Oi Muchim (Korean Cucumber Salad)

Crisp, fresh cucumbers in a pleasantly spicy marinade: that’s Oi Muchim, a Korean cucumber salad. “Oi” means cucumber, while “Muchim” can be roughly translated as “spicy.” The cucumber salad gets its delicious spiciness from gochujang, a Korean paste made from red chilies. The flavor profile here is not only characterized by spiciness, but also a sweetness.
For the salad, I used Persian cucumbers: These are also known as snack cucumbers and have hardly any watery seeds. If you want to prepare Oi Muchim with a cucumber, you should seed it first. This way the salad will be nice and crunchy and not watery.
The Oi Muchim will keep for a few days in the refrigerator, but will become a little less crunchy with time. It goes well with a portion of rice.
Have fun cooking it!
Oi Muchim (Korean Cucumber Salad)
Ingredients
- 3 Persian cucumbers alternatively 1 English cucumber, deseeded
- salt
- 2 tsp gochujang
- 1 tbsp rice vinegar
- 1 tsp sesame oil
Instructions
- Cut the cucumbers into fine slices. Season with salt and leave to soak for at least 30 minutes. Then rinse thoroughly with fresh water.
- Mix the cucumbers with all the other ingredients. The salad keeps for a few days in the refrigerator and is the ideal side dish for rice or other Asian dishes.