Zesty Mango Spiralized Cucumber Salad and Spiralizer Salad Favorites!

 Zesty Mango Spiralized Cucumber Salad. Grab your spiralizer and make this light to Vegan Spiralized Cucumber Salad in less that 10 minutes! Sweet Mango, Ginger, Cucumber, Quinoa, and more.  Healthy, easy, gluten free. Plus 4 other Spiralizer Salad favorites to try!

Can we talk about how I’m sweating just writing this. Okay let’s not, but you get my point. Oh August in Texas is SO SO HOT! But, I am prepared. And in fact, I’ve felt pretty inspired in the spiralized cucumber salad department. And pretty obsessed with them lately, as well as all the mango. Can you tell? Either way, spiralizing is my “therapy” when I can’t bare the heat in the kitchen to really cook. And I LOVE cooking! My justification makes perfect sense, right? As does this Zesty Mango Spiralized Cucumber Salad. It’s summer at it’s finest and a vegan salad bowl that you will probably not share because you love it that much. Or at least I did.  Or maybe that’s the heat getting to my brain! Either way, you must must give it a whirl… swirl… spiral?  Yup.

So what’s a girl to do when your husband is gone for the night, you don’t want to turn on the oven, and you have all this mango and cucumber sitting in the fridge? Oh and leftover quinoa salad. Cause… leftovers are KEY!

Well… you make the perfect single servin summah spiralized salad. –> Say that 10 x fast.

For one, it pairs perfectly with a nice glass of crisp white wine. And two, it’s just soooo pretty. Does that count?

Pretty factors may not count “much” but flavor and ease do.

Before I boast more about this zesty salad (whoops, there I go again), let’s back up and the real questions.

Have you ever had a marinated cucumber salad before? Like the ones you get as an appetizer when you go out for sushi or Chinese food? THEY ARE THE BEST! The whole point of those Cucumber Salads (Sunomono) is to refresh and prepare your taste buds for more goodness to come. In Chinese cuisine, cucumber salads are a great cooling refresher between those spicy hot and bites! So yes, literally a refreshing bite.

But here in the south, one can’t live on just cucumber alone. And I am pretty sure my brains needs some gluten free carbs to keep functioning through summer.

Which is why we’re jazzin up this spiralized cucumber salad with a few extra fixins. Still staying cool and crisp, naturally.

Cooked quinoa, pumpkin seeds, dried tart cranberries, mango, balsamic vinegar, ginger zest, and a bit of olive or sesame oil.  Those are all the fixins and all you need to pair with one Texas size cucumber.

I’ll get more into why these fixins are functional in a minutes. But you see what I’m sayin here ya’ll? Simple ingredients, right in your pantry, made into EPICNESS.

Zesty Mango Ginger Spiralized Cucumber Salad for 1 or 2 small sides

Nutrition for ONE larger salad bowl.  

Notes -> Feel free to make this into two smaller salads which would be around 170 calories each.

If you are sensitive to sugars on insulin, reduce the carbohydrates/sugars by removing the dried fruit and quinoa and adding more pumpkin seeds for healthy fats. 

Now, what about function. Cucumber Salads must have some sort of other function beside simplicity and palate refreshers.

And here it its —> Runners, athletes, outdoor adventure seekers. –> Totally save this salad. It’s great for hydration and a boost of Vitamin C. Make it part of your post workout recovery meal to maximize that muscle repair! Especially if training is hot/humid conditions. Real fruit sugar (to refuel the glycogen in the muscle), real food, real nourishment EQUALS Happy healthy bodies that bounce back from workouts in no time! Yep, All in 10 minutes or less. .The salad that is. The recovery may take a bit longer. 😉

Alright friends, I think I bored you enough with my love for a new sweet cucumber salad and hydration talk, but hey, when that inspiration hits, you share. Am I right? Just agree. Spiralized salads are way too fun(ctional) and delicious not too obsess over. Amen!

Speaking of… here are more of my favorite spiralized salads to keep you cool as cucumber this summer. Ugh, I totally just hit my corny Cotter low. Stop me now.

Vegan Green Goddess Spiralized Potato Salad

Asian Crab and Avocado Spiralized Cucumber Salad

 Spicy Avocado Tuna Salad Sushi bowls with Spiralized Cucumber

Strawberry Zucchini Noodle Pasta Salad

I told you I am a wee bit obsessed with spiralized salads.

Cheers to Friday my friends. Go grab a cucumber and a mango and TANGO them.

Do you order cucumber salads at Asian restaurants?

PLEASE –> Hit me up with your go to spiralized recipe below. I want more. As always.

p.p.s

The spiralizer that I love and use weekly has about 4 different blades. It’s durable and cleans well. You can see it on my shop page or amazon.

Cheers,

 

Make it and tag me on INSTAGRAM, TWITTER, or Snapchat me Username CotterCrunch!