Din Tai Fung is a world-renowned Taiwanese restaurant chain, best known for its delicious soup dumplings and noodles. In addition to their signature dishes, the chain restaurant also offers a variety of mouth-watering side dishes, including the exclusive Din Tai Fung cucumber salad. This dish is simple yet flavorful, and it is the perfect way to enjoy the freshness of summer cucumbers. The cucumbers are perfectly crisp and the vinegar sauce is tangy and slightly sweet. Din Tai Fung's cucumber with vinegar sauce is a must-try for anyone visiting the restaurant.
The good news is, with our copycat Din Tai Fung cucumber recipe, you can now have it anytime you want! The perfect summertime refresher, this recipe just might be one of the easiest among our recipes. Most of the ingredients required are the quintessential pantry staples, with little preparation time. Even if you didn’t have this delight at Din Tai Fung, we are pretty sure that you will be addicted in no time. Let’s take a look.
Ingredients
- Cucumbers — 4-5 pcs., preferably English or Persian, thinly sliced.
- Rice vinegar — ½ cup.
- Red wine vinegar — ½ cup, as a substitute to rice vinegar.
- Sugar — ¼ cup
- Salt — 1 tsp., preferably Kushner salt.
- Ground black pepper — ¼ tsp., fresh.
- Soy sauce — 1 tbsp.
- Sesame oil — ¼ cup.
- Ginger — 1 tbsp., fresh and finely chopped, optional.
- Garlic — 2 cloves, minced.
Instructions
- Slice English or Persian cucumbers evenly, and roughly the same size.
- Put them in a bowl and add salt to get rid of excess moisture and water.
- Approximately 30 minutes later, take the cucumbers out, rinse them, and let them dry.
- In another bowl, combine sesame oil, sugar, black pepper, soy sauce, rice vinegar, and minced garlic.
- Optional — Add chopped ginger.
- Add the dried cucumbers to the bowl, and mix with dressing.
- Marinate overnight, or 2-3 hours if you are short on time.
Equipment
- Measuring spoons and cups.
- Mixing bowl.
Tips
A distinctive, authentic Din Tai Fung cucumber salad is distinguished by the crispy texture of the cucumbers and the unique taste of seasoning that is somewhat spicy and sweet at the same time. Below, you will find an advanced guide on picking the right cucumbers and preparing the seasoning.
- The cucumber — When it comes to picking the right cucumber, you might want to go with seedless and thin-skinned ones, as the original recipe leaves the skin on. We also strongly recommend using fresh cucumbers, which brings us to two definite choices — Persian and English cucumbers. Although these two differ slightly, they are similar enough that they could be used interchangeably, which provides some flexibility. On another note, although we will mention this later, cucumbers are watery, and that’s a major flag that needs to be addressed when preparing Din Tai Fung cucumber salad. Luckily, Persian and English cucumbers are notoriously less watery compared to their counterparts.
First, slice the cucumbers carefully, and make sure that they all end up roughly the same size, for aesthetic purposes. Place them in a bowl, and mix them with salt. The salt will rid the cucumbers of excess water and moisture, making them crispier. Approximately half an hour will be enough, before proceeding to rinse the cucumbers. Now, it’s time for the marinade.
- The marinade — Although the Din Tai Fung cucumber recipe is based on cucumbers, it’s the seasoning that separates it from your regular salad. Using rice vinegar will help make your cucumbers less watery and crispy. However, if you don’t have rice vinegar, you can opt for red wine or distilled white wine vinegar, which will give you similar results.
In a different bowl, combine sesame oil, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, ¼ cup sugar, 2 cloves of minced garlic, and 1 tbsp. chopped fresh ginger (if possible). Although the latter is rare in Din Tai Fung cucumber salad recipes, it is a secret ingredient of ours. We encourage you to try it.
Your cucumbers should be all dried now. Add them to the bowl, and mix with dressing. We recommend marinating overnight, but you can also marinate for 2-3 hours if you are short on time.
To sum up
Although the chain restaurant is mostly known for its noodles, one of its signature dishes is the Din Tai Fung cucumber salad. The iconic side dish is a great refreshment to have, especially on hot summer days. With our own copycat Din Tai Fung cucumber recipe, you can now have it anytime you want.
Din Tai Fung Cucumber Recipe
Equipment
- Measuring spoons and cups
- Mixing bowl
Ingredients
- 4-5 pcs. cucumbers preferably English or Persian, thinly sliced
- ½ cup rice vinegar
- ½ cup red wine vinegar substitute to rice vinegar
- ¼ cup sugar
- 1 tsp. salt preferably Kushner salt
- ¼ tsp. ground black pepper fresh
- 1 tbsp. soy sauce
- ¼ cup sesame oil
- 1 tbsp. ginger fresh and finely chopped, optional
- 2 cloves garlic minced
Instructions
- Slice English or Persian cucumbers evenly, and roughly the same size.
- Put them in a bowl and add salt to get rid of excess moisture and water.
- Approximately 30 minutes later, take the cucumbers out, rinse them, and let them dry.
- In another bowl, combine sesame oil, sugar, black pepper, soy sauce, rice vinegar, and minced garlic.
- Optional — Add chopped ginger.
- Add the dried cucumbers to the bowl, and mix with dressing.
- Marinate overnight, or 2-3 hours if you are short on time.
Video
Notes
- The cucumber — When it comes to picking the right cucumber, you might want to go with seedless and thin-skinned ones, as the original recipe leaves the skin on. We also strongly recommend using fresh cucumbers, which brings us to two definite choices — Persian and English cucumbers. Although these two differ slightly, they are similar enough that they could be used interchangeably, which provides some flexibility. On another note, although we will mention this later, cucumbers are watery, and that’s a major flag that needs to be addressed when preparing Din Tai Fung cucumber salad. Luckily, Persian and English cucumbers are notoriously less watery compared to their counterparts. First, slice the cucumbers carefully, and make sure that they all end up roughly the same size, for aesthetic purposes. Place them in a bowl, and mix them with salt. The salt will rid the cucumbers of excess water and moisture, making them crispier. Approximately half an hour will be enough, before proceeding to rinse the cucumbers. Now, it’s time for the marinade.
- The marinade — Although the Din Tai Fung cucumber recipe is based on cucumbers, it’s the seasoning that separates it from your regular salad. Using rice vinegar will help make your cucumbers less watery and crispy. However, if you don’t have rice vinegar, you can opt for red wine or distilled white wine vinegar, which will give you similar results. In a different bowl, combine sesame oil, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, ¼ cup sugar, 2 cloves of minced garlic, and 1 tbsp. chopped fresh ginger (if possible). Although the latter is rare in Din Tai Fung cucumber salad recipes, it is a secret ingredient of ours. We encourage you to try it. Your cucumbers should be all dried now. Add them to the bowl, and mix with dressing. We recommend marinating overnight, but you can also marinate for 2-3 hours if you are short on time.
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