Are you looking for something refreshing, light, healthy, and cold cold cold? Yes, how about a cold cucumber side dish? In Korean it’s called oi-naengguk and it’s perfect for summer! The thin cucumber matchsticks soaked in icy cold, sweet, sour, salty, and garlicky brine will please your appetite. The cold temperature is a nice surprise and the crispy but soft texture of the cucumber is wonderful.
A great thing about this side dish is that you can make it in 5 minutes, and you don’t need to cook anything at all. Just cut the ingredients and mix.
Make this in the summer time, and I guarantee everyone will love it. My cookbook co-writer, Lauren, learned how to make this when she was recipe testing, and got a ton of stars from her family when she served it. They are all fans of oi-naengguk now, and when the book was done Lauren told me it’s one of her favorite Korean dishes. I was surprised!
I originally posted an oi-naengguk video years ago, but this one is a little updated and is a vegetarian version, and the video is HD. If you’re looking for the old one, it’s still here.
Ingredients (serves 4)
- 1 large English cucumber (12 ounces) or 2 to 3 kirby cucumbers, chilled
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 green onion, chopped
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh red chili pepper (optional)
- 1½ teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 4 teaspoons vinegar
- 5-6 cherry tomatoes, sliced (optional)
- 1 cup cold water
- 7-8 ice cubes (1 cup)
- 1- 2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds, ground
Directions
- Cut the cucumber into 3 inch long thin matchsticks and put them into a chilled mixing bowl.
- Add garlic, green onion, and red chili pepper (if used).
- Add the salt, soy sauce, sugar, and vinegar. Mix well, gently with a spoon until the salt and sugar are well dissolved.
- Add the water, ice cubes, and the sliced tomato (if you use), and gently mix with a spoon.
- Put the sesame seeds powder on top, scoop out 4 portions into individual bowls, and serve right away with rice.
Maangchi's Amazon picks for this recipe
It's always best to buy Korean items at your local Korean grocery store, but I know that's not always possible so I chose these products on Amazon that are good quality. See more about how these items were chosen.
Thank you so much for this recipe. My mother, who is usually very critical of my cooking, just came home for a visit. I knew she liked cold soup and had a couple of pickling cukes laying around. Whipped this up in no time (added just a scootch less sugar b/c she doesn’t like anything tasting remotely sweet) and served it up. I had been tempted to add more vinegar b/c I’m a vinegar fiend, but I made myself follow everything else to the tea and…..she loved it! Made three comments about how good it was while we were eating. We had other (storebought) banchan on the table, but she ate almost nothing else but her rice and this soup. It felt good to do something for her that she enjoyed.
You made my day! Awesome compliment! I love your mom. lol
Hi Maangchi, it looks very nice! I wonder what if I dont have fish sauce? :D
Like Maangchi said,you could use salt instead of fish sauce:)
Thank you, Brigitte!
Hey Maangchi!
I’ve made this recipe 2 times before. The first time I used cucumbers, and the second time, I substituted the cucumbers for seaweed. It’s okay that I didn’t cook it right? Eating raw seaweed is okay as long as I washed it well right? o.O
Anyways, I plan on making this again with both seaweed and cucumbers. The last time I made it, my dad finished all of it! He was surprised when I told him that I made it ;]
Thanks for this recipe~ I’ll be looking forward to your next recipe that you will share with us!
Of course you can add miyuk to this cold soup that I used in my miyukguk and miyuk salad recipe. http://www.howcast.com/videos/50451-Seaplant-Soup-Miyuk-Guk
I usually blanch miyuk before making naengguk (cold soup) or miyukmuchim (miyuk salad).
My family loves your oi-naengguk! My husband is pretty picky about his Korean food and he thought this would be good enough to sell at a restaurant. I also made your naeng-myun this week, and my family loves oi-naengguk so much we use that for mul naeng-myun broth. It’s delicious!
That’s a great idea! Cold oinaengguk and noodles sounds good!
https://www.maangchi.com/recipe/oi-naengguk
Hello Maangchi,
I was practicing driving a stick shift with an empty stomach and no A/C (need to listen to the engine), I was ‘overheated’ that I felt dizzy and my heart of beating rapidly. (>100 degrees here in Arizona)
I made Oi Naeng guk for supper. It was so refreshing and cooled my body down. I reduced the vinegar into 1 tbs, since I cannot endure much sourness.
I pre-chopped the garlic and preserved them in oil once the garlic arrived home.
The oil which sticks to the minced garlic floats on the surface of the naeng guk, which I don’t think it’s pretty. Therefore, I did not take a picture of it.
I enjoyed the naeng guk, and I’d like to thank you for the recipe.
Agasuka, It’s been a long time to hear from you! But I know you are reading my website. : )
Yes, you chose a perfect side dish to help you recover from dizziness! I should make oinaengguk tomorrow!
hi maangchi~ i would want to try this with pepper flakes in it. how much should i put in? thanks~~
I would use 1 ts of hot pepper flakes.
Mix it well with other ingredients before pouring water into the bowl
I had some leftover oi naengguk in the fridge, but my wife accidentally put it in the blender! :O It was still very good, though. I think I may even like it better.
I just made the cold cucumber soup and it was excellent not to mention a very fast dish. I love cold sour soups. I frequent a Korean restaurant in the Chicago area called Woo Lae Oak. They often have a cold radish soup that is a clear salty and sour liquid with daikon radish. I love it. Can’t seem to find a recipe for this soup anywhere. Do you have one?
Thanks for the great recipe! Jon
Great! you like oinaengguk recipe! The water kimchi you tasted in the restaurant must be “dongchimi”. It’s included in the list of my upcoming recipes. Thank you!
I’m using your recipe to teach English to Korean moms. We’ll see how it goes. We’re going to learn some cooking vocabulary!
You must be a good teacher and also interested in cooking!
Let me know how your class is going. I think your students will have fun during the class!
My class went okay. Recently I made this at home. It’s so easy to make! I love it!
Thank you for your update!
haha, you are so cute in your video!!!
I can’t wait to try this recipe especially since it’s so hot now and I have lots of cucumbers. =) Hopefully, the “normal” (non-English) variety works as well!
Thanks for sharing!
-Diane
yeah, you remind me of oinaenguk. I should make it soon for myself. ; )
I made galbi tonight and made this soup to go with it. It was FANTASTIC! I haven’t had this since I left Korea 6 years ago, but it was just as I remembered. Excellent recipe! Thank you so much. I enjoy all of your recipes and videos and am so grateful to you for all the work you do here! (^o^)
I hope you can read my message. oinaenguk is very refreshing food, isn’t it?
Tracy,
haha, nice! Actually you can put some cooked noodles and eat it as cold noodles.
Pasi,
Thank you for your nice comment.
This recipe is a masterpiece, and I can understand the woman! Thanks a lot for sharing. This is Quick, Easy and OH SO GOOD! I combined it with warm sake to create an interesting temperature difference.
Hi Maangchi I just wanted to let you know that I tried this recipe for the first time today and it was delicious the recipe calls for two servings but I found myself eating the whole thing hehe. The flavour reminded me of vietnamese cuisine. I love all your recipes and your videos. Korean food has always been fascinating to me and thanks to your help I can now cook korean right at home for my family! Thanks Maangchi :)
anny from Athens,
adding extra chilly flakes sounds good! : )
Just wanted to say thank you for the excellent recipes!!!
I know it’s winter now, but it was a sunny warm day today, and I was doing some gardening. I made this soup, because I needed something refreshing and spicy to pick me up! I added extra red chilly flakes, and it was good!!!
Keep up the good work Maangchi! Kisses from sunny Athens/Greece!
sweetmilky,
Yes, you should steam it.
Hi Maangchi! I love to see your cooking videos. You make korean cooking very easy for me^^, At first, I thought preparing korean dish is quite difficult but it’s not. Thanks to you^^,
bdw, I wonder how would I prepare the eggplant for naengguk. Do I have to boil the eggplant and add it to naengguk or it’s just fresh eggplant?
Again, congratulations for a job well done Maangchi!^^,
Wow Maangchi, thanks so much for the quick reply. I can’t wait till you post your versions of those recipes!!!
tha,
oh, the cucumber side dish you had is very easy to make.
Slice English cucumber thinly and sprinkle some salt. Remove water from the salted cucumber 10 minutes later and squeeze it slightly. In a bowl, put some minced garlic, hot pepper paste and powder, vinegar, sugar and mix it. Then add the sliced cucumber to the bowl and mix it. Sprinkle some sesame seeds and sesame oil.
My cucumber side dish doesn’t use vinegar. I will post the recipe someday later.
The recipe for fish cake side dish will be posted later, too.
Thanks a lot!
Hi Maangchi! I love your website!!
I’m just wondering if you knew the recipe for making a side dish that I see a lot in Korean restaurants. The side dish is cucumbers and it’s sweet and also has red spicy sauce. I think it’s with vinegar and sugar. I keep trying to find the recipe online but I only find the recipe for KIMCHI CUCUMBER, which is NOT the same.
Also, I love the fishcake that they often serve with the above mentioned side dish. Do you have any recipes for those? Thank you!!! keep up the great work!
thank you very and god bless u ;)
Allo allo Myla!
You can use either white vinegar or apple vinegar. I love the flavor of apple vinegar.
Hi, thanks for the recipe, but can i use a white vinegar or just an apple vinegar?
Jennifer,
oh, interesting! yeah, we always see similar food between different cultures. Thanks!
Maangchi,
This reminds me of my moms cooking, there’s a thai salad called ” Som tum taeng” using cucumbers it’s the same way to make “oi neanggkok” but you shred the cucumbers and don’t add water or ice cubes.
Cloud,
You remind me of one of my blog readers. She said she has changed her diet to Korean food since she found my cooking videos on the internet and lost 75 pounds! I didn’t ask her weight though. : ) Anyway, you asked me to recommend healthy and low cal dish. Why don’t you make seaplant soup (miyuk guk in Korean ) My mother loves the soup. She makes it at least twice a week!
Wow, will try this next time :D Sounds like a low-cal dish, haha. Maangchi, could you recommend me some low-cal dishes I could cook during a diet? I just got interested in Korean cooking, but I really need to lose some weight -_- 제발요~
haha, you got some engergy! : )
I just made some and ate it.. I used following this recipe. I left over cucember from a salad I made that I didn’t use. I feel like I have energy from eating it lol My only thing s I forgot to put salt. But it was good! had some thai chili peppers so I used those in the soup too.
I will definitely get the right peppers next time. Thanks for the recipe, Maangchi!
En,
As long as you emptied it all, who would care! : ) But next time you should try to follow the recipe exactly.
You will see the difference.
I made this in a bad mood today – and now I’m in a good mood! Unfortunately, I was in a pinch. I had to substitute the hot red pepper with red pepper flakes and the green pepper with a couple of chopped green olives. It ended up tasting like olives ^_^ Not bad, overall~~ At least it looked okay!
…and no one can tell now that I’ve ate it all *ha!ha!*
I promise I’ll try this with eggplant some time.
As long as it is made with fresh, good quality ingredients and proper cooking methods, it is gourmet food to me! And most of all, made with love!!!
Thats soo true!