Din Tai Fung Cucumber Salad - CJ Eats Recipes (2024)

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By Chris Joe

5 from 41 votes

Oct 01, 2023, Updated Nov 20, 2023

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Din Tai Fung is known for the soup dumplings, but their Din Tai Fung Cucumber Salad is also one of their most popular side dishes and extremely delicious!

This cucumber salad is an extremely simple dish consisting of sliced, marinated cucumbers in a delicious sweet, spicy, soy-based sauce. It comes together in just a few minutes and only requires one bowl for a quick and flavorful side dish!

This copycat Din Tai Fung cucumber salad is an excellent side dish to go with rice, noodles, or dumplings and is a dish best served cold! It’s a great side dish as we begin to enter the summer time and goes great as a side dish with so many different types of foods or as a snack all by itself.

Watch the Din Tai Fun Cucumber Salad Recipe Video Below!

Din Tai Fung Cucumber Salad - CJ Eats Recipes (2)

Ingredients You’ll Need to Make the Din Tai Fung Cucumber Salad

Luckily, you won’t need many ingredients to create this incredible dressing for this signature cucumber salad! These are probably items you already have in your pantry. Here is what you’ll need for the marinade:

INGREDIENTS TIPS & SUBSTITUTIONS

CUCUMBERS
Try to use only Persian or English cucumbers for this recipe since they are sweeter, contain less water, and have a thinner skin than regular cucumbers

RICE VINEGAR
If you don’t have rice vinegar, you can substitute for red wine vinegar or distilled white vinegar for this recipe!

CHILI OIL
I love using a homemade chili oil for this recipe. Use my Sichuan Chili Oil Recipe for the chili oil for a wonderful spice!

Prepare the Cucumber Dressing

Din Tai Fung Cucumber Salad - CJ Eats Recipes (3)

To prepare the dressing, mix together light soy sauce, rice vinegar, sugar, grated garlic, chili oil, and sesame oil. Whisk them together and your dressing is ready!

What Type of Cucumber Should You Use For the Din Tai Fung Cucumber Salad?

For this recipe, I recommend using either Persian or English cucumbers for a few reasons:

  • They are seedless. I personally do not like seeds in my cucumber salads and try to remove them when possible.
  • Persian and English cucumbers are typically sweeter and contain less water than regular cucumbers. This will result in a more crisp salad when marinated in the dressing!

You can find either of these types of cucumbers in your local market and they should be readily available. If for some reason you can’t find either of these types of cucumbers, regular cucumbers will work as well.

Prepare Your Cucumbers

Begin preparing your cucumbers by slicing them into 1/2″ rounds. Once your cucumbers are uniformly sliced, place them in a bowl and mix the cucumbers with salt, then let them sit for 30 minutes. Next, rinse off the salt and pat them as dry as possible with a kitchen or paper towel.

The salt will help to draw out excess moisture for the cucumbers through osmosis which will result in a more crisp vegetable.

Marinate Your Cucumbers

Din Tai Fung Cucumber Salad - CJ Eats Recipes (4)

Once the cucumbers are as dry as possible, add them to the dressing and mix them well to get each piece coating in that delicious dressing. Let them sit in the marinade for at least 10 minutes then stack them up and enjoy!

If you are making these cucumbers ahead of time, make sure to transfer them into an air tight storage container up to 2-3 days in advance.

RECIPE TIPS

SLICING THE CUCUMBER
Try to be as uniform as possible when slicing the cucumbers. I prefer 1/2″ rounds, but you could go as thin as 1/4″ rounds as well. The uniform slicing will help with stacking and presentation!

STORAGE
You can make this cucumber salad 2-3 days ahead of time! Make sure to store them in the fridge in an air tight container with the dressing.

Din Tai Fung Cucumber Salad - CJ Eats Recipes (5)

Garnish Your Din Tai Fung Cucumber Salad

Once the cucumbers are stacked beautifully, the final step is to add an additional drop of chili oil to each cucumber for that pop of color and spice! Serve and enjoy!

If you liked this Din Tai Fung Cucumber Salad recipe, check out some of the most popular recipes on the blog! Please consider leaving a review and letting me know your thoughts about the recipe. It really helps out the blog!

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Din Tai Fung Cucumber Salad

By: Chris Joe

Servings: 4

Prep: 30 minutes mins

Cook: 10 minutes mins

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Din Tai Fung Cucumber Salad - CJ Eats Recipes (6)

This copycat Din Tai Fung cucumber salad is crisp and marinated in a sweet and spicy dressing!

Ingredients

US CustomaryMetric

Instructions

  • Chop cucumbers into ½” rounds and place in a large bowl with salt for 30 minutes. Rinse off the salt with water and place them on a paper towel. Pat the cucumbers as dry as possible.

  • In a bowl, mix together soy sauce, rice vinegar, sugar, grated garlic, chili oil and sesame oil.

  • Add your dry cucumbers to the bowl and mix with the dressing to combine. Let marinate for 10 minutes and enjoy!

Additional Info

Course: Side Dish

Cuisine: Chinese, French

Tried this recipe?Mention @cj.eats_ or tag #cjeatsrecipes!

Din Tai Fung Cucumber Salad - CJ Eats Recipes (7)

About CJ

I’m a third generation Chinese-American home cook who has always loved cooking & eating! Welcome to my food blog, where you can find trusted, tested, easy & approachable recipes for the everyday home cook that taste delicious! I am so glad you're here!

Read more about me

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Din Tai Fung Cucumber Salad - CJ Eats Recipes (2024)

FAQs

What vinegar do they use at Din Tai Fung? ›

What kind of vinegar is at Din Tai Fung? On each table at DTF there are 3 condiments. Black vinegar, soy sauce and their delicious Din Tai Fung chili oil. Once you have ordered, you will also get a small plate with fresh ginger and little bowls.

Is Chinese vinegar the same as regular vinegar? ›

Rice vinegar and white vinegar are both acidic, but there are two key differences between the preparation and flavor. White vinegar is made by fermenting grain alcohol, while rice vinegar is made from fermented rice. Rice vinegar is less tangy and acidic than white vinegar, with a subtle sweetness.

Is Chinese Vinegar the same as vinegar? ›

No, not at all. Chinese vinegar is usually a dark colored vinegar made from fermented black or glutinous rice, often with other grains, like sorghum, wheat or barley. It is mild with a malty, slightly sweet flavor.

What not to mix cucumbers with? ›

Therefore, most of the time, the combination of cucumber and tomato is advised to be avoided. Additionally, they both have a completely different way of digestion, so this combination must be avoided as it can lead to stomach upset."

What are the ingredients in a cucumber? ›

Raw cucumber (with peel) is 95% water, 4% carbohydrates, 1% protein, and contains negligible fat. A 100-gram (3+1⁄2-ounce) reference serving provides 65 kilojoules (16 kilocalories) of food energy. It has a low content of micronutrients: it is notable only for vitamin K, at 16% of the Daily Value (table).

What kind of vinegar is used for dumplings? ›

Chinese Black Vinegar – I use Chinkiang vinegar, which is fragrant, slightly sweet, and the right amount of sour. As you explore my blog and check out some of my other recipes, you'll see that I use this ingredient A LOT.

What kind of vinegar to put on dumplings? ›

You'll want a white rice vinegar here, not anything labeled black. Tangy, spicy chile-garlic sauce is a staple condiment that contains not much more than red chiles, garlic, rice vinegar, and salt. Sort of a chunky version of sriracha, it's often used by itself as a dipping sauce.

What kind of vinegar do you use for soup dumplings? ›

Black Vinegar for Soup Dumplings

They're also the most traditional way of enjoying soup dumplings, alongside thin slices of fresh ginger.

What is the vinegar at Dim Sum? ›

It is popular in the north of China as a dipping sauce, particularly for dumplings. A bottle of Zhenjiang vinegar. Another type of Chinese "black vinegar" is Zhenjiang vinegar (simplified Chinese: 镇江香醋; traditional Chinese: 鎭江香醋; pinyin: zhènjiāng xiāngcù) and similar condiments from southern China.

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