Cucumber Salad Recipe | Leite's Culinaria

Happy Days with the Naked Chef | Hyperion, 2002

This cucumber salad recipe is one of the simplest and sprightliest summer dishes we can recall ever experiencing. Despite the title that Jamie Oliver confers on it, it’s not exactly the most traditional of Japanese recipes. But we won’t hold that against it.–LC Staff

LC A Seedy Situation Note

You know better than anyone else your tolerance for cucumber seeds. We rather like the slippery, watery little guys. But if you don’t, consider it as you select and slice your cucumbers, opting instead for a hothouse cucumber—the pricy, plastic-wrapped ones with nary a seed—or simply stop slicing the kirby or regular cukes as soon as you get to the seedy part. So simple.

Japanese Cucumber Salad Recipe

Hands-On Time: 10 minutes | Total Time: 10 minutes | Serves 4

Want it? Click it.

Ingredients

For the ginger dressing
6 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons unseasoned rice vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
1 large thumb-size piece of ginger, peeled and finely grated or cut into very fine slivers
1 stick lemongrass, outer leaves removed, inner ones finely chopped (optional)
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper , to taste
A few drops of soy sauce, to taste
For the cucumber salad
3 kirby cucumbers or 1 large cucumber, unpeeled but rinsed
A handful of fresh cilantro leaves, roughly chopped or left whole
A handful of fresh mint leaves, roughly chopped or ripped into pieces

Directions

Make the ginger dressing
1. Mix everything together in a bowl. Taste and adjust the ingredients accordingly. (You can cover and refrigerate for up to several hours before the ginger flavor will become really quite pronounced.)
Make the cucumber salad
2. Thinly slice the cucumber(s) lengthwise, either with a mandoline, a handheld slicer, or one of those cheap old potato peelers. Basically you want to get very thin ribbons of cucumber.
3. Place the ribbons on a plate or platter and spread them out. (You can cover and refrigerate for up to several hours.) Sprinkle with some ripped up fresh mint and cilantro and drizzle generously with the ginger dressing.

Hungry for more? Chow down on these:

Sichuan Cucumber Salad from Appetite for China
Lemonade Cucumber Spa Popsicles from Family Fresh Cooking
Honeydew-Cucumber Shake with Cucumber Granita from Leite's Culinaria
Tuna Tartare with Cucumber Salad and Avocado from Leite's Culinaria