Snacks

Viral cucumber salad

Name: Viral cucumber salad
Prep time: 10 min
Total time: 10 min
Yield: 2 servings
Ingredients: 1 large cucumber cucumber, sliced paper-thin (mandoline); 1/4 tsp salt; 1 stalk green onion, sliced; 2 cloves garlic, grated; 2 tbsp rice vinegar; 1 tbsp soy sauce; 2 tsp sesame oil; 1 tsp honey; 1 tsp red pepper flakes; 2 tsp sesame seeds; 80 g smoked salmon, torn

The deli-container salad that made a whole cucumber a snack format: ribboned cucumber in a punchy sesame-soy dressing. Nearly all water and crunch — with smoked salmon it turns into a real light meal.

Time: 10 min (10 prep + 0 cook)
Servings: 2
Per serving: 157 kcal
Protein: 10 g

Both directions are legitimate — the score measures fullness per calorie, not virtue. Every version is the same dish, rebalanced.

Ingredients

1 large cucumber cucumber, sliced paper-thin (mandoline)400 g
1/4 tsp salt2 g
1 stalk green onion, sliced15 g

Dressing

2 cloves garlic, grated6 g
2 tbsp rice vinegar30 g
1 tbsp soy sauce15 g
2 tsp sesame oil8 g
1 tsp honey5 g
1 tsp red pepper flakes2 g
2 tsp sesame seeds6 g

80 g smoked salmon, torn (optional)80 g

Every ingredient links to its food page — same data, same score, same formula.

Steps

Slice the cucumber as thin as you can — a mandoline (or the viral deli-container shake method) makes it right.
Salt the slices and let them sit 5 minutes, then pour off the released water.
Whisk the dressing ingredients, pour over, and toss with the green onion.
Add the smoked salmon for the meal version. Best eaten within the hour, cold.

Why this score

Protein26% of calories

65/100

Low energy density65 kcal per 100 g

79/100

Fiber12 g per 1000 kcal

29/100

Hyper-palatabilityno engineered pattern detected

−0%

Computed on the finished dish, not an average of the parts: 315 kcal goes into the pot, 569 g of ingredients comes out as ~485 g of food → 65kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water, and energy density is the score's biggest lever — so we show the math. Full formula here.

The numbers

	Per serving (243 g)	Per 100 g
Energy	157 kcal	65 kcal
Protein	10.3 g	4.2 g
Fat	8.2 g	3.4 g
Carbohydrate	10.8 g	4.4 g
…of which sugars	5.8 g	2.4 g
Fiber	2.0 g	0.8 g
Sodium	1076 mg	444 mg

Computed from the ingredients' USDA data — nothing typed by hand. Every number is traceable, every score recomputable.

Photo: AI-generated. Nutrition and score are computed from the ingredients with the published formula — this recipe hasn't been kitchen-tested by us yet.