Carrot and Cucumber Salad with Spicy Dressing
This carrot and cucumber salad is crisp, refreshing, and packed with bold flavors! This flavorful, umami-rich salad is made with carrots, cucumbers, fresh herbs, and an incredible Asian dressing. This salad is super easy to prepare, full of crunchy texture, and totally customizable!
If you love this salad, you’ll also love this bell pepper and cucumber salad, this California roll cucumber salad, and this spicy Asian cucumber salad!
Recipe Ingredients: Carrot and Cucumber Salad
For the dressing:
For the salad:
Ingredient Notes, Substitutions & Additions
Cucumber: A nice big English cucumber works best, but I also like using the cute little mini cucumbers, too (Persian cucumbers).
Additional veggies: Add any additional crunchy veggies you like! Some great additions are
bell peppers, radishes, or even thinly sliced cabbage.
Make it vegan: To make this recipe vegan, simply substitute the honey with maple syrup, and you’re good to go! The rest of the ingredients are all plant-based and vegan friendly!
Miso paste: White miso paste can be found in many chain grocery stores now in the Asian section. Trader Joe’s has a great one, or there is always Amazon! If you can’t find it, no worries! The dressing is just fine without it.
Heat: Swap the red pepper flakes for some chili crisp like this one from Trader Joe’s!
Cilantro: This is optional for freshness but you can leave it out or use another fresh herb like parsley or mint.
Cucumber salad obsessed?
Check out 12 more delicious cucumber salad recipes here!
How to Make Carrot and Cucumber Salad: Step by Step
Expert Tips
- Storage: This salad is best served fresh but will hold up pretty well in the fridge for 1-2 days. Store in an airtight container.
- Cutting the veggies: It’s pretty to cut the cucumber, carrots, and scallions on a diagonal. For the carrots, I like to cut them diagonally, then into thin matchsticks (see the photo above).
- How to serve: This salad is great on its own as a light dish or paired with your favorite protein like grilled chicken, tofu, or fish. It also makes a great accompaniment to a larger meal, especially Asian-inspired dishes.
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Thank you! ~ Casey
Carrot and Cucumber Salad with Spicy Dressing
Ingredients
For the salad
- 2 medium carrots, peeled
- 1 large English cucumber or 3-4 Persian cucumbers
- 2 green onions
For the dressing
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp sweet white miso paste See Note 1
- 1 tbsp rice vinegar
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- 1 tsp honey
- 1 tsp fresh ginger, grated
- 1 small garlic clove, minced
- 1/2 tsp red chili flakes (more for additional heat) optional for no heat
- 1/2 tsp lime zest
- 1 tbsp cilantro, chopped
- 1 tbsp sesame seeds, optional black and white to make it pretty!
Instructions
- Prepare the veggies: Use a mandoline or knife to cut the carrots, cucumber, and green onionsĀ into thin slices (Scroll up to see the photo above on how to slice the carrots)
- Make the dressing: In a small bowl, whisk together soy sauce, sweet white miso paste, rice vinegar, sesame oil, honey, grated ginger, minced garlic, red chili flakes (if using), and lime zest.
- Finish: Pour the dressing over the vegetables. Toss well to coat evenly. Sprinkle toasted sesame seeds and chopped cilantro over the salad.
I love to make this salad to go along with any Asian dishes like fried rice! I hope you love it! XO ~ Casey