Here is an easy recipe for Sunomono, the traditional, light Japanese cucumber salad. This is great for those summers when the garden is producing lots of cucumbers. We like to pick the smaller ones for this recipe and slice them very thin.

You can make this recipe gluten free by using tamari instead of soy sauce.

Watch a Video

Here is a video of 2 Cooks in the Kitchen making Sunomono.

The Ingredients

• 3 small cucumbers – approximately 1 lb
• 3 Tbls Rice Vinegar
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1/2 tsp Tamari
• 1 Tbls Sugar
• 1 tsp Sesame Seeds

The Cucumbers

We’ll begin with our cucumbers. We like to pick the small ones that don’t have a lot of seeds. If there are too many seeds they just tend to fall out of the slices. Many sunomono recipes call for removing the seeds from the cucumbers and that is another way you can do it. We like to use a mandoline for the slicing to get nice, uniform, thin slices but you can also do this with a sharp knife. Then we’ll put the cucumber slices into a large bowl.

Add Vinegar

Next we’ll add our vinegar. We like to make this salad with rice vinegar, which would be more traditional but you could use any vinegar you like here. Each type of vinegar will impart a different flavor to your sunomono so you can experiment with what you like the best.

Salt and Tamari

After the vinegar we will add the salt and tamari. If you aren’t concerned about gluten you can use soy sauce here but we use tamari for a gluten free sunomono. Soy sauce is made with wheat and so it has gluten. A person with celiac has to be very vigilant about soy sauce when it comes to Asian food! Tamari is a great substitute with almost the same flavor profile.

Sugar

Then we will add the sugar. A little bit of white sugar is fairly common in Asian dishes not only as a sweetener, but more as a spice. A little sugar added to a savory dish can bring out otherwise hidden flavors.

Mix the Dressing

Now we want to mix the dressing thoroughly. We like to do this with a wisk which we find is the easiest way to get everything incorporated but you can use a fork or a spoon if you want to.

Pour Over Cucumbers

Once the dressing is well mixed we want to pour it over our cucumbers.

Mix the Sunomono

then we need to mix all that well. You will want to be gentle but thorough when mixing so you don’t smash the cucumbers. Take your time with this and try to get all the cucumbers coated with dressing. We find a serving spoon works well for this job.

Sesame Seeds

Lastly we will sprinkle the sesame seeds over our sunomono. Try to get them spread out to make it easier to mix them into the salad.

Refrigerate

One more gentle mix and then we will let the sunomono rest in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes to let the flavors marry before serving. Give it one last stir after you take it out of the refrigerator.

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