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Mama Cho and Chef Chris Cho — This is how you make oi muchim!

Spicy Cucumber Salad is an easy side dish that anyone can make. It’s literally a chop, dump, and mix recipe but it results in a spicy, savory, and fresh salad.

Why This Recipe Works

This recipe is from my mom. We are literally sharing how an OG Korean elder makes their “oi muchim”, which means “cucumber with seasoning”.
With that, the highlight of the dish is the natural flavors of the vegetables, enhanced by very minimal dressing.
It does not need gochujang and uses very little sugar compared to my Cucumber Banchan recipe. It’s equally good, but some may prefer to use fewer ingredients.

The Best Ingredients To Use

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We think the best cucumbers to make this with are Korean Cucumbers. It’s long, slender, and has fewer seeds which means lesser water content. This can be found in Hmart. However, Kirby cucumber or any that has fewer seeds is also a good substitute since it is easy to find.

Seasoning spicy cucumber salad with pepper flakes and sesame oil from Korea! — Mama Cho uses pepper flakes and sesame oil from Korea!

For the ingredients, my mom always uses organic pepper flakes and sesame oil from Korea. The reason why her dishes are always so much better is that she uses better products.

With that tip, you can make any dish better simply by using seasonings that are better quality.

How to Make Spicy Cucumber Salad?

Draining the cucumber — Drain the cucumber thoroughly

The #1 tip to making any Korean vegetable side dish or any kimchi is to use sea salt. This helps draw out moisture while retaining its CRISP.

Salt the cucumbers and leave them for 5 minutes. After, run it in the water once then drain. Do not wash it thoroughly, rather we are just removing the excess salt and water. Wipe the remaining moisture with a paper towel.

Mixing in onion, scallion, and chives in oi muchim — Mixing in onion, scallion, and chives

With this, you are ready to mix in all the other ingredients!

Gochugaru – These are Korean red pepper flakes. It is smoky, spicy, and sweet. It is quite a unique ingredient and I do not recommend switching it with any other regular chili flakes.
Fish Sauce – While we already salted the cucumbers, this is just a bit of umami to enhance the salad.
Sugar – Only use a small amount to balance all the latter flavors.
Sesame Oil and Sesame Seeds – Gives a nutty finish to the salad.

Additionally, add scallions, chives, and onion sliced into 2-inch pieces. This ensures that it is the same size as the cucumber so you can grab all these in one go!

This is not typical of other recipes you may see, but adding these vegetables makes it so much better. If you like green onion kimchi or chive kimchi, this is a quick way to have them too. Just beware of your breath after eating this dish, might smell like onion, kakaka~

Mix all these together by hand to give it that “sohn mat”. You can use gloves but make sure that every piece gets seasoned really well!

What to Eat with Oi Muchim?

This cucumber salad is savory enough to go with just a bowl of rice. My wifey loved eating this as a meal when she got home from work.

Nevertheless, this will be a big hit when you plan to do DIY Korean BBQ. If you want something easier, this also perfectly complements protein dishes like Chicken Teriyaki, Soybean Paste Pork Belly, and Bulgogi.

This is best consumed right away. But for any leftovers, store them in an air-tight container and in the fridge for not more than a week.

Other classic side dishes you might like:

Make sure to leave a rating, a comment, or tag me on Facebook, Instagram, or Tiktok when you chop them up! Yeobosayo!

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