Cucumber Seaweed Salad

I love a good seaweed salad at a Japanese restaurant. The texture of the seaweed and the salty sesame dressing is fantastic. Unfortunately, it’s not something I have very often, but it is often on my mind! So when I picked up this little spiralizer* for making zoodles I figured it would do an equally good job at making cucumber noodles. Once I made the cucumber noodles they reminded me so much of the strings of seaweed I decided to toss them in a similar dressing. Success!!

You don’t have to add seaweed to this salad. I have Wakame seaweed already from a miso soup project so I added it. It does give the salad more texture and flavor, but the dressing is strong enough to carry the salad without it.

If you don’t have a spiralizer, you could mandolin the cucumber or julienne it by hand. One large english cucumber makes two side salads. If you want to make this into a meal, you would use one whole cucumber per person, and probably add some protein. Silken tofu or steamed shrimp would be great options.

With a spiralizer this comes together really quickly. No cooking! I’d pair this with sushi rolls and some miso soup.

CUCUMBER SEAWEED SALAD

2 tbsp rice vinegar

1 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp sesame oil

1/2 tsp grated ginger

1/2 tsp sugar

2 green onions, sliced

1 English cucumber

1 tbsp wakame seaweed

Sesame seeds for garnish

Dried seaweed is expensive, but this package actually makes a ton of seaweed!

Don't peel the cucumber, just spiralize the whole thing. Engish cucumber skin is thin, and it adds a nice dimension of color.  (This is my semi-crappy little spiralizer. If you are interested in spiralizing anything not zucchini shaped or soft textured, get a real one with a handle.)

You will want these strings fairly thin. Break them into shorter strings if your spiralizer makes super long ones!

A diagonal cut is nicer, but not necessary. 

Microplane your ginger. To peel the ginger prior to microplaning, use the tip of a spoon to scrape the peel off.

I know it doesn’t seem like much seaweed, but this will expand. Much like loose leaf tea!

Mix all your dressing ingredients together.

See! All puffed up! Follow the time directions on the package, it only takes a few minutes to rehydrate the seaweed.

I didn’t want to add any extra moisture to my salad, the cucumbers have enough. So I laid it out the seaweed on a towel briefly.

Combine seaweed, most of the green onions (reserve some for topping) and dressing with cucumber noodles.

Top with reserved green onion and sesame seeds!