutney, so fresh and spicy. ^_^

Cucumber peanut salad, but of course! Thank you for the reminder to make this delicious salad again. Being a South Indian, coconut and peanuts are always in my kitchen 🙂

I just made this … but used edamame instead of chopped cucumber. Yummy!

I whole heartedly agree with your admiration for nigel slater. His ingredients led recipes have been an inspiration to so many of us. Lovely post as always.

hi heidi,
i’ve enjoyed salads with cucumbers and peanuts, but the use of cumin and coconuts sounds as if it will make it a really interesting salad.. will try when the local cukes are in abundance!
on another note, i am FINALLY getting around to cooking from your gorgeous new book and i’m loving it – so far only done really simple ones (biscuits, roasted strawberries, and panakam) but they were all lovely and i can’t wait to try more! thanks for another gem of a cookbook – it was well worth the wait.

this sound delicious! I think I’ll make it for lunch next week and wrap it in a roti!

Have you tried Middle Eastern cucumbers? I get them at the M.E. market in my neighborhood but have never been able to find them at any coop or supermarket. Anyway, they are smaller, thinner, and drier than American/British cucumbers; the flavor is way more delicate as well. I will make this recipe with them!

Sounds so refreshing….cannot wait to prepare…
Your recipes & books are my guidelines as I do my best to make daily changes to my diet and life… thank you!

Lovely! Glad to see more South Indian flavors here.
A note about black mustard seeds: it’s important that the ghee be quite hot before you add them. Properly done, the black mustard seeds should pop and jump, and should all turn ashen grey. If the ghee isn’t hot enough, it will take longer for them to start to pop, and they’ll burn in the process. The taste of burnt black mustard seeds will change the whole dish–should you find yourself with burnt ones, clear out the pan and start over with fresh ghee. It’s always worth it.
HS: Thanks for the tip Liz!

If I can ever eat cucumbers again (right now they make my mouth itchy due to a mild allergy) I will totally make this salad. It looks delicious. I also don’t know what I’d do if a bookstore told me I could pick any book I wanted. I’d need a week to decide. What a lovely gift to you!

Wow. What a perfectly unexpected combo of flavors and textures, and perfect for the beautiful spring weather we’re having too! I can imagine this being a great appetizer scooped into butter lettuce leaves.