Seaweed Salad with Cucumber
This is simply a kind of sea-based mesclun with a distinctively sesame-flavored dressing. The only challenge in making it lies in the shopping. Few supermarkets carry any seaweed at all, so you need to hit an Asian or health food market for any kind of selection. At most Japanese markets and some health food stores, you can find what amounts to a prepackaged assortment of seaweed salad greens; these are a little more expensive than buying individual seaweeds but will give you a good variety without a big investment.
Recipe information
Yield
makes 4 servings
Ingredients
Preparation
Step 1
Rinse the seaweed once and soak it in at least ten times its volume of water.
Step 2
Wash and dice the cucumber; do not peel unless necessary. (You can salt it if you like; see the preceding recipe.) When the seaweed is tender, 5 minutes later, drain and gently squeeze the mixture to remove excess water. Pick through the seaweed to sort out any hard bits (there may be none) and chop or cut up (you can use scissors, which you may find easier) if the pieces are large. Combine the cucumber and seaweed mixture in a bowl.
Step 3
Toss with the remaining ingredients except the sesame seeds; taste and add salt or other seasonings as necessary and serve garnished with the sesame seeds if you like.
