This Asian cucumber and pineapple salad is perfect for summer and goes amazingly with your barbeques and other main dishes. It's bursting with contrasting sweet, savory, and tangy flavors. Every bite brings a refreshing feeling. It's as easy as assembling a few ingredients!
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Why You'll Love This Recipe
This Asian cucumber salad is very common in my home country, Malaysia. It's so versatile, and here's why we love it!
Refreshing—The sweetness of the pineapple pairs well with the fresh cucumber, and the crunchiness of the carrot and onion is just perfect. The combination of sweet, savory, and tangy flavors makes it an ideal accompaniment for other dishes, especially rich Asian ones like my beef korma and quick massaman chicken curry.
Fast—It is more of a recipe for assembling than anything else. It is so flexible that you can adjust the flavors to suit your taste. For spicy cucumber salad, we love to mix in chopped 3-4 Thai bird's eye chilies!
Ingredients For This Recipe
Pineapple—Fresh, ripe pineapple is ideal for this Asian cucumber salad, but canned pineapple also tastes great. To save time, we prefer buying pre-sliced pineapple rings. You don't need much because a small amount goes a long way!
Cucumber—We use English or European cucumber that is seedless, firm, and slightly sweet.
Vinegar—We love using apple cider vinegar as we always have it in the pantry. However, any vinegar works great.
See the recipe card for complete information on ingredients and quantities.
Step-By-Step Instructions
Step 1: Prepare the dressing. Add vinegar, sugar, and salt to a serving plate and mix well until the sugar is dissolved.
Step 2: Mix. Slice the cucumber and onion thinly, cut the carrot into matchsticks, and cut the pineapple into small chunks. Add them to the plate and mix well. Serve immediately or chill it in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Recipe Expert Tips
If you're going to make this Asian cucumber and pineapple salad, follow these top tips!
- Use ripe sweet pineapple. It's the best, as the natural sweetness is amazing.
- Let the flavors blend. We love making this Asian cucumber salad for half to one hour before serving so that the beautiful flavors blend together—and it tastes so much better!
- Serve it chilled. My family loves to serve this Asian cucumber salad chilled from the fridge! It tastes even more refreshing, especially in hot weather, and is an excellent pairing with rich main dishes.
- Adjust to taste. As always, adjust the dressing to your taste!
How To Serve And Store
Serve—This salad will bring a wonderful fresh touch to your barbeques, like our chicken satay. It's also amazing with rich main dishes, like our beef rendang.
Store—This Asian cucumber salad can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. Give it a good mix again before serving.
Recipe FAQs
Go with the smell and visuals! If it smells sweet, that's a good sign. Overall, it should be yellowish. Avoid the ones with brown or dark spots at the bottom.
Definitely, as we've used it often in this Asian cucumber salad! We recommend using the ones that come in their natural juice, not syrup.
This refreshing salad is perfect for any barbeque, like our easy chicken satay, rice, or main dishes that welcome a touch of freshness, like our crispy air-fryer soy sauce chicken and slow-cooker chicken rendang.
What To Serve It With
Did you try this Asian Cucumber And Pineapple Salad?
Please leave us ★★★★★ ratings and feedback below in the comment section. We'd love to know how it went, what you liked, or if there's anything we can improve. Share and tag us on Instagram; we'd like to see your creation.
Thank you! -Bea and Marco
Watch How To Make It
📖 Recipe
Asian Cucumber And Pineapple Salad
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoon apple cider vinegar , or any vinegar
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 3 inch (100 g) cucumber , thinly sliced
- 1 (50 g) small carrot , cut into matchsticks
- 1 cup (180 g) pineapple in small chunks
- ½ red onion , thinly sliced
Instructions
- Add vinegar, sugar, and salt to a serving plate and mix well until the sugar is dissolved.
- Add the veggies to the plate and mix well. Serve immediately or chill it in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Notes
- Use ripe sweet pineapple. It's the best, as the natural sweetness is amazing.
- Let the flavors blend. We love making this Asian cucumber salad for half to one hour before serving so that the beautiful flavors blend together—and it tastes so much better!
- Serve it chilled. My family loves to serve this Asian cucumber salad chilled from the fridge! It tastes even more refreshing, especially in hot weather, and is an excellent pairing with rich main dishes.
- Adjust to taste. As always, adjust the dressing to your taste!
Nutrition Facts
The nutrition facts provided are an estimate per serving. Accuracy is not guaranteed.
Bea & Marco says
We love having this refreshing salad with our Asian dishes, it's our favorite!