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This Cucumber Salad has all the flavors of a California roll but in a low-carb, no fuss bowl! It takes less than 10 minutes to make and is prepared all in one container, meaning virtually no mess!
I can’t even begin to tell you how much I love this California Roll Cucumber Salad. I saw the viral video on TikTok a few months ago and I have made it a least a dozen times since. Not even joking, as I was sitting down, writing this post, I stopped to take a lunch break and made it once again. Just writing about it made me crave it and I had to have it! It really does taste like a California roll in salad form and it has instantly become my favorite low-carb lunch.
What’s not to love about cucumber salad? It’s light, crisp, refreshing, and low-carb! Whether it’s the classic cucumber salad with vinegar and sliced onion, the fancy Din Tai Fung cucumber salad, spicy cucumber salad, creamy cucumber salad, Thai cucumber salad, or this fun and flavorful California roll variety, I’m here for it.
Key Ingredients
Cucumber – English cucumbers or Persian cucumbers (aka mini seedless cucumbers) work best for this recipe. They are crisp and not as watery as regular cucumbers. The skin is also thinner and mild so there is no need for peeling.
Imitation Crab – You can either use the flake crab or crab sticks. I like using flake-style the best because I like how it tears apart but it really doesn’t make a huge difference. Of course you can always use real crab meat but that will make for a pretty expensive cucumber salad.
Avocado – This adds a creaminess to the salad. Depending on how soft or firm your avocado is you will either end up with avocado pieces incorporated into your salad or the avocado will mash up and come part of the dressing.
Carrot – You can use shredded carrot or lately, my favorite way to add carrot is by using a vegetable peeler to make long strips of thin carrot and cutting the strips into 2-3 inch pieces. This almost gives the carrots kind of a noodle consistency and adds a fun, different texture to the salad overall.
Creamy Dressing – The dressing for this salad is made from mayonnaise, whipped cream cheese, soy sauce, and rice vinegar. No need to combine them separately. Just add them all to the container separately and the dressing will form when the salad is shaken.
Toppings – I love adding a sprinkling of furikake both to the salad before it is shaken and over the top to finish it off. Furikake is a dry Japanese seasoning, typically consisting of sesame seeds and seaweed and adds a savory flavor to rice or other popular dishes. I’m a big fan of spice so I will always add a good amount of sriracha or sriracha mayo over the top (and sometimes both). I also like to add some chopped green onion over the top for color and flavor. All of these combined take this salad over the top!
How to Make California Roll Cucumber Salad
- Start by slicing the cucumber into thin slices. You can do this with a mandoline or a sharp knife. If using Persian cucumbers you can slice them thicker because they are so small.
- Add the cucumbers to a 32-ounce plastic lidded container. They should fill the container about half way.
- Add crab, avocado, carrot, and dressing ingredients to the container and shake it all up (this is the fun part). Keep shaking until all the ingredients are covered in the creamy dressing.
- You can either add the toppings to the container and enjoy directly from the container or pour the salad into a bowl and add toppings over the top.
My Favorite Container to Use
I have tested out several different containers for this recipe and these 32-ounce Plastic Deli Containers from Amazon are my favorite by far. They are heavy duty and can be washed and reused over and over. I honestly have yet to throw one away. I use them as salad shakers (like in this recipe), leftover containers, drink cups, and even crayon holders. They are relatively cheap and I promise you, you will find a million different uses for them. Random side note: These really do make the best drink cups. Use this straw hole puncher to poke a hole in the lid and put a thick straw through it. It is the best poolside/backyard drink cup ever.
Ways to Serve
Let be honest here, most of the time you will find me eating this salad right out of container. It doesn’t look pretty (as you can see from the picture below) but it still tastes amazing! It get’s the job done when I am just wanting a quick lunch with no mess. I will only add it to a bowl if I am sharing and I want it to look pretty. I do love adding a scoop to a seaweed square and eating it like a taco. This makes it taste even more like a California roll and it is so. good.
Tips and Suggestions
Can’t finish it all? This makes a good amount of salad and I don’t think I have ever been able to finish an entire container in one sitting. Since it is already in a storage container, simply pop the lid back on and store it in the fridge for 1-2 days (any longer and the avocado will brown and the cucumbers will get too watery).
Keep the avocado from mashing – If you prefer larger, firm pieces of avocado instead of having the avocado mash into the dressing you can always gently stir in the avocado after it has all been shaken up. It just depends on what kind of texture you are wanting. Either way it will taste the same.
No whipped cream cheese? – Whipped cream cheese is ideal because it will incorporate best. However, if you don’t have any on hand, you can use regular softened cream cheese (it must be softened) and whip it in with the mayonnaise before adding. Make sure there are no clumps at all. Using an electric mixer is best so you can get out all the lumps.
Make It Gluten Free – The only things in this recipe that contains gluten are the soy sauce and sometimes the furikake. Luckily this is an easy fix. Simply use GF soy sauce and you are good to go! Furikake is hit-or-miss when it comes to being GF. Some brands use soy sauce or maltodextrin in their mixture so double check the label just to be sure. Trader Joe’s, Pono Hawaiian, and Muso Organic all are gluten-free or have gluten-free varieties.
More Easy Summer Salads
Love summer salads as much as we do? Here are some of our favorite refreshing salads that are perfect for summer lunches or as a side dish for potlucks or backyard BBQs:
BBQ Chicken Salad
Salmon Caesar Salad
Elote Pasta Salad
Crab Salad
Caprese Salad with Cherry Tomatoes
More Cucumber Salad Recipes
California Roll Cucumber Salad
Equipment
- 32-ounce plastic lidded container (see notes above)
Ingredients
- 1 English cucumber
- 1/2 cup chopped imitation crab meat
- 1/2 avocado (diced)
- 1/2 cup shredded carrot
- 1/3 cup whipped cream cheese
- 2 tablespoons mayonnaise
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons rice vinegar
- 2 teaspoons furikake (divided, optional or to taste)
- seaweed squares or Nori (optional, to taste)
- sriracha and/or sriracha mayo (to taste)
- sliced green onion (for garnish)
Instructions
- Using a mandoline or sharp knife, slice cucumber into thin slices.
- Place cucumber slices into a 32 ounce plastic lidded container or any shakeable container with a lid. The cucumbers should take up about half of the container when gently pressed down. Add crab meat, avocado and carrots.
- Top with whipped cream cheese, mayonnaise, soy sauce, rice vinegar and half of the furikake and place lid tightly over the container.
- Shake well until ingredients are combined. It's not the prettiest at this point but it is delicious! Sprinkle remaining furikake over the top, or to taste and enjoy directly out of the container.
- Optional: If you want to make it prettier for serving, pour the contents out into a serving bowl and top with additional cucumbers (if you have any extra that didn't fit in the container), and a drizzle of sriracha and/or sriracha mayo. I also like to garnish with a little extra furikake and some sliced green onion.
