Japanese Cucumber Salad (Sunomono)

Step 1

Gather all the ingredients.

Step 2

In a bowl, combine 4 Tbsp rice vinegar, 2 Tbsp granulated sugar, ½ tsp kosher salt, and ½ tsp soy sauce. Whisk well together. If the vinegar taste is too strong, you can dilute with a very small amount of dashi (or water).

Step 3

Soak 1 Tbsp dried wakame seaweed in water and let it rehydrate for 10 minutes.

Step 4

Peel the cucumbers’ skin alternately to create stripes. Then slice them thinly into rounds.

Step 5

Sprinkle ½ tsp kosher salt and gently rub them against each other. Set aside for 5 minutes. Salt helps drawing liquid from cucumber (so that the liquid from cucumber will not be released after mixing with seasoning).

Step 6

Squeeze water out from wakame seaweed and cucumber. Add them into the bowl with seasoning and coat well.

Step 7

Serve in an individual bowls or a large serving bowl. Sprinkle sesame seeds on top and it's ready to serve. Enjoy!

Step 8

Cut 4 sticks of imitation crab into thirds and combine with cucumber and wakame seaweed mixture (from Step 4).

Step 9

Slice the octopus thinly and combine with cucumber and wakame seaweed mixture (from Step 4).

Step 10

Combine shirasu with cucumber and wakame seaweed mixture (from Step 4).

Step 11

Serve in an individual bowls or a large serving bowl. Sprinkle sesame seeds on top and it's ready to serve. Enjoy! To store, keep in the airtight container and consume within 3-5 days (depending on other ingredients).