8 recipes to level up your cucumber salad, including smashed, sliced and chopped

Smacked Cucumber in Garlicky Sauce (Suan Ni Pai Huan Gua). A sauce including garlic, soy sauce, Chinkiang (black) vinegar and Sichuan pepper electrify the otherwise mellow cucumber. The recipe is from Fuchsia Dunlop’s “Every Grain of Rice,” one of the entries in our free Essential Cookbooks newsletter. Why smack (or smash) your cucumbers? As food writer and recipe developer Ali Slagle explains, “With a few whacks of a cleaver, skillet, rolling pin or some other heavy device, the cucumber is broken up into irregular pieces. Some spots stay firm, while others give and soften. In those irregular crags, dressing can nestle.” See Smacked Cucumber Salad for a slightly different version.