Cucumber salad

Cucumber salad with sesame seeds

Cucumber salad is a salad dish with cucumber as its main ingredient.

Varieties

The basic form is thin slices of cucumber with a vinaigrette dressing. The salad may include condiments from Chinese cuisine such as soy sauce and sesame oil, or elements from Thai cuisine such as peanuts, prawns and chili peppers. Australian chef Adam Liaw included "Korean hot chilli flakes" in his recipe for a "simple Korean version". A German cuisine version, a "gurkensalat", may include chives, dill, and sour cream.A Chinese version of this salad, commonly known as "凉拌黄瓜" (liángbàn huángguā), is a popular dish in China. It typically features thinly sliced or lightly smashed cucumbers dressed in a sauce made from garlic, chili oil, Chinese black vinegar, and a hint of sugar, often garnished with sesame seeds and scallions to enhance its refreshing taste.

In culture

• In A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, a narrative of his 1773 journey though Scotland, Samuel Johnson remarked A cucumber should be well sliced, and dressed with pepper and vinegar, and then thrown out, as good for nothing.
• According to some accounts of the history of the telephone, some of the first intelligible words heard over the Reis telephone were Das Pferd frisst keinen Gurkensalat.