"timeless" japanese cucumber salad (sunomono)

Sunomono aka Japanese cucumber salad is a perfect summer side dish that will make you forget about those boring summer salads.

It’s super simple (5 ingredients) to make, hella refreshing, and works well with any main dish.

Super thin slices of Japanese or Persian cucumbers are soaked in a rice vinegar based sauced. The excess moisture is then removed leaving behind cucumbers that are tasty AF and still have a bit of crunch to them.

Add this traditional Japanese meal to your easy recipes repertoire. Summer is almost here and this dish makes for a great summer salad.

It is a term that refers to a range of vinegar-based Japanese dishes. It’s a common dish in Japanese cooking.

Dishes are primarily seafood or vegetable dishes dressed simply with a vinegar dressing that creates a tangy, but slightly sweet flavor profile. At its core, it is not much different from your traditional American cucumber salad, but it has more character with its combination of briny taste, a touch of sweetness, and crunchy cucumber.

For this Asian cucumber salad the cucumbers are thinly sliced and the marinade includes more commonly used Japanese ingredients like rice vinegar, soy sauce, and sesame seeds.

However, though just as timeless, it tastes so much better and offers a true wow type experience for such a simple and refreshing side dish.

How To Make This Japanese Cucumber Salad Recipe (Step by Step)

Step 1: slice the cucumbers

Using a vegetable peeler remove the cucumber skin. Then with a sharp knife cut the cucumber into ultra thin slices. Discard the green skin.

Step 2: Salt the cucumbers

Place the sliced cucumbers in a medium bowl. Sprinkle the salt all over the cucumbers ensuring that all slices are well salted.

Step 3: make the dressing

Add the rice vinegar, mirin, and soy sauce together in a separate small bowl. Mix well.

Step 4: remove the moisture from the cucumbers

Leave the cucumbers alone with the salt for about 10 minutes. Using your hands squeeze the excess liquid from the cucumbers.

Step 5: assemble the salad

Combine cucumbers and the vinegar mixture and mix well. Top with sesame seeds

sunomono cooking tips

• Use unseasoned rice vinegar
• Dress simply. Wakame seaweed is a good partner, but not necessary
• Add red pepper flakes
• Seafood like crab, lobster, octopus, shrimp, etc. can elevate this from a simple salad to a more substantial Japanese cucumber salad recipe.

• Squeeze as much moisture from the cucumbers as possible. This is the key to that nice, crisp texture.
• Small cucumbers work best. Persian cucumbers are smaller and work well as a substitute for long and thin Japanese cucumbers
• Select good fresh cucumbers. Check your cucumbers for soft spots. You want crisp Japanese cucumbers. Starting with softer ones will lead to soggy non-crispy cucumbers. Even baby cucumbers are a good option.
• If using American style cucumbers, be sure to remove the seeds given there are so many present unlike Japanese ones.
• Don't make this recipe overcomplicated. The beauty of Japanese food is the great flavor it achieves via simple ingredients and steps.

serving suggestions

Cucumber salads are briny and cut through the fat of fried foods as well as smoked meats. Checkout out a few main dish pairing options as these:

Jerk Fried Chicken

Nashville Hot Shrimp Sandwich

Beef Suya Skewers

Buttermilk Fried Chicken Wings

Asian Daikon Salad

Beef Short Ribs

Smoked Beef Brisket

Korean-Style Flanken Short Ribs

Sunomono Recipe Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What’s the difference between Japanese cucumbers and regular cucumbers (American ones)?

As you can see from the picture, Japanese cucumbers are longer, skinnier, and with an irregular shape. They sort of resemble a skinny, green humpback whale. They also have a much thinner skin, which in my humble opinion makes peeling them unnecessary.

Texturally, there aren’t as many seeds. For those present, they’re typically smaller. After having my first taste, admittedly it will be hard to go back to plain American cucumbers. These are crisp, crunchy and delicious with a sweetness similar to melons.

what other cucumber varieties can work in this salad?

I was fortunate to cop these at my farmers’ market. And on occasion, I run across them into specialty grocery stores. You may have more luck finding Persian or English cucumbers in more mainstream grocery stores.

Of the two, I’m more partial to the Persian as they are not very thick and are closer in taste and crunchiness to Japanese ones. Choose cucumbers that have few seeds; the fewer the better and there are several different cucumber varieties there are that meet this criteria.

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