Japanese Cucumber Salad

Celebrate the cucumber with this light and refreshing Japanese Cucumber Salad!  This is the perfect side dish to a Japanese-style dinner. Thin slices of cucumber, wakame and roasted sesame seeds tossed with a tangy vinaigrette.

Serve this crisp salad with a simple vinaigrette made by combining rice vinegar, sugar, and soy sauce. Sprinkle the salad with toasted sesame to add a nutty crunch to the thin cucumber slices. If you prefer something a bit spicier, try our Korean cucumber salad.

Japanese meals usually include a salad to keep things in balance with the main dish. This thinly sliced cucumber salad partners nicely with slices of teppanyaki-style grilled steak, hot rice and steamed vegetables. Or, include it in a bento box for a delicious lunch.

Plan a sushi night and include this Japanese cucumber salad. Marinate some steamed shrimp in the salad vinaigrette and add on top. Another option is to slice chilled, cooked octopus to the salad.

Let’s talk about this Japanese Cucumber Salad:

The Japanese name for this basic cucumber salad is sunomono. It is easy to make and includes only three main ingredients…..Persian cucumbers, toasted sesame seeds and wakame.

Persian cucumbers:

These baby cukes are a thin-skinned variety of cucumber that grow only to about five or six inches long. They have a mildly sweet flavor, very few seeds and not overly watery which makes them crisp and crunchy. Persian cucumbers are available in America in most markets like Whole Foods, Asian markets, and occasionally at Trader Joe’s.

If you cannot find Persian cucumbers the super-long English cucumbers wrapped in plastic will be the best substitute.

English cucumbers are also thin-skinned, nearly seedless but have more water content and will be less crunchy.

Toasted Sesame Seeds:

We are all so familiar with those tiny little seeds on our hamburger bun, sprinkled on our stir-fry or ground into a paste called tahini and added to a batch of humus.  Do you know where they come from?  But of course!  From inside the sesame pod!  . … Open sesame!

Sesamum is a flowering plant native to Africa and the oldest oilseed plant known to man. The plant has pink, white or purple flowers and forms elongated pods filled with those magical seeds that are so rich in oil. When toasted these tiny little seeds have a delicious nut-like flavor.

Wakame:

I am very familiar with Nori and use it often for sushi but, wakame? Not!  I needed the help of a clerk in the Asian market to tell me about this ingredient. 

Similar to nori, wakame is also a type of edible seaweed that has been cultivated in Japan and Korea for centuries.  Wakame must be soaked in water to soften before using.  You can find packages of dried and cut wakame in Asian markets at an affordable cost.

How to make this Japanese Cucumber Salad:

This is a really easy salad to prepare, and you are going to love it’s crunch and flavor. To give the cucumber slices a bit of variance in color we peeled alternating lengthwise strips on each cucumber before slicing. Slice the cucumbers very thinly either by hand with a sharp knife or with a mandoline.

• First, place the dried wakame seaweed in water and let sit for 10 minutes to rehydrate.
• Whisk together the rice vinegar, sugar, salt and soy sauce in a separate bowl and reserve.
• Peel alternating strips of skin from the cucumber and slice them into thin rounds.
• Sprinkle the cucumber slices with salt and gently toss. Let them rest for 5 minutes to draw out any water.
• Tip the cucumber slices into a colander to drain, gently pressing the slices to remove excess water. Add the drained cucumber slices to a salad bowl.
• Squeeze the water from the wakame seaweed and add to a salad bowl with the cucumber slices.
• Pour the vinaigrette over the cucumbers and toss to coat the cucumber slices.

Add-ins for the Japanese Cucumber Salad:

This crisp and crunchy Japanese cucumber salad is perfect as a stand-alone side dish. We are suggesting a couple easy ideas to adorn the salad that will enhance a Japanese-style meal.

We love the taste of cooked, chilled octopus slices. I know octopus does not make an appearance on the average American dinner table. There is a saying that Americans eat with their eyes and the octopus is not a beautiful creature. I hope, though, you will give this little guy a chance as it is quite delicious!

The octopus:

Octopus is considered a delicacy in many countries, recently it has been making it’s appearance in many of America’s fine-dining restaurants. It is enjoyed in Japan as sashimi and included with sushi, however, it is cooked and sliced before eating.

You will find small packages of pre-cooked octopus legs in Japanese delicatessens where the sushi displays are located. This is a delicious addition to a Japanese cucumber salad. Since the octopus is already cooked all that is necessary to include it into the salad is to slice the legs and add it to the top of the salad. Octopus is tender, with a mildly sweet taste and is very complimentary to this Japanese cucumber salad.

Cooked Shrimp:

Shrimp is another add-in for this salad. We are all familiar with shrimp and its delicate taste. They are simple to prepare by boiling and steaming.

After the shrimp is cool I like to pour a little of the salad vinaigrette over them and let them marinate for a few minutes. Their taste makes a great addition on top of the salad.

There is one final important bit of information we want to share with you.  In order to keep the cucumber salad crisp and crunchy, do not add the vinaigrette to the cucumber slices until ready to serve. 

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