Japanese Cucumber Salad Recipe (Sunomono)
Sunomono refers to vinegar-based dishes, and they are commonly served as a side dish to the main meal. ”Su (酢)” means vinegar in Japanese. These light refreshing vinegar salads are a great start to any meal as the sourness from the vinegar helps whet your appetite.
When we mention “Sunomono (酢の物)”, it typically refers to Japanese cucumber salad. During the heat of summer and our bodies naturally gravitate towards ‘cooling’ food, this cucumber salad makes a wonderful seasonal side dish especially for grilled fish or meat. Besides the fact that it’s so easy to whip up, the salad is tangy, crunchy and its health benefits are good enough reasons to enjoy on a weekly basis.
INGREDIENTS
- 3 to 4 small cucumbers
- 1/3 cup roasted peanuts
- fresh cilantro leaves
- red chilli flakes to taste
Dressing
- 3 Tbsp soy sauce
- 3 Tbsp rice wine vinegar
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp chile oil
- 1 tsp toasted sesame oil
- 1 clove garlic, finely minced
DIRECTIONS
- Whisk the dressing ingredients together and be sure to taste it to adjust anything you like.
- Finely grind the peanuts in a food processor using the pulsing button. You want them to be very fine but be careful not to go too far and turn them into peanut butter!
- Thinly slice the cucumbers on the diagonal. If you would like to remove part of the peel first, you can run a zesting tool down the sides, or simply run the tines of a fork down the sides to create a decorative edge.
- Put the cucumbers in a bowl and toss with enough dressing to coat thoroughly, you may not need all of it. Toss with the crushed peanuts, sprinkle with chile flakes,and top with cilantro leaves.
- Serve immediately or chill until ready to serve. I like to serve this within a few hours of making, but it will keep overnight.
Cucumbers are mostly water and their water leaches out when they are sliced and combined with other ingredients. To prevent this from happening, you can salt the cucumbers and let them sit to draw some of the water out, then pat them dry. Or do as we do here by squeezing them gently between two layers of paper towels. Both methods work well, but using a double layer of paper towels helps keep sodium in check.
