{"id":206582,"title":"Authentic Sunomono","modified":"2026-11-14T19:56:44+01:00","plain":"A small Japanese cucumber and wakame salad, dressed with rice vinegar, sugar and soy sauce.\n\n\n\nGrilled fish, a bowl of rice, something a little rich, and on the side a handful of cucumber slices that freshen everything up. Sunomono is for nibbling between bites: the cucumber crunches, the wakame slips by with its briny taste of the sea, and the rice vinegar, mellowed with a little sugar and soy sauce, wakes up the palate. \n\n\n\nIt needs no heat and no pan, just a pinch of salt and two hands to squeeze the cucumber.\n\n\n\nAnother Japanese raw vegetable dish to serve on the side: Japanese cabbage salad\n\n\n\nWhat Is Sunomono?\n\n\n\nSunomono is a small salad from Japanese cuisine, served as a side dish. The most common version, the one in this recipe, is kyuri to wakame no sunomono: slices of Japanese cucumber and wakame, dressed with rice vinegar, sugar and soy sauce. The sugar softens the sharpness of the vinegar, the soy sauce brings salt and umami, and the wakame its taste of the sea.\n\n\n\nThe word is written \u9162\u306e\u7269 and means \u201cvinegared things\u201d: su is vinegar, mono means things. In Japan, it refers to a whole family of small vegetable or seafood dishes dressed with vinegar, closely related to tsukemono, Japanese pickles.\n\n\n\nAnother small Japanese side dish: okra no ohitashi\n\n\n\nA Seaweed Eaten in Japan for More Than 1,300 Years\n\n\n\nWakame has been part of the Japanese diet for more than 1,300 years. In 701, the Taih\u014d Code even accepted it, along with other seaweeds, as payment of taxes. That date applies to the seaweed: no written source makes it possible to date the cucumber and wakame salad.\n\n\n\nThe dressing follows an age-old formula. Sanbaizu, \u201cthree-cup vinegar,\u201d combined vinegar, soy sauce and mirin in equal parts; today, sugar often replaces the mirin, as it does here. Nihaizu, \u201ctwo cups,\u201d is just vinegar and soy sauce.\n\n\n\nSunomono is served in small portions in an individual bowl, the kobachi. It is a hashi-yasume, literally a \u201crest for the chopsticks\u201d: you come back to it between the other dishes, and its acidity lightens grilled fish, pork tonkatsu or chicken karaage.\n\n\n\nThe Main Ingredients in Sunomono\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nJapanese cucumber, or kyuri, is slender, thin-skinned and almost seedless, and it stays crunchy. A Lebanese-style mini cucumber makes a good substitute; so does a European cucumber, once seeded. Salt draws the water out of the slices and softens them, so they can be squeezed without breaking.\n\n\n\nWakame is sold dried or packed in salt at Asian grocery stores. Dried wakame is rehydrated in water; salted wakame is rinsed and then soaked to remove the salt. Soft and a little slippery, it contrasts with the crunch of the cucumber.\n\n\n\nAnother small Japanese-style cold dish: hiyayakko, silken tofu with ginger\n\n\n\nThe dressing comes down to three ingredients: rice vinegar for acidity, a little sugar to round it out and a teaspoon of soy sauce for salt. It goes straight onto the cucumber and wakame, with no need to mix it separately.\n\n\n\nTechnique Tips for Good Sunomono\n\n\n\nThe cucumber needs to release its water before it is dressed, or it will dilute the dressing. Cut it into slices 1 to 2 mm thick, with a mandoline if possible, so they all release their water at the same rate.\n\n\n\nSqueeze the cucumber firmly, but only once it has softened: any sooner and it breaks. Squeeze the wakame as well before mixing it in.\n\n\n\nTo round out the Japanese meal, a miso soup\n\n\n\nFor a variation, add bias-cut slices of cooked octopus, cooked shrimp or surimi sticks, with the same dressing. A little julienned ginger or finely sliced shiso, scattered on at the end, adds freshness. In Brazil\u2019s sushi bars, surimi sunomono is sweeter, made without soy sauce, and sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds. For another wakame dish, try the wakame salad.\n\n\n\n\n\n\tAuthentic Sunomono\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\tCucumber1 cucumber (Japanese (kyuri))0.25 teaspoon saltWakame2 g wakame (dried, or 20 g salted wakame)Dressing1 tablespoon rice vinegar0.5 tablespoon sugar1 teaspoon soy sauce\t\n\t\n\t\tCucumberCut the cucumber into thin slices.Put the slices in a bowl.Sprinkle with the salt and toss to coat them well.Let sit for about 5 minutes, until the cucumber is pliable and has released some water.Firmly squeeze the cucumber by hand to press out the water: if squeezed before it is pliable, it will break and lose its shape.WakameRehydrate the dried wakame in water for about 5 minutes.If using salted wakame, rinse it quickly.Then soak it in a large amount of water for 5 to 10 minutes to remove the salt.Then cut it into bite-size pieces.Squeeze the wakame to drain it.DressingPut the cucumber and wakame in a bowl.Add the rice vinegar, sugar and soy sauce.Mix.\t\n\t\n\t\tJapanese cucumbers are slender, thin-skinned and almost seedless; one weighs about 100 g. If you can't find one, a mini cucumber (Lebanese type) works well; with an English cucumber, use about 100 g and remove the seeds. Cut the slices 1 to 2 mm thick, ideally on a mandoline, so they are even.\nVariations: slices of cooked octopus, cut on the diagonal, can be added to the cucumber with the same dressing; a little julienned ginger or finely shredded shiso, added at the end, brings freshness. Cooked shrimp or surimi sticks (kani) are also common.\n\t\n\t\n\t\tSaladeJaponaise","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206582\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}