Cabbage Cucumber Salad with Miso Sesame Dressing
This Cabbage Cucumber Salad is crunchy, refreshing, and easy to make ahead of time! It’s loaded with sesame seeds and green onions and tossed in an irresistibly delicious miso sesame dressing. It makes for the perfect stir-fry side dish, or add some protein and rice to make it a main dish!
Meet my new favorite salad: this cabbage cucumber salad, tossed with a fabulous miso sesame dressing. It’s all the things: fresh, crunchy, tangy, nutty, flavorful, refreshing, and absolutely delicious.
This salad was originally inspired by a few different things: some cucumber salads I saw on TikTok, and my favorite cucumber summer salad from my favorite vegetarian Thai restaurant in San Diego, Plumeria. Once I started making it at home, with my own twists, and realized how easy it was…it came a staple on repeat in my kitchen. I’ve had countless days standing at the kitchen counter eating this salad for lunch.
It’s the perfect salad for summer, and since it’s lettuce-free, you can make it ahead of time and grab it out of the fridge when you need something quick and refreshing. It makes a great side dish, or add some extra protein (ideas below!) to make it a full meal. I think you’ll be as obsessed as I am!
What’s in this cabbage cucumber salad?
- Persian Cucumbers: these are the smaller ones, and I find they work best because the seeds are tiny and the skin is thin, so no need to peel!
- Thinly Shredded Cabbage: I used red cabbage, green will work too!
- Green Onions: we use LOTS for maximum flavor.
- Peanuts: feel free to skip if you have a peanut allergy or sub for almonds.
- Toasted Sesame Seeds: these are a MUST – they add so much texture! If you only have raw sesame seeds, toast them for a few minutes in a dry pan on low-heat.
Let’s make the miso sesame dressing!
This dressing is so good you could DRINK it!! It’s light, refreshing, and perfect for this cucumber salad. It would also be a great dumpling dipping sauce :)
What you need to make it is:
- Tamari: or regular soy sauce if you’re not gluten-free. Coconut aminos are a great soy-free option.
- Rice Vinegar: I use regular unseasoned rice vinegar, but if you have seasoned on hand, that works too!
- Lime Juice: fresh is best!
- White Miso: I used chickpea miso, regular white miso works great too.
- Toasted Sesame Oil
- Chili Crisp: or chili powder. I used Trader Joe’s Chili Garlic Crunch
- Garlic: I use fresh and grate it right into the sauce.
Could I add a protein?
If you want to serve this cucumber salad as a main dish, you absolutely could, but I would recommend adding some protein to make it a complete meal! You can add meat or a plant-based protein. Some of my favorites are:
- Shelled Edamame
- Crispy Tofu
- Sauteed Tempeh
- Rotisserie Chicken (or Vegan Chicken)
I would serve with a grain like rice or quinoa to make it a filling, delicious meal. I hope you adore this recipe as much as I do!
Want more easy salads?
- 5-Ingredient Chickpea Chimichurri Salad
- Kale Chickpea Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette
- The Best Vegan Caesar Salad
Cabbage Cucumber Salad with Miso Sesame Dressing
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 10 minutes
- Yield: 4–6 side servings 1x
- Category: Salad
- Method: No-Cook
- Cuisine: Asian
- Diet: Gluten Free
Description
This Cabbage Cucumber Salad is crunchy, refreshing, and easy to make ahead of time! It’s loaded with sesame seeds and green onions and tossed in an irresistibly delicious miso sesame dressing. It makes for the perfect stir-fry side dish, or add some protein and rice to make it a main dish!
Ingredients
For the salad
- 4 Persian cucumbers, sliced
- ¼ head red cabbage, thinly sliced
- 4 green onions, thinly sliced, both the white and green parts
- ¼ cup roasted salted peanuts, chopped
- 2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
For the dressing
- 3 tablespoons low-sodium tamari, reduce to 2 tablespoons if you only have full sodium
- 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
- 1 lime, juiced
- 1 teaspoon white miso
- 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon chili crisp, chili oil, or ¼ teaspoon chili flakes
- 1 garlic clove, grated
Instructions
- In a salad bowl, combine the cucumbers, cabbage, green onions, peanuts, and sesame seeds.
- In a small mixing bowl or jar, whisk together the tamari, rice vinegar, lime juice, miso, sesame oil, chili crisp, and garlic. Whisk until completely combined.
- Pour the dressing on top of the salad and toss to combine. Serve immediately, or let sit at room temperature for up to an hour to marinate.
- Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Keywords: cabbage salad, cucumber salad, asian salad, make ahead salad, no wilt salad
Hi, We don’t eat peanuts because of the potential mold contamination. I have a variation of the salad I wanted to share. I use green and purple cabbage thinly sliced, then grate yellow & orange carrots with it. I use 1/3 c olive oil with 3 tbsp lime juice, 1 tsp granulated garlic and 1 heaping tsp cumin. I add some avocado to the dressing too which thickens it. I work this all into the cabbage mix. Final touch is everything spice mix I add to the salad (I buy a large jar of it at Costco). I like your miso dressing so I might have to try that sometime. Thanks.
Sounds great! I love adding carrots to this too, sounds like you make a pretty different recipe so you’ll have to try this version sometime, and you can just leave out the peanut if you don’t eat them, or sub with almonds :)
Hi I’m a great fan of yours. I’m dairy allergic in particular the protein. Also I’m GF. Your recipes are just up my alley.
I’m not clear what chic pea miso is. Also regular miso. What does it look like or where to buy? Is it powder or paste?
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Thanks for the love! Miso paste can be found in the refrigerated section of most grocery stores. I would ask a store employee if you have a hard time locating it at your local grocery store!
I made this alongside some
spicy sambal noodles and it was perfect! It’s delicious, easy to make, and will definitely become a part of the regular menu at our house
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So so glad you loved it, Jenn!!
I doubled this recipe (for my family of 4) and yes I know it serves 4 but hey I don’t like to run out of stuff. My whole family made fun of me for making SO much…. welp, 90% of it was gone by the end of dinner. This is a must make!!!
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So glad you and your family loved it, Kathryn!!
Made this last week, so good!! I added tuna for protein and added some crackers.
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So glad you enjoyed it, Madeline!
So yummm! This will become a standard in our rotation!
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So glad you’re loving it, Erica!
The dressing was a bit too salty for me. Added 2 tsp honey to balance it out & a little non dairy milk. Next time I’ll just cut back on the Tamari, but I WILL make it again, the main body of the salad was YUMMY!!!
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Thanks so much for the feedback, Cate! So glad you enjoyed it and were able to adjust it a bit for your tastes – I also just realized I used low-sodium tamari, so I’ll add that note to the recipe :)
this is the best summer/fall salad I made several times and just as wrote
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So glad you’re loving it, Heidi!
This is sooo good! I like tangy so I went back and added more vinegar, chili flakes and miso. But I had also used coconut aminos since I didn’t have tamari on hand. Thanks for such a great recipe!
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So glad you’re loving it, Becky!! One of my favorites too :D