The Viral Recipe That Has Us Rushing to the Store to Buy Cucumbers
There's one ingredient that's really popping on social media right now and for once it's a healthy one! Cucumbers (believe it or not) are going viral on TikTok, with users running to their produce sections for the biggest cukes they can find to make one of many variations on a viral salad.
TikToker Logan Moffitt (@logagm) has millions of views on his cucumber-based videos, which are titled things like "how to eat an entire cucumber," "another day another cucumber" and "cucumber is brat if u think about it." The soaring popularity of these TikToks suggests means that cucumbers are weirdly becoming part of the cultural zeitgeist—and you even might see some shortages in your supermarket, depending on how online the shoppers are.
"I've been influenced...went to the grocery store today, as I was grabbing the cucumbers a lady came up behind me and asked if i was getting it because of tiktok ??," says one commenter. "This is insane?? I love it," Logan replied.
With all of this salad love on my FYP I figured it was high time to give one of the salads a try before I couldn't find cucumbers any more. Here's what happened in my kitchen.
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What is the Viral TikTok Cucumber Salad?
Moffitt himself has done many cucumber salads this summer and there have also been plenty of iterations across TikTok, but I thought it would be best to start with one of the most popular versions, which is Logan's cucumber salad with cream cheese, smoked salmon, red onion, capers and everything bagel seasoning. Like almost all of his cucumber salads, it's made in a 32-ounce deli takeout container, so all you have to do is add your ingredients, pop on the lid, give it a shake and dig in. If you have any leftovers, which is doubtful, you can put the lid back on and stick the salad in the fridge.
Related: The Queen Elizabeth-Approved Way to Make Cucumber Sandwiches
How Do You Make the Viral Cucumber Salad?
Courtesy of Jessica Wrubel
Grab an entire cucumber and slice it thinly on a mandoline. Add the sliced cucumber to your takeout container, add in a hefty dollop of whipped cream cheese, sliced red onion, capers, diced avocado and chopped smoked salmon. Season with everything bagel seasoning, salt and pepper and a pinch of MSG. Pop the lid on your container and shake until everything is well-distributed. Take the lid off and dig in!
What I Thought About the Viral TikTok Cucumber Salad
Courtesy of Jessica Wrubel
Every time I get an assignment to make something that's gone viral on TikTok, I get pretty excited. Most of these recipes are a combination of "Why didn't I think of that?" and "I can't believe I'm eating that." This falls somewhere in between.
First and foremost, the salad was a cinch to make. The hardest part was using a mandoline, which is always a bit tricky. After getting my cuke super thin and adding in all of the other ingredients, I wasn't so sure it would all get evenly coated with the spices and cream cheese mixture. While the original video didn't exactly say to use whipped cream cheese, I had a feeling it would mix in the container a bit better (and I was right).
The cream cheese and spices coated the cucumber, salmon pieces and red onion making it taste like the very best bagel with lox that I've ever had (minus the bagel, of course). This would be tasty with bagel chips, spread on top of a toasted bagel, or you can just eat it right out of the container with a pair of chopsticks, as TikTok intended.
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