Spiralised Honey and Garlic Cucumber Salad

Release yourself from the salad rut, friend! Whip out that dusty ol’ spiraliser I know you got languishing, and LET’S HAVE SOME FREAKIN FUN.

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I’ve figured out that if I keep my spiraliser out of its box, front-and-centre on my kitchen counter, I’m more inclined to use it. There are many, many (sooo many) days when a hunk of lettuce and a handful of cherry tomatoes suffice as salad for my fam, but I also like to occasionally not be dull and live my best #saladlife.

Enter the spiraliser. It’s like instant salad pizazz. I’m not the biggest fan of sweet potato or zucchini zoodles…but spiralised cucumber? With a crazy delicious dressing??

GIVE. ME.

The dressing for this zesty, zingy babe is simple—it works on the cardinal flavour rule that a mouth party should consist of a little sweet, a little salty, a little tang, and maybe even a little punch. So…manuka honey, sea salt, lemon, garlic and black pepper. Easssssy, right?

My spiraliser BFF is this beauty, heavy duty, with five different blades—so you can create ribbons instead of ‘noodles’, for example—plus suction cups to keep the device sturdy while you work.

I Don’t Have a Spiraliser! Now What?

No worries! I gotchu! Grab your vegetable peeler and thinly shave the cucumber into ribbons (just as tasty and pretty), OR, using a sharp knife, julienne the vegetable by cutting it into ultra thin strips. (If you go the julienne route, simply cut the strips into matchstick lengths afterwards.)

One more thing—DO NOT be tempted to skip the salting and draining of the cucumber. This step is essential to making your salad a showstopper, and not bowl of watery green stuff! Cucumbers are loaded with water, and while this is what makes them so refreshing on their own, the second you add a dressing containing any kind of salt, all that liquid will be drawn out, and puddle around your food, making it soggy, and diluting the flavours.

Now that you have zero excuse to make a sexy AF salad, let’s move on to making the sexy AF salad, shall we?

SPIRALISED HONEY AND GARLIC CUCUMBER SALAD

Total Time: 35 minutes
Yield: server 4 1x

Print Recipe

DescriptionYum

Crunchy, sweet, and zingy—let’s level-up your summer salad into something SPECTACULAR with cucumber, garlic, lemon and honey.

Scale

Ingredients

1 large cucumber, spiralised into noodles
Pinch sea salt, plus more for seasoning

Dressing—

Juice of a lemon
1/4 cup olive oil (rapeseed is good, too, for a milder flavour)
1 fat clove garlic, minced
Small handful fresh mint leaves
3 generous tsp Manuka honey (plain is also ok)
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

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Instructions

Place your cucumber in a sieve and press firmly to strain any water. Add pinch of salt and leave to stand for 30 minutes.
While cucumber is draining, briskly mix together all dressing ingredients with a fork. Taste. Add salt, or more pepper, according to preference.
Finally, squeeze cucumber again to drain remaining liquid and pat dry with a clean tea towel or paper towel. Pour over dressing, massaging in with fingers.
Devour.