Looking for a fresh and simple side or topping for your summer meals? Try this delicious spicy cucumber salsa recipe!
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Spicy Cucumber Salsa: Helpful Hints & Tips
In the summer months, we find ourselves craving fresh veggies and fruits while they’re in season. Three or four years ago, I found and tried this recipe from The Small Things, and have modified it over the years as we have continued to make it. Today, I’m sharing our version of a spicy cucumber salsa recipe! We’ve used it simply as a salsa, but Kurtis also loves it topped on hot dogs and brats, or it could also be chopped in larger pieces to make a side salad.
Most of this recipe is rather fluid, and can be modified to your preferred taste and how you’ll be using it. For example, as salsa or relish/topping, we prefer the pieces to be diced. But if you’re looking to use it as a salad or prefer a chunkier salsa, I would chop the pieces larger. This veggie chopper is a game changer for this recipe, and makes the steps go much more quickly. It also allows for your bites and the pieces to be much more uniform! We also love using our metal lime squeezer to get maximum juice out of our limes.
Or if you prefer a really spicy salsa, add an extra jalapeno. Don’t love red onions? Cut the amount back to one half. No matter how we’ve made it, we’ve always really enjoyed it!
We make this so often year round (but especially in the summer months), I’ve created a shortcut shopping list here for all the ingredients. You can add or subtract items as needed but then simply add all to cart to simplify the process. For example, I rarely need the olive oil or salt since we have it on hand, so I’ll delete those two items, but then quickly add the rest for my pick up order! Let’s jump to the recipe.
Spicy Cucumber Salsa Recipe
Spicy Cucumber Salsa
Equipment
- Veggie Chopper optional
- Citrus Press optional
Ingredients
- 2-3 Cucumbers We prefer the organic English cucumbers
- 1 Red Onion
- 1 Jalapeno
- 1/4 cup Cilantro, packed roughly chopped
- 1/2 Lime, squeezed If the lime is small, use the juice of the full lime
- 1 tbsp Olive Oil
- Salt to taste We will typically sprinkle some garlic salt in, as well
Instructions
- Chop/dice the cucumbers and red onion to the preferred size. We like them diced small for salsa or chopped a bit larger for a salad. Dice the jalapenos for either method, removing the seeds if you don't want it spicy. Adjust the amount of seeds you include based upon how spicy you want the salsa.
- Stir all the veggies and cilantro together in a large bowl.
- Add the lime juice and olive oil and mix well. Allow to sit for a few minutes.
- Add salt to taste. We are fairly generous with the salt on this one and will also shake in garlic salt for a slightly different flavor profile.
- Cover and refrigerate for an hour or so before serving for best flavor. We will add additional salt if necessary.
- Serve with your favorite tortilla chips (we love the cantina style) or use as a topping on your favorite summer meals.
We’ve found that when we’ve served it at a party, people are intrigued by the ingredients and will try it. Then we’ll continue to get comments about how good it is, and it tends to be one of the first things to go! It’s always a surpise hit and I hope you all love this recipe as much as we do!
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