TikTok’s viral cucumber salad recipe and trend, explained

Has cucumber salad been all over your TikTok FYP this past month? You’re not alone.

If 2020 was the year of dalgona coffee and 2023 was the year of girl dinners, in 2024 the it-girl of food trends on the platform is undoubtedly TikTok’s cucumber salad.

With the trend having even been blamed for recent cucumber shortages, if you’re yet to get on board with the Alix Earle approved trend, here’s everything to know about TikTok’s cucumber salad, including the now viral OG recipe. Kendall Jenner cucumber chopping abilities not guaranteed.

Wait, why is cucumber salad TikTok viral?

No one loves cucumbers like Logan Moffitt loves cucumbers. The TikToker has posted different recipes for the green veg nearly every day since July, amassing a cool 6M followers and 261M likes on the platform along the way. Cucumbers with smoked salmon, cucumbers with soy and honey, cucumbers with egg salad. You name it, chances are Logan probably has a cucumber recipe for it.

Starting out every video with “Sometimes you need to eat an entire cucumber. Let me show you the best way to do it”, Logan’s clearly found his niche and is leaning into it, encouraging Gen-Z to rise up and join his community of cucumber lovers.

Dubbed the “cucumber guy”, Logan uses his now signature mandoline to prepare each of his dishes, trying out new flavour combos along with a good heaping of MSG to create culinary magic before tucking in with some chopsticks.

The guy’s even gone so far as to carry out the entire process while swimming in a lake during the day and at night, because of course he has. Honestly, we respect the commitment to the bit.

It’s certainly not the first time the world has gone crazy for the humble cucumber, with the internet previously falling in love with classic spiralised and smashed cucumber East Asian recipes as the perfect side dish.

In fact, Moffitt credits Korean food YouTuber Maangchi as a key source of inspiration for his cooking (cucumber related and beyond), with his first cucumber salad not being dissimilar to her spicy cucumber side dish (oi-muchim).

“Cucumber guy” Logan Moffitt on the trend

Speaking to Today, Moffitt explained “I don’t really understand why the videos all are so successful, but I’m glad they are, because I enjoy making them, and I’m glad to provide viewers with an interesting, fun and healthy snack to have.”

The TikTok viral cucumber salad recipe

Though Moffitt has no shortage of cucumber salad recipes to try your hand at, his OG viral recipe is as follows. You’ll need to grab the following ingredients:

• 1 cucumber
• 1–2 spring onions
• 1 clove of garlic, grated
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon fish sauce
• ½ –1 teaspoon sesame oil
• ½ teaspoon sugar
• A dash of MSG
• Sesame seeds

Now it’s over to the cucumber guy for methodology:

That’s it – welcome to the cucumber cult, friend.