Need some cucumber inspiration? Try Sunomono or Japanese Cucumber Salad 4 ways! Marinated in vinegar, sugar, salt and soy sauce, this sweet & sour cucumber salad makes a perfect side dish. It’s light, healthy and incredibly refreshing!
When cucumbers are at their peak in gardens and markets, we often find a few lingering around at the kitchen counter. If you are in need of some cucumber inspiration today, I hope you try this refreshing Japanese Cucumber Salad called Sunomono (酢の物). This is one of the most popular appetizers at the dinner tables in Japan, and it’s simple and very easy to prepare in a short time.
Watch How to Make Sunomono (Japanese Cucumber Salad)
Need some cucumber inspiration? Try Sunomono or Japanese Cucumber Salad 4 ways! Marinated in vinegar, sugar, salt and soy sauce, this sweet & sour cucumber salad makes a perfect side dish.
What is Sunomono (酢の物)?
Sunomono refers to vinegar-based dishes, and they are commonly served as a side dish to the main meal. ”Su (酢)” means vinegar in Japanese. These light refreshing vinegar salads are a great start to any meal as the sourness from the vinegar helps whet your appetite.
When we mention “sunomono”, it typically refers to Japanese cucumber salad. During the heat of summer and our bodies naturally gravitate towards ‘cooling’ food, this cucumber salad makes a wonderful seasonal side dish especially for grilled fish or meat. Besides the fact that it’s so easy to whip up, the salad is tangy, crunchy and its health benefits are good enough reasons to enjoy on a weekly basis.
Sunomono (Japanese Cucumber Salad) Variations
We have a large variety of appetizers using vinegar and cucumber. Here are some examples:
- Tako Su (Octopus Salad)
- Japanese Cucumber Salad with Crab
- Spiralized Cucumber Salad with Sesame Dressing
Today I’m making 4 variations with this recipe.
- Classic (cucumber and wakame seaweed)
- Cucumber salad with crab (I am allergic to crab, so I use imitation crab meat)
- Cucumber salad with boiled octopus (you can get “octopus sashimi” in Japanese grocery store)
- Cucumber salad with boiled salted baby anchovies
3 Tips to Make Delicious Sunomono (Japanese Cucumber Salad)
1. Pick the right kind of cucumber
There are a lot of different kinds of cucumbers out there, but I like using Japanese cucumbers for their crunchiness and seedless texture. If you couldn’t find Japanese cucumber, you can use English or Persian cucumbers, but I don’t recommend regular (American) cucumbers as they have big seeds and too watery.
2. Salt the cucumber
For this salad recipe, salting the cucumber is an important step. It helps to remove excess liquid from the cucumber, which in turn yields a great crunch for the salad.
3. Add layers to cucumber salad
I often add in wakame seaweed to cucumber salad for another layer of texture and for its beneficial nutrients. To top it off, you can garnish with toasted sesame seeds to give the salad extra fragrance and crunch. Of course, you’re always welcome to toss in other ingredients to the classic sunomono recipe, for additional color, nutrients, and textures.
Dressed in nothing more but a simple combination of rice vinegar, sugar, salt, and soy sauce, the flavor of Sunomono is the perfect balance of sweet and sour.
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Need some cucumber inspiration? Try Sunomono or Japanese Cucumber Salad in 4 ways! Marinated in vinegar, sugar, salt and soy sauce, this sweet & sour cucumber salad makes a perfect side dish. It's light, healthy and incredibly refreshing!
- 2 Persian/Japanese cucumbers
- ½ tsp salt (kosher or sea salt; use half if using table salt)
- 1 Tbsp dried wakame seaweed (2 g) (it will be 20-30 g after rehydrated)
- ½ Tbsp white and black sesame seeds (roasted/toasted)
- 4 Tbsp rice vinegar
- 2 Tbsp sugar
- ½ tsp salt (kosher or sea salt; use half if using table salt)
- ½ tsp soy sauce (Use GF soy sauce for GF)
- 4 pieces imitation crab meat (kanikama) (or real crab meat) (skip for Vegetarian/Vegan)
- 2 oz boiled octopus (60 g) (skip for Vegetarian/Vegan)
- 2 Tbsp shirasu (boiled salted baby anchovies) (12 g) (skip for Vegetarian/Vegan)
- Gather all the ingredients.
In a bowl, combine 4 Tbsp rice vinegar, 2 Tbsp granulated sugar, ½ tsp kosher salt, and ½ tsp soy sauce. Whisk well together. If the vinegar taste is too strong, you can dilute with a very small amount of dashi (or water).
- Soak 1 Tbsp dried wakame seaweed in water and let it rehydrate for 10 minutes.
- Peel the cucumbers’ skin alternately to create stripes. Then slice them thinly into rounds.
Sprinkle ½ tsp kosher salt and gently rub them against each other. Set aside for 5 minutes. Salt helps drawing liquid from cucumber (so that the liquid from cucumber will not be released after mixing with seasoning).
Squeeze water out from wakame seaweed and cucumber. Add them into the bowl with seasoning and coat well.
Serve in an individual bowls or a large serving bowl. Sprinkle sesame seeds on top and it's ready to serve. Enjoy!
Cut 4 sticks of imitation crab into thirds and combine with cucumber and wakame seaweed mixture (from Step 4).
Slice the octopus thinly and combine with cucumber and wakame seaweed mixture (from Step 4).
Combine shirasu with cucumber and wakame seaweed mixture (from Step 4).
Serve in an individual bowls or a large serving bowl. Sprinkle sesame seeds on top and it's ready to serve. Enjoy!
Recipe by Namiko Chen of Just One Cookbook. All images and content on this site are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without my permission. If you’d like to share this recipe on your site, please re-write the recipe in your own words and link to this post as the original source. Thank you.
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on February 23, 2012. The post has been updated in July, 2018 with a video and newly updated images.
Enjoy your time with your son Nami! Emails and blog can wait 😉
Salad looks great!
I like the bowls the sunomono is in 🙂
Ohhh… this salad/appetizer sure looks fun Nami. I would love to recreate this. I just need to figure out where to purchase dashi stock. Have fun bonding with your son 😉
Nami, you have been reading my mind! I have seen this recipe somewhere and have been meaning to make it for such a long time! You know I love cucumber and every new cucumber dish makes me happy! I will make it very soon (I constantly have cucumbers in the fridge). Have fun with your son!
I know i can eat few small bowls of this, sound really appetizing!
Nami, family comes before the blog, your blogging friends understand and nothing can be more urgent than your family and private life! But we appreciate all you do on the blog to give us such delicious recipes.
This one is right up my street, am I right in assuming you are using nori sheets though?
Hi Debs! There are many kinds of seaweeds, and these are not nori sheets, that are used for sushi. You might have seen wakame in miso soup, salad, and other dishes.
What a fun special time together!! Enjoy it (and the snow!) Great simple dish!
What a refreshing recipe! I like this kind of snack, it’s so fresh and healthy 🙂
I love seaweed and cucumber so this recipe is soo ME! This looks absolutely refreshing. Seriously Nami, I’m going to make this for sure. You’re amazing as alway! Have a great weekend.
Hi Nami! Lovely light and flavorful cucumber dish. I so agree with you that sometimes it’s just easier spending time with one child at a time. I spend most of my days with my daughter since she’s only in preschool 3 days a week and my son is in school all day. It is nice to do things with just my son on weekends so he gets some quality time too. Yes, dealing with both of them together is very hard to do anything. Summertime when they are both home from school it is difficult for me to run to the stores and grocery shop because I spend half my time making sure they are near me and not touching anything. 🙂
I am SO behind on my comments…so I can’t imagine keeping up with a blog and having young children!!! Enjoy the one on one time with your son…such a precious commodity. I’d love this dish…so light and flavorful! I had to google wakame at a restaurant on Saturday…so when I saw it in your title, I was pleased to have it in my culinary lingo 🙂 Enjoy your week, my friend~
glad you are enjoying some one on one time with your son!
Watch out that your little daughter is not getting jealous of the time you get to spend only with you son! 😉
Your salad really sounds delicious and refreshing!
Cheers,
Tobias
I think so I saw some seaweeds in the shop that day (yay!) so I might be able to reconstruct your sunomono. interessting that u cook the dressing first. we r in salad mood so your recipe is coming handy. thanks for sharing Nami! 😀
That looks very appetising! I love seaweed salads and this version of yours sounds delicious!
Oh I just love making this. Many times I just make it as a snack instead of an accompaniment to dinner. I love it that much 🙂
I’d made this before with extra grated carrots. Also love to chill them before serve.
When your babies are grown, you’ll be so glad you took those special moments with the children. I promise you, when they’re 25 you’ll wonder where the years flew to.
Just when I think I’ve mastered the pronunciation of a recipe, I need to learn a new word. 🙂 This dish looks beautiful.
Sounds like the week with your son was a treat for you. I’m sure the salad was very tasty.
Looks delicious! I love cucumber pickles and this seems like a great way of getting them!
This sounds so refreshing and light. I love the brightness and the flavors!
awww..how sweet to have those moments with your little ones!
I love light refreshing salads and this must be one of them. It’s so hot in Perth so I know I can make a batch of this and enjoy this in the heat!
Refreshing indeed and so easy! Hugs Nami!
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm! You know I love the octopus salad. This one looks delicious, too! 🙂
This looks so simple and yet so tasty. Very refreshing!!!
Ohhh does that mean you are going skiing with your son? 🙂 I just got back from Taipei today ~ been eating way too much again ~ So thanks for sharing this recipe! Really need easy and healthy recipes hehe just hope i can find Wakame in HK or Melbourne hehe
I’m not familiar with this dish, but what a great cucumber salad. Enjoy the time with your son!
I haven’t tried this yet, or maybe I did without realising. I must be living in a cave:)
Enjoy your time with your kids
Nami, I like cucumber salads, and this looks like a delicious and simple cucumber dish to make.
Oooh, I love reading your blog which educates me on all the Japanese food and their actual names!:) I love this Sunomono and always looked forward to it being the appetizer whenever I go for Japanese food!!;)
Enjoy your time with your son, it’s priceless 🙂
I would like some of these to go with some warm congee! Is it weird to have them this way?
Enjoy time with your kids.
Wow this looks beautiful and so fresh and delicious!
I’ve never come across this dish before, but I can imagine how tasty it must be as an appetizer. Look forward to trying it soon!
I’m “relieved” to hear that your kids are also little monsters at the supermarket…Haha….When I go shopping with my kids, they will take the mini trolleys and race up and down the aisles with them….very noisy too! And there I am, this mad woman trying to catch up with them (going in different directions too!). And they will start taking things from the shelves to fill their trolleys (which I then have to put back one by one). I think one day, the store manager will probably ban me from going there ever again! :p
Hi Nami – I actually make sunomono sometimes. So I will try your recipe next time. Koreans have a similar dish, called miyeok muchim, which is made with a little different seasoning. Your photos are beautiful again!
Lovely post and a great recipe!
I’ve heard that seaweed has some great health benefits. I’m going to have to try this. Enjoy your fun time!
Loves this, very appetizing!
Very light, pretty, delicious looking..I love this recipe! Dressing sound so good! I would totally try this just for lunch! Nicely done!!!
Great appetizer. It seems simple but perfect way to start a meal. Have fun with your son this week!
I love sunomono dishes that are served before the entries at Japanese restaurants. Your cucumber and wakame appetizers looks a lot nicer than the ones I have in the restaurants. Thanks for sharing the recipe!
I love these little, cold side dishes at Japanese and Korean restaurants – it’s my favorite part! =) Hope you’re doing well, Nami – enjoy the precious time w/ your son!
I love cucumbers, so based on that alone, I think I would definitely give this dish a try. I really need to go shopping and get me some cucumbers now lol
I love Japanese pickles-they’re so colourful and packed full of flavour. And we were only eating these a couple of weeks ago and I said to my husband “I’d love to know how to make these!” WE must be psychically joined Nami!
I love pickles and I will give this simple and delicious pickles a go!
What a delicious and simple looking dish, Nami! This would be a wonderful side dish or snack. Thanks for sharing! Have a great weekend.
I love Sunomono!
Happy to know about those special moments with your son! Have a great weekend!
This is so pretty. I love cucumber in just about any manner- although have not eaten much seaweed. I keep meaning to buy some and try it since it is so healthy! Love the pictures, also. Have a great weekend with your family!
So fun that your son has off this week! Of course that means more work for you 😉 This looks wonderful – simple and delicious.
Hi Nami,
we just finished a playdate and I was talking about you with Tabitha, the other mom. She’s Korean and she’s in love with Japanese cuisine.
From one recipe to another we ended up talking about sea-weed and I told her I don’t think I had never tasted it and she promised to cook something next time we get together at her house 🙂 Can’t wait!
ENJOY !!!
I know how hard it can get sometime with two kids who are close in age, Enjoy ur time with Enzo… Everything else can wait.
What a delicious and simple recipe Nami, I love how you make dishes which are so simple but have such delicious flavors…
That’s so nice you get some one-on-one time with your son, Nami. I’m sure you’re having such a blast. Even better when you cook up masterpieces such as this! Looks fabulous. x
It’s ski week here for us too Nami. We aren’t exactly having ski weather though are we? It’s 82 degrees here today and I’m sure it’s very nice in SF. I can tell by the dressing ingredients that this cucumber/seaweed dish would be totally addictive. It looks so refreshing and delicious!
Ah, what a coincidence indeed, given my post about vinegar the other day! 🙂 I love vinegar-based salads – they serve them a lot in Japanese restaurants in France as a “starter” befpre sushi. Usually consisting of shredded cabbage… I’m not sure if they’re at all traditional, but they’re darn nice!
It goes really well with cucumber, so I can imagine the lovely refreshing, crunchiness of this salad! Thanks for sharing Nami 🙂
Know what! I have always been curious to taste seaweed but didn’t get a chance to do so till date. Your recipes sounds so simple and quick to fix and I thing its healthy too. They say sea weed is rich in iron right? Hope you guys are enjoying the short winter break.
Enjoy your time with kids.They sound just like mine.Really hard to go anywhere with them.Glad I discovered your site,I wanted to know more other than my soba noodles.
I love variations of cucumber salads so will be doing this. It’s just fresh and simple – just what I love. Enjoy the days with your son. They are precious!e
Another great dish, I love this appertizer and recipe marked 🙂
Enjoying time with the family is a priority. Blog hopping and emails can wait 🙂
BTW, I want to dive into that bowl of fresh salad!!
having the kids around definitely keeps us busy. simple and good. just learnt how to make Indian pickles…will have to try these!
Glad to hear you were able to spend some quality mom and son time this week! This dish looks really yummy! A great new way to enjoy cucumbers!
The mrs would love this, salad with vinegar always brighten up our dishes. This is a keeper!
A ‘ski week’??? That is a new one for me. We certainly don’t have those here in Sydney. Another great fresh, tasty, delicious and good for you recipe. Thanks Nami. xx
I love the look of this. I adore anything pickled, and I love its simplicity. mmm, and seaweed.
It is treasured time with just one child. As my children grew up, they each got a couple of holidays with just one parent – special times.
Loved this simple and delicious post. Have a wonderful time with your son 🙂
Glad to know you have some one on one time with your son, they grow up so fast, enjoy the together time.
Salad looks delicious and healthy.
lovely have fun with your son
Your kids are adorable Nami and I am sure even when they become lil monster they are still the cutest one in the lot 🙂
This is such a nice and simple recipe and so refreshing!
Another appetizer that I enjoy! Have a great time with your son!
What a cherished week for you to enjoy with your son. Plus, I bet you he will remember those shopping trips for years to come. It’s amazing how the little moments in life come to mean so much as we get older. 😉
this looks like the pickled cucumber as korean banchan.. Just wondering if I can use something else instead of dashi stock?
You can omit dashi stock, but that helps to dilute strong vinegar taste. You can use water instead, but please don’t use any other stock rather than dashi stock. Dashi stock will enhance more Japanese flavor compared to just plain water. Hope this helps! 🙂
mm i love this sort of stuff, a bowl of plain rice and a few side dishes is all I need to be happy 🙂 Definitely going to note this and the pickled turnip with yuzu for sometime in the future!
Oh Nami I bet this is so refreshing! Every summer my Mom fixes pickled cucumber, though growing up I never liked them much. But seeing your posting brought that refreshing taste back in my mouth, I should give this a try soon and compare notes with my Mom!
Hope you have a great week!
The ginger for me makes the perfect touch in this recipe. And rice vinegar is smoother than plain white vinegar. A lovely appetizer. Have fun with your son!
This is one of my favorite little dishes. I love this recipe!
Nami, so glad that you were able to enjoy some one-on-one time with your son last week. My younger sister and I are only 15 months apart and I remember appreciating the times I had my mother all to myself.
So, cucumber salad is one of my favorite Japanese starters but I’m embarrassed to say I haven’t tried to make it at home. I have everything I need in my pantry, too–just have to pick up some cucumber. Will have to try your version. Looks great!
I really like the Chinese cucumber salads with ginger and garlic, and Polish ones with salt and cream. Now I can add a Japanese version with vinegar – cucumbers are so refreshing!
Nami – I love how we not only get to learn making Japanese dishes from you, but also the names and meanings of each unique dish. I think I can start piecing words together and strike a conversation with many of our Japanese neighbors here!:)
We make cucumber salads all the time here but it’s always being spiced up in different ways:)
I hope you had a great time with your kids! I love this easy fast recipe. Those are normally the best.
I’ve never made this cucumber and seaweed salad before. Your recipe will definitely come in handy. Thanks, Nami!
Enjoy your time with you son!
I don’t have children but once took my niece (4) and nephew (2) to the grocery store and all three of us nearly melted down! I won’t make that mistake again!
Naomi this looks awesome. What other vegetables would be good in this? I love cucumbers but my husband unfortunately doesn’t.
Wow!! I love these pickles!! At my favorite Japanese restaurant they also add some glass noodles!! I will definitely try this recipe when my cucumbers grow. 😉
This is delightful Nami! A favorite treat I have enjoyed on many occasions, but have never made at hope…bookmarked 🙂
I love Sunomono – such a light and refreshing starter to open the palate. Thanks for sharing your recipe!
Nami, I’m quite certain you mean untoasted sesame oil, but I just want to make sure that’s the oil to be used here.
Hi Liz! I used this brand of sesame oil: https://www.justonecookbook.com/blog1/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Sesame-Oil.jpg
I never actually knew there is toasted or un-toasted sesame oil. I hope the link helps!
Ah, that is toasted sesame oil. And the pic helped tremendously as toasted has a VERY different flavor. Thank you, Nami!
I am making this for lunch! I had half an English cucumber and thought this would go well with the sunny weather. Thank you!
~Susan
Refreshing salad!! I love cucumbers. Have a great time with your son 🙂
I have two cucumbers that have been sitting in the fridge a while. Just checking if I can prep the whole lot of them and just allow them to pickle in the dressing? I’m thinking that the vinegar will allow them to keep longer. I can just add the seaweed before serving. 🙂
Hi Isea! Yes, you can make it ahead of time using two cucumbers, but after 2 days, the cucumbers become more like “pickles” due to soaking in the sauce for a long time. If you don’t mind the flavor and soft texture, it will be okay, but I personally like when the cucumber is still crisp so if you feel the same way, I recommend to mix the cucumber and the sauce before you eat. 🙂
Made it so often. its just Perfect ????
Hi Bianca! Thank you for your kind feedback!
The link for the very nice horizontal whisk shown in the Sunomono video did not work. Can you give me the name or link so I can purchase. Thank you.
Hi Carl! Sure! It’s this one and I love this whisk!
https://amzn.to/23Xyfq1
THEY all sound great, wish you luck
Hi Barbara! Thank you so much!
At the Japanese restaurants, it is served with vermicelli noodles in the liquid. How can I incorporate this?
Hi T! The vermicelli noodles sometimes included in this salad is called Harusame. I have the preparation in this post, and you can use it to add this recipe but I’d increase the dressing slightly since the noodles will absorb some. 🙂
Thanks for this beautiful recipe. The whole family liked it. I’ll definitely try out different variations soon. And since this is my first comment but this site has been my go-to-cook-book in all my endeavors of cooking Japanese for some time now, please let me add what the most astonishingly thing about it is: all the recipes work out at first try. This is really something and thanks to the tipps you add in. I could go on and rave about this site but I’ll keep recommending it to friends instead. Thank you very much.
Hi Sandra! Thank you so much for your kind words and I’m so happy your family enjoyed this recipe. I’m also glad to hear that you use my site to cook Japanese food too! Thank you for sharing my site with your friends. It means SO MUCH to us. Thank you thank you!!! xoxo
This was way too sweet for me, so next time I’ll add less sugar. Loved it though, thanks for the recipe!
I also found this very sweet, and will reduce sugar next time. I love sunomono wiith sake! 🙂
Hi Rachael and Lord Sakana! Thank you for your feedback. Hope next one will turn out to be perfect. 🙂