What Is The Viral Cucumber Salad? How To Make It Vegan

It was recently reported that a viral TikTok video showcasing a cucumber salad recipe had led to a shortage of the fruit in Iceland.

TikToker Logan Moffitt posted the video in question. Known as the “cucumber guy,” Moffit posts a range of cucumber recipes on his page. Each recipe sees him cut up a whole cucumber with a mandoline and mix a wide variety of ingredients in a tupperware tub. “Sometimes, you need to eat an entire cucumber,” is Moffitt’s catchphrase.

Farmers in Iceland reportedly struggled to keep up with surging demand, and supermarket shelves were left empty of the fruit. (It’s worth noting that this shortage may not be entirely related to TikTok, as an Icelandic food product manager told the BBC that such shortages are relatively common at this time of year).

Even so, there’s no doubt that cucumber salads are seeing a surge of interest in many new markets across the world, and that 2024 seems to be cucumber’s time to shine.

Vegan cucumber salads

According to reports, the video that caused the shortage in Iceland saw Moffit create a version of the type of cucumber salads that are popular in some Asian cuisines, including Chinese, Korean, Thai, and Japanese. These salads tend to be naturally plant-based, and the staple ingredients often include sesame oil, soy sauce, and rice vinegar (Moffat added fish sauce to his, but most traditional recipes are naturally vegan).

To make a vegan version of Moffit’s salad, you’ll need to mix together cucumber, soy sauce, sesame oil, MSG, rice wine vinegar, garlic, sugar, chilli oil, toasted sesame seeds, and spring onions. You’ll have to omit the fish sauce, or you could take your pick from the wide variety of vegan fish sauces substitutes available. At the end of the video, he eats his salad with kimchi, seaweed, and tofu slices.

If you’d like to try a different recipe, there are a wide range of cucumber salad recipes available online, which you can adapt to suit your personal taste.

A cucumber salad recipe in a white bowl next to some chili oil — BOSH! Cucumber salads are eaten in many countries in the world

This smashed cucumber salad from Lisa Lin (who runs the recipe blog Healthy Nibbles) uses vegan ingredients like raw garlic, minced ginger, kosher salt, and chilli flakes. Her recipe talks you through the different kinds of cucumbers available, and she recommends using Japanese cucumber for her vegan cucumber salad recipe. Christie Lai, who runs the blog Christie at Home, uses Persian cucumbers for her spicy cucumber salad. It requires just a select few ingredients, including soy sauce, rice vinegar, sugar, and green onions. If you’re an avocado fan, this BOSH! smashed cucumber salad recipe – also complete with green peppers – will be just up your alley.