Thai Curry Cucumber Orzo Salad! Whether you’re looking for a light lunch or a colorful side dish, this recipe is sure to become a favorite for its quick assembly and irresistible flavor!

This Thai Curry Cucumber Orzo Salad is a vibrant celebration of bold flavors and fresh ingredients, perfect for brightening up any picnic, potluck, or casual dinner. The salad is bursting with the zesty aroma of Thai curry spices, complemented by crisp, cooling cucumbers, tender orzo pasta, hearty chickpeas, crunchy red bell peppers, and fresh green onions. Tossed in a savory Thai Curry dressing, this salad offers a delightful balance of heat, tang, and freshness that will elevate your summer menu.

Whole Food Plant Based, Vegan, plant based, oil free, refined sugar free, no highly processed ingredients and gluten free.

Hi there, Ameera here!

We devoured this Thai Curry Cucumber Orzo Salad in no time! It’s that good—so vibrant, flavorful, and satisfying. Once you take a bite, you’ll understand why it disappeared so fast at our table!

Trust me, you gotta give this one a try. It’s the perfect make-ahead dish that’s as easy to prepare as it is delicious. Whether you’re hosting a backyard barbecue or just craving something fresh and spicy, this Thai Curry Orzo Salad is guaranteed to impress your friends and family.

Tips for Success:

Flavor Profile: This Thai Curry Cucumber Orzo Salad is full of Thai Curry deliciousness. Cucumbers, chickpeas, tender orzo pasta, red bell peppers, and green onions are tossed in a tasty Thai Curry dressing.
Thickness of the Dressing: The dressing is somewhat runny, but not excessively. There will be some dressing lingering on the bottom, but sure to mix it in before serving. If you do not salt the cucumbers and thoroughly rinse and pat dry, the dressing will become overly watery.
Meal Prep: If you plan to meal prep this dish for later in the week, we suggest slicing the cucumbers to ¼ inch (4mm) as it will hold up better over time due to the cucumbers releasing their water.
Amount of Mini Cucumbers: We used one 16 oz. bag of mini cucumbers, this equated to approximately 8 mini cucumbers.
Thinly Sliced Cucumbers: We used our 2mm slicing blade (or approximately 1/8 inch) on our Cuisinart Food Processor for fast slicing. Slice them thinly but not paper thin. Salting them reduces the thickness by drawing out the water. You can opt to slice the cucumbers with a sharp knife is you do not want to pull out your food processor.
Salting the Cucumbers: Salting the cucumbers helps remove the water from the cucumbers ensuring that the cucumber slices do not release an excess amount of their water into the salad thereby watering it down. Do not skip this step. It also adds necessary flavor to the cucumbers.
Rinsing the Cucumbers: On the surface this seems counterproductive, but it gets rid of all the surface salt and leaves behind a slight salty flavor that is needed to flavor the cucumbers.
Patting Dry the Rinsed Cucumbers: Dump the rinsed cucumbers onto a clean, lint-free dish towel. Gently pat down the cucumbers to remove the water. Gently flip them around to continue to pat down the cucumbers until all the cucumbers are mostly dried.
Chickpeas Substitutions: You can pretty much substitute the chickpeas with your favorite white bean or leave them out completely and add a little more pasta.
Pasta: We used orzo pasta, you can use other small-cut pasta like couscous or elbows, etc.
Gluten Free Pasta: When using GF pasta, this recipe is best if eaten immediately after making as gluten free pasta tends to seize up and get a little crunchy after being refrigerated.
Amount of Pasta: Our family was divided over how much orzo pasta should be in this salad. We landed on ¾ dry cup as the middle-of-the-road amount, but this pasta dish could handle up to 1 cup of dry orzo pasta. Start on the low-side and build up from there.
Pasta Substitutions: Feel free to substitute the pasta for cooked rice or quinoa or leave it out altogether and add more cucumbers, beans, or other veggies.
Red Bell Pepper: Very finely dice the red bell pepper into a tiny dice. Do not make a paste or mince out of it, just very finely diced it for a great mouth-feel texture.
Amount of Pure Maple Syrup: Feel free to use less or add more.
Miso: The white miso paste adds a nice umami flavor to the dressing; however, it is not an essential ingredient. If you have it on hand, use it.
Thai Red Curry Paste: We used Thai Kitchen Red Curry Paste. We suggest Thai Kitchen Red Curry Paste for this recipe as other brands could possibly contain a lot of heat. Thai Kitchen has a lot of flavor with little to no heat. If not using Thai Kitchen, then start out on the very low end and build from there.
Table Salt: If using table salt, you should use less table salt than the amount listed in the ingredients as sea salt crystals are larger than table salt crystals. Since table salt crystals are very fine, less table salt is required to season a dish. We would suggest starting with about 1/4 to 1/2 the amount of sea salt listed. You can always add more salt but cannot take it away. We recommend using sea salt as it is less refined than table salt.

Leftovers and Freezing:

Leftovers will generally keep 4 days in the refrigerator. Store in a covered air-tight container.

This dish does not freeze well.

Pantry Products:

Sea Salt: Please adjust the sea salt based upon your family’s sea salt preferences and/or based upon dietary needs.

Kitchen Equipment:

Medium stockpot (to boil the pasta)
Food processor with slicing blade (optional)

If you try this flavorful salad, we would love to know if you enjoy it as much as we do! Please leave us a review! Post a picture on Facebook or Instagram and tag us! We would love to hear from you.

Thai Curry Cucumber Orzo Salad

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Author: Monkey and Me Kitchen Adventures
Prep Time: 30 Minutes
Total Time: 30 Minutes
Yield: 6 Cups 1x
Category: Salad
Cuisine: Thai Inspired
Diet: Vegan

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Description

This Thai Curry Cucumber Orzo Salad is a vibrant celebration of bold flavors and fresh ingredients, perfect for brightening up any picnic, potluck, or casual dinner.

Instructions

Place the thinly sliced mini cucumbers in a bowl, add the sea salt, mix well to evenly distribute the salt throughout the cucumbers, then place in the refrigerator for 15 minutes (or until Step 4).
Cook the pasta according to package directions, drain and rinse with cold water to thoroughly rinse off excess starches. Continue to rinse with cold water until the pasta is cold. Use a slotted spoon to flip the pasta around the colander. Then allow to thoroughly drain to remove any excess water. Set aside.
Place all the Dressing Ingredients into a small bowl, whisk well until all the ingredients are smooth and fully emulsified, refrigerate until ready to use.
Place the refrigerated cucumbers into a fine mesh strainer and thoroughly rinse the salted cucumbers with cold tap water, flipping them around until they have been thoroughly rinsed. Then place the rinsed cucumbers onto a clean, lint-free dish towel and gently pat to remove as much water as possible. Gently toss around and pat dry, set aside.
Place all the Salad Base Ingredients (including rinsed and patted dry cucumbers and cooked pasta) into a large bowl, gently mix to evenly distribute the ingredients.
Pour the Dressing over the Salad Ingredients, mix well to thoroughly coat all the ingredients. Serve and enjoy! Refrigerate leftovers.

Notes

Please reference the blog post for Tips for Success, Pantry Items Used, Storage and Freezing, and Kitchen Products Used.

Sea Salt: Please adjust the sea salt based upon your family’s sea salt preferences and/or based upon dietary needs.

Servings: Makes 5 ½ to 6 cups

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