Japanese Cucumber Salad (Sunomono) (VIDEO)

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Japanese Cucumber Salad (Sunomono) (VIDEO)

Light, refreshing with a satisfying crunch - Japanese Cucumber Salad (Sunomono) is the perfect side dish for all of your favorite Japanese dishes! You only need 6 ingredients and 15 minutes to toss this together!

Prep Time5

Cook Time10

Course: Side Dish

Cuisine: Japanese

Servings:

Author: Chris Joe

Ingredients

1 lb japanese cucumber 2-3 cucumbers
1/2 tbsp kosher salt
3 tbsp rice vinegar
1/2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tsp sesame seeds

Instructions

Thinly slice cucumbers with a knife or mandolin so they are 2-3 cm thick. Place in a large bowl and mix with kosher salt and rest for 5 minutes.
Remove excess water, then rinse off the excess salt with cold water and squeeze the cucumbers until dry.
In a small bowl, mix together rice vinegar, sugar, and soy sauce.
Add the dressing to the cucumber, add sesame seeds, and mix well. Serve immediately and enjoy!

Notes

Tips:

I recommend using Japanese or Persian cucumbers. These are both cucumbers that are small, with a thin skin, and few seeds. They're also sweeter and have less water, which makes them ideal for cucumber salads. Do not use American cucumbers - not only do they contain seeds, their skin is too thick and waxy for this recipe.

If you don't have kosher salt or another larger grain salt on hand (like sea salt), you can use table salt but 1/2 of the amount. Table salt has a higher salt content than kosher salt, so it is not a 1:1 substitute.

If you don't have rice vinegar on hand, you can substitute with apple cidar vinegar.

If using a mandolin, please practice safety and use the guard that comes with it!

Salting the cucumbers helps draw out the moisture - drawing out the moisture will prevent the cucumber's natural water content from diluting the salad dressing. This ensures a great crunch!

Rinse off the excess salt on your cucumbers with cold water. Otherwise your cucumber salad will be salty!

I like to squeeze the cucumbers gently after rinsing, until they feel relatively dry. If you don’t, the excess moisture will dilute the dressing.

Storage Tips:

Store any leftover Japanese Cucumber Salad (Sunomono) in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. You may notice the cucumbers releasing more moisture as it sits in the refrigerator - this is normal! However, I don't personally prefer eating the cucumbers after 2ish days, as I find the salad becomes soggy and the dressing becomes diluted.

Nutrition