Cucumber Carrot Salad
on Sep 06, 2021, Updated May 26, 2026
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy.
This cucumber carrot salad is crisp and fresh and ready in 10 minutes. I toss it in a lightly creamy peanut dressing with Asian flavors and ingredients including ginger, soy sauce and lime juice. The salad also has scallions, chopped peanuts and cilantro. Serve it with your favorite stir-fry for dinner.
Table of Contents
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
If you’re craving a crisp salad with fresh crunch, cucumbers are the way to go. No offense to leafy greens, but I’m a big fan of no-lettuce salads. They are so versatile, blurring the line between salad and side dish.
This Asian cucumber salad goes perfectly with quick and easy recipes like this mixed veggie tofu stir-fry, this vegetable-packed broccoli edamame fried rice, or this sheet pan version of kung pao tofu.
The peanut dressing is the star of the salad that brings everything together. Usually, I’m a vinaigrette person, but I’m very into vegan dressings that start with nut butters or tahini. Just a spoonful adds wonderful creaminess.
The Ingredients
This is what you need:
- Cucumbers: The recipe calls for English cucumbers because they have thinner, more delicate skins and less seeds than regular cucumbers. You also can use Persian cucumbers, which have those same advantages, but they’re smaller.
- Carrots: I usually buy pre-shredded carrots because they are a cleaner, more uniform shred than if you do it yourself with the big holes of a box grater or the grating disc of a food processor.
- Scallions, thinly sliced, add light green onion flavor that has an almost herby quality.
- Peanuts: For some salty, nutty crunch, I stir in chopped roasted peanuts. If you want even more nuttiness, you can sprinkle in sesame seeds too.
- Cilantro: I know this is a love-it or hate-it ingredient. I think it’s fantastic with peanuts, carrots and cucumbers, but you can leave it out and add more scallions if you don’t like it.
- Peanut dressing: It has smooth peanut butter, minced ginger & garlic, fresh lime juice, low-sodium soy sauce, olive oil, kosher salt and black pepper. You can substitute with almond butter and chopped almonds if you want.
How To Make This Cucumber Carrot Salad
1. Combine the salad ingredients in a large bowl including the sliced cucumbers, carrots, scallions, peanuts and cilantro.
2. Make the peanut dressing. Whisk together the ginger, garlic, peanut butter, lime juice, oil, soy sauce, salt and pepper in a small bowl.
3. Drizzle the dressing into the salad, tossing to combine.
Serving
This Asian cucumber salad is a great side dish for fast weeknight dinner recipes like this frozen vegetable stir-fry or this sheet pan honey garlic tofu and broccoli. It also works with proteins such as chicken, salmon or shrimp.
Check out my collection of simple seasonal salad recipes including some of my favorite ingredients and tips for making better salads.
Cucumber Carrot Salad
Ingredients
For salad
- 1 pound English cucumbers, trimmed and thinly sliced into rounds
- 1 cup shredded carrots
- 2 scallions, thinly sliced
- 1/4 cup chopped roasted peanuts
- 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro plus more for serving
For dressing
- 1 tablespoon minced ginger
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 2 tablespoons smooth peanut butter
- 1 lime, juice
- 2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
- Pinch of kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/4 cup olive oil
Save this recipe
Get it sent to your inbox plus new recipes every week.
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine the cucumbers, carrots, scallions, peanuts and cilantro.
- To make the dressing, whisk the ginger, garlic, peanut butter, lime juice, soy sauce, salt, pepper and olive oil in a small bowl.
- Drizzle the dressing into the salad. Toss to combine.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Yum! This recipe is amazing. I omitted ginger because I’m out of it. I added chili hot sauce at the end. It’s perfect.
I used your recipe as a guide because I didn’t have all the precise ingredients on hand. No smooth peanut butter, so I used my organic crunchy and didn’t add additional peanuts. No scallions, so put in chives. Subbed parsley for cilantro. White wine vinegar in lieu of rice. It turned out wonderfully delicious! Oh, and I did use honey because I buy from an Amish family farm 1/2 mile from my house.
I’ll have to try making it with crunchy peanut butter!