Smashed Cucumber Dumpling Salad

Cucumber salads are delicious. Dumplings are delicious. Why not combine them?

This 'salad’ is so delicious. The original recipe is from MOB, but after a few tweaks around I have modified it to suit my palette more. The things i’d change is not adding the water to the dressing or maybe a tsp at a time and not in one go. I would also up the chilli, garlic (there was none) and the salt levels.

You can find the moderated version of the recipe here or on mo.co.uk for the actual recipe 

Ingredients 

The salad

• 2 medium sized cucumbers 

• 150g radishes

  (completely optional, and i haven’t tried it but a super thin peppery, crisp radish would be so delicious in my imagination so i’d implore you to try it with)

The salad dressing

• 1 tbsp soy sauce

• 2tsp sesame oil

• 1 tbsp garlic, grated

The tahini sauce

• 3 tbsp tahini 

• 2 tbsp soy sauce

• 2 tbsp vinegar 

• 1 tbsp sugar 

• pinch of salt 

• 1 tbsp cold water (to thin, if desired)

The dumplings

• 10 dumplings (5 per person)

• Vegetable oil for frying 

The toppings

• 2 spring onions

• 2tbsp chilli oil 

• Optional 2 tbsp garlic chips

Method

To make the cucumber salad

For the vegetables, cut your cucumber lengthwise. Then smash with a pan to split it into quarters. At this point i’d salt the cucumber slightly and let it sit for a while, 5ish mins to draw out some moisture so the dressing doesn’t go runny. Then i’d wash the excess salt off, quarter the cucumbers and add them to a big bowl. 

Chop up your radish and spring onion as your cucumber sits. Thinly slice the radish, whites and greens of the spring onions. Divide the spring onions by keeping a handful for garnish. The remainder will join the cucumber bowl. 

Into this bowl, add the cucumbers, onions; greens and whites and the radish. Toss together and let marinade until time to serve. 

The tahini sauce

Combine all the tahini sauce ingredients together in a medium bowl. Then add water 3-4 drops at a time, whisking constantly to emulsify the dressing until it’s thicken slightly and creamy. 

Cooking the dumplings

Preheat a pan with vegetable oil. Once hot, add your dumplings in a circular pattern and let brown 3-4 minutes. 

Once browned, add 1/4 cup of water and cover immediately to let steam. After 3-4 minutes, you should see the dumplings turning translucent and start looking cooked, you can test it if you want but at the 5-7 min mark they may be overcooked so watch closely. 

To serve

Spoon the tahini sauce on a deep serving plate, add on top the cucumber salad, then another heavy spoonful of tahini sauce to coat, followed by your dumplings, seared side up. 

Sprinkle on-top spring onions, chilli oil, toasted sesame seeds. Serve the rest of the tahini sauce on side for dipping dumplings and giving people options to add all of it or not!