This Mango Cucumber Salad (Asian recipe) is a light and refreshing side dish full of tropical flavor. Quick and easy, it's a sweet, savory and crunchy recipe perfect for camping or a summer barbecue. Plus, unlike many salads, there is no sour cream or olive oil used, so it's healthier and less heavy!
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⭐ Why This Recipe is a Star
- Light and refreshing: This Asian Mango Cucumber Salad Recipe is 1 of my favorite recipes to beat the summer heat! It is a super light and cooling dish when it's hot out. Serve it with miso sea bass and some fresh calamansi juice, lemongrass tea or lychee tea!
- Simple and quick recipe: You basically cut everything up, mix the sauce, and toss everything together! The only salad easier than this is the Lao Gan Ma Cucumber Salad!
- Healthy: it's packed with fibre and vitamins! Complete the meal with no-sugar agar jelly or pandan jelly and you'll definitely have hit your "5 a day!"
🥘 Ingredients
You only need a few simple ingredients for this great salad:
- sweet mangoes: we want a fresh and ripe mango cut into small pieces, about ½ inch in size. (If it's not ripe, it won't be sweet.) You should see some sticky juice oozing out of the whole/ uncut juicy mango and it will smell sweet. It should also still be firm to the touch, if not the mango will be a bit mushy.
- cucumbers: I prefer not to use cucumber slices. If you cube the cucumbers, it's much easier to scoop them up with tortilla chips! I recommend Japanese cucumbers but thin-skinned cucumbers such as Persian and English cucumbers work too. (We want as few seeds as possible, so that you won't have to deseed them. If you only have thick-skinned cucumber, skin with a potato peeler and remove the seeds if necessary.)
- onions: I like red onion for the extra sweetness but white and yellow work too. (Or shallots!) If you find raw onion too strong for you, soak the cut onions in ice water for 5-10 minutes to soften the flavor.
- tomatoes: preferably cherry tomatoes, cut into quarters. You can skip this if you don't have any on-hand but I find they make the dish better as they help to bridge the flavor of the sweet mangoes with the cucumbers! Alternatively, substitute with bell peppers.
- green onion: these add color and some freshness to the recipe! You can also replace with mint and fresh cilantro. (Do not use dried herbs though!)
And for the Asian salad sauce (which is based on the Vietnamese Nuoc Cham recipe):
- fish sauce
- white sugar: we will need some hot water to dissolve the sugar. Alternatively, you can use a neutral honey.
- fresh garlic: peeled and minced. I don't recommend using garlic powder instead, as the sauce won't taste as fresh and tangy.
- fresh lime juice: I use undiluted calamansi juice but regular lime juice or even white rice vinegar is good too. I have not tested the recipe with white wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar but they should work too.
- red chilies: you can skip these if you can't take spice. I use fresh chilies but red pepper flakes work too.
📖 Variations & Substitutes
- Mango Cucumber Salad with Avocado: Avocado cubes help add creaminess to the summer salad recipe and make it even better! Goes perfectly with lettuce wraps!
- Cucumber Mango Salad with Shrimp: Shrimp help to add protein to the dish and make it more filling. It also provides a nice contrasting texture to the crunchy cucumbers. I recommend poaching in coconut water!
- You can also bulk this healthy summer salad up by adding in green or red bell pepper.
🔪 Step-by-Step Instructions
Make the sauce
1a. Put the sugar in a small bowl. Pour in the hot water and stir till dissolved. (If using a liquid sweetener, you can ignore this step.)
1b. Add in the other sauce ingredients and mix well.
2a. Add the cucumbers, mangoes, tomatoes and herbs, then mix well.
2b. Pour the sauce over and stir.
Note: Can be eaten straightaway but ideally, refrigerate for 1 hour till chilled
🥡 How to Store
You can make a big batch of this delicious mango cucumber salad and store it in an airtight container in the fridge for 2-3 days.
It will actually taste better as the flavors of the sauce will really soak into the fresh ingredients!
👩🏻🍳 Expert Tips
Tip #1: Using the right type of cucumber is vital, if not the salad will be too wet or you'll have to work extra hard to skin or de-seed.
Tip #2: Allow to marinate for 30 minutes-1 hour in the fridge before serving. If you want to eat it immediately after making, use ingredients from the fridge so that the salad is nice and cold!
Tip #3: Use a large salad bowl to toss everything together so you don't have to worry about the ingredients falling out.
🥗 Other Summer Recipes
Enjoyed this easy Mango Cucumber Recipe? Please leave a 5-star 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟rating in the recipe card below! If you REALLY liked this Summer Salad, please consider supporting it by buying me a coffee! 🙂 (No obligation though!) Thank you and have a great day!
Mango Cucumber Salad (Asian)
Equipment
- Small bowl and fork To mix the sauce
- Large bowl and salad spoons To mix the salad
- Airtight container To store the salad in the fridge before serving
Ingredients
Salad sauce
- 2 Tablespoons White sugar Substitute: neutral honey. I don't recommend brown sugar.
- 4 Tablespoons Hot water To dissolve the white sugar
- 2 Tablespoons Fish Sauce
- 1½-2 Tablespoons Fresh Lime Juice I like calamansi lime but you can use key lime juice, rice vinegar or 1 of these substitutes.
- 3-4 Garlic cloves Peeled and minced
- 1 Fresh red chilies Optional. Deseed and slice thinly
Salad ingredients
- 1 ripe mango Peeled, de-seeded and cut into ½ inch cubes. Flesh should be firm but not hard. Ripe mangoes emit a sweet smell and you may see some juice flowing out even when the mango is uncut. You can use more mango if you want a sweeter salad but I find 1 is enough as this is a summer side dish not dessert!
- 1 Japanese cucumber Cut into ½ inch cubes. No need to skin or de-seed. Substitute: English cucumber or Persian Cucumber. I don't recommend conventional cucumber as they have thicker skin and bigger seeds- you will need to skin with a potato peeler and de-seed to get the same taste. (More work!)
- ¼-½ red onion Peeled and minced. You can use other onions or shallots. If you find the raw taste too pungent, soak in ice water for 5-10 minutes to soften the flavor.
- 1 sprig spring onions Sliced. Substitute or supplement with cilantro, mint or 1 of these scallion substitutes
- 20 cherry tomatoes Quartered. You can substitute with bell peppers- if so, use more mango as bell peppers aren't as sweet as cherry tomatoes.
Instructions
Make the sauce
- Pour the hot water over the sugar and mix till dissolved then combine well with the other ingredients.Note: if using honey, you can just mix everything together.
Mix the salad
- Mix all the ingredients with the sauce.
- Store in an airtight container in the fridge for 1 hour for best flavor. If not, can be eaten immediately too.
Notes
Note: the nutritional information is an estimate automatically calculated using the WPRM recipe maker and I am not responsible for its veracity.
Nutrition
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Hana says
Was delicious but was hard for me to find fish sauce where I am. would be great if you had alternatives to it for when I run out.
D Chew says
Love this mango cucumber salad.very light and refreshing especially for these hot days.Had it for all my meals last weekend as I am
trying to loose weight for my sister’s coming birthday party!