Acar Timun: The Indonesian Cucumber Salad
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Acar Timun is the cool, crunchy, and slightly spicy cucumber salad that makes every main dish taste even better. This crisp, refreshing cucumber salad brings a little crunch, a little tang, and a little heat to your plate.
What is Acar Timun
Acar Timun means pickled cucumber. This crispy, tangy, and spicy salad is made with cucumber, carrot, chilies, and shallot. This simple salad is the most commonly served at Indonesian food spreads, flavored with white vinegar, sugar, and salt.
If you go to restaurants, cafes, or even food stalls and food gawkers, chances are you’ll see them serving this Indonesian cucumber salad. It is so classic that it is almost a must for any Indonesian to make it as a side dish.
And when you try this pickle, you’ll know why it is well-sought after. The salad has a crunchy texture, a tangy flavor, saltiness, sweetness, and spicy chili. It is refreshingly tasty to have alongside your meal.
Why You’ll Love Acar Timun
- 🌿 Super fresh and crunchy — every bite gives you that satisfying snap that makes eating so fun.
- 🌶️ Just the right amount of kick — it’s tangy and spicy enough to be exciting but not so much that it burns your mouth or spoils the taste of your main dish.
- 🍛 Makes everything taste better — it cuts through rich, heavy flavors and balances your whole meal. Therefore, this Acar Timun pairs best with any meat dish.
- ⚡ Quick and easy to make — no cooking needed, just chop, mix, and it’s ready in minutes
- 🥗 Light and refreshing — it cleanses your palate between bites so every mouthful feels fresh
- 💛 A true taste of Indonesia — one bite and you’re transported straight to an Indonesian family table
- 🛒 Made with everyday ingredients — nothing fancy, just cucumbers, vinegar, and a few simple spices you probably already have
- 🍽️ Goes with almost anything — rice, grilled meats, fried dishes — Acar Timun is friends with everything on your plate
- ❤️ Once you try it, you’ll always want it — it’s the kind of condiment that quietly becomes your favorite
Ingredients for Indonesian Cucumber Salad
You need only eight items to make Acar Timun: cucumber, carrot, red onion, chilies, sugar, salt, white vinegar, and water.
For the onion, you can also use a brown onion if that’s what you have. Shallots are also good. In fact, in Indonesia, we put red shallots.
You can also use green chilies. Feel free to use however many you want. Each chili provides a different level of heat, so use them based on how spicy you like your cucumber salad.
As for vinegar, rice vinegar is also a good choice.
How to Make Acar Timun
Like most fresh vegetable salads, this Indonesian cucumber salad requires only preparing the veggies and mixing them with the dressing ingredients.
The traditional way to make this acar is to cut the cucumber and carrot into small cubes, then roughly chop the onion and chili.
You don’t have to mix the dressing separately before adding it to the salad. You can add the dressing ingredients to the prepared vegetables and mix them.
Tips to Make the Best Acar
- Make sure you use fresh produce from your vegetables. Especially the cucumber and carrot. So they will have a crispy texture.
- Try to cut your vegetables into a similar size.
- Check the taste after you add the dressing ingredients. Your final salad should taste tangy, salty, sweet, and spicy.
- If you use lime juice, taste it before adding it to the salad. Some limes aren’t tangy enough and can be bland. If this is the case, you may use white or rice vinegar instead.
- Some chilies don’t have spicy heat at all. Try it a little bit before adding it to the salad. This way, you will know how much chili to add to your salad to suit your taste.
- Leave the salad for 15-20 minutes before serving to let the flavors develop.
Foods to Enjoy With Indonesian Pickled Cucumber
Traditionally, Acar Timun is served with many Indonesian dishes. There seems to be no limit to what you can have it with.
However, meat dishes such as Sate Ayam (chicken satay), lamb satay, Sop Buntut (oxtail soup), or lamb tongseng are popular choices to pair with pickled cucumber.
On special occasions like weddings and gatherings, this simple cucumber pickle is often served along with Kari Ayam (chicken curry), Mie Goreng (stir-fried noodles), or Soto Betawi (beef stew from the Jakarta region).
Having said that, don’t limit yourself to Indonesian food only. You can serve this simple pickle with a Western slider, like this old-fashioned sloppy joes recipe by Thyme For The Table.
Storing Matter
This salad keeps well for three days at room temperature. The only difference is that the veggies’ texture will be softer and less crunchy. But the flavor will be more intense; lots of people prefer it.
In fact, they make it at least a day in Indonesia before they want to serve it.
More Indonesian Salad Recipes
If you need some inspiration for more Indonesian salad recipes, you can try this Gado gado, Asinan Jakarta, Rujak Serut (Indonesian sweet potato slaw with tamarind dressing), or Cucumber and tomato salad with spicy dressing.
Thank you for checking out this Acar Timun recipe. When you try making this Indonesian cucumber salad, please share your thoughts in the comments below. I appreciate it.
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Take care and all the best.
Acar Timun recipe
Ingredients
- ½ cucumber
- 1 medium carrot
- ½ red onion
- 2 red chilies
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons lime juice or white vinegar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup water
Instructions
- Dice the cucumber and carrot into small cubes.
- Chop the red onion and chilies.
- Place all the vegetables in a bowl and add sugar, vinegar, salt, and water.
- Stir and mix well. Check the taste and add more salt or sugar if necessary.
- Let it rest for at least 15-20 minutes before serving.
Notes
- You can use brown onion or shallot if you prefer.
As for lime juice, you can substitute it with vinegar or rice vinegar.
Nutrition
Devy founded So Yummy Recipes and Drizzling Flavor to share her love of food after exploring various cultures and cuisines for more than two decades. Her mission is to help others easily recreate traditional and non-traditional food with readily available ingredients. Her works have been featured in Reader’s Digest, Al Jazeera, MSN, Yahoo, Bon Appétit, and more.
What do you think, could we make this salad with tomatoes in place of carrot?
Apologies for late response. Was busy due to Ramadan and Eid.
Basically, you can add the tomatoes if you like. However, bear in mind that tomatoes can make the salad go off quickly. I’d say use the tomatoes if you know you can finish the salad right away without leaving any leftover. Good luck.