Sunomono. Is it a salad? Is it a quick pickle? Well, yea it’s both. Sunomono is a traditional side dish in Japanese cooking, and while it pairs well with many Japanese dishes, I personally love it with just about everything. This particular recipe that I’m sharing with you, is just the most basic of sunomonos. In Japan, sunomono can include a number of different ingredients along with the cucumber, such as seafood, and seaweed. But, let’s just try to keep it simple today.
Since the heart of this recipe is cucumber you will want to select the right kind. In particular, you want to use a cucumber with minimal seeds as they can ruin the texture of the dish. That’s why typically I will use a hothouse cucumber, which is often sold under the name English cucumber at the store. It is a lot thinner than your normal cucumber and works perfectly for this dish.
Sunomono Recipe
Prep time: 15 to 20 minutes
Cook time: none
Servings: 3 to 4
Ingredients
1 Cucumber sliced into thin coins
3 Tbsp Rice vinegar
1 Tbsp white sugar
¼ tsp soy sauce
Toasted sesame seeds
Salt
Instructions
- Make the sauce: Before you cut up the cucumber it is best if you make the sauce by mixing the rice vinegar, soy sauce, and sugar in a bowl. It is important that you get all of the sugar to dissolve into the liquids. You can tell if it has dissolved properly when you scrape a spoon or fork against the bottom of the bowl and you no longer hear the crunchy noise caused by the sugar.
- Cut the cucumber: While the sauce is being left to meld it is time to cut up your cucumber. Wash the cucumber, leave the skin on, and slice the cucumber into coins as thin as you can possibly cut them.
- Salt the cucumber and let it sit: Place the cut up cucumber in a bowl and then sprinkle a ½ tablespoon of salt over them and mix. It is important to do this step as the salt allows the cucumber to release most of its liquid, which will allow the sauce to infuse into the cucumber better. Then let that bowl sit for about 10 or 15 minutes until you start to see some of the juice of the cucumber sitting at the bottom of the bowl.
- Squeeze the juice out of the cucumber: Take the cucumber out of the bowl and place onto a couple of sheets of paper towels.
Then take the ends of the paper towels and fold them up into a ball. Take the ball over a sink and squeeze all of the juice of the cucumbers out. It will take up to a minute or two to do this. When it’s all done the cucumbers will look something like this.
Not very pretty but trust me they will look more appetizing when you sauce it.
- Sauce, mix and serve: Return the cucumbers to a cleaned bowl and add the sauce to it. Thoroughly mix up the ingredients and add a pinch or two of toasted sesame seeds. Serve and enjoy.
Sunomono Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 Cucumber sliced into thin coins
- 3 Tbsp Rice vinegar
- 1 Tbsp white sugar
- ¼ tsp soy sauce
- Toasted sesame seeds
- Salt
Instructions
- Make the sauce: Before you cut up the cucumber it is best if you make the sauce by mixing the rice vinegar, soy sauce, and sugar in a bowl. It is important that you get all of the sugar to dissolve into the liquids. You can tell if it has dissolved properly when you scrape a spoon or fork against the bottom of the bowl and you no longer hear the crunchy noise caused by the sugar.
- Cut the cucumber: While the sauce is being left to meld it is time to cut up your cucumber. Wash the cucumber, leave the skin on, and slice the cucumber into coins as thin as you can possibly cut them.
- Salt the cucumber and let it sit: Place the cut up cucumber in a bowl and then sprinkle a ½ tablespoon of salt over them and mix. It is important to do this step as the salt allows the cucumber to release most of its liquid, which will allow the sauce to infuse into the cucumber better. Then let that bowl sit for about 10 or 15 minutes until you start to see some of the juice of the cucumber sitting at the bottom of the bowl.
- Squeeze the juice out of the cucumber: Take the cucumber out of the bowl and place onto a couple of sheets of paper towels. Then take the ends of the paper towels and fold them up into a ball. Take the ball over a sink and squeeze all of the juice of the cucumbers out. It will take up to a minute or two to do this as often you will squeeze out what you thought were the last drops, and then you begin squeezing from another side and you realize that there’s a lot more. When it’s all done the cucumbers will look something like this. Not very pretty but trust me they will look more appetizing when you sauce it.
- Sauce, mix and serve: Return the cucumbers to a cleaned bowl and add the sauce to it. Thoroughly mix up the ingredients and add a pinch or two of toasted sesame seeds. Serve and enjoy.
This sunomono recipe is a great side dish to accompany our chicken teriyaki
Inspiration from other blogs
From Japanese Cooking 101
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