Lazy Pickles, or Japanese Cucumber Salad

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Lazy Pickles or Japanese Cucumber Salad, Kiku Corner

These are not really pickles, but rather a Japanese cucumber salad. This dish received its name of Lazy Pickles from one of my lunch buddies at work, who moved to Toronto from Ukraine a couple of years ago. The food she brings for lunch are amazing treats that seem to come from a  time forgotten by most North Americans. She makes her own cheese, cures her own pork and beef, and picks her own vegetables and then pickles them the old fashioned way. I constantly ask her exactly how she made each dish and she always gives me detailed instructions. I brought this cucumber salad to work one day and when I proudly gave her my recipe, her response was, “Oh, these are lazy pickles!”

Lazy Pickles or Japanese Cucumber Salad, Kiku Corner

Oddly enough, this cucumber salad is both Japanese and German. In this Japanese version, I use seasoned rice vinegar and sesame, but our mom’s German version uses watered down white vinegar, sugar, and white pepper. If you prepare this dish to eat immediately, I would categorize it as a salad. When you let the cucumbers sit in the vinegar for a couple of days, it becomes more pickled.

Lazy pickles
 
Author:
Recipe type: Salad
Cuisine: Japanese and German
Serves: 4
Prep time:
Total time:
 
Ingredients
  • two large English cucumbers
  • ⅓ cup seasoned rice vinegar
  • ⅛ teaspoon sesame oil
  • sprinkle of black and white sesame seeds
Instructions
  1. Slice the cucumbers and place into a large tupperware container, or another container that has a lid. The goal is to slice the cukes as thinly as possible, so I prefer to use a mandolin. It also takes about a fifth of the time and the result is paper-thin slices.
  2. Pour the vinegar and sesame oil over the cucumbers. Close the lid and turn the container over a couple of times to mix the ingredients together.
  3. That's it! As a salad, this dish is now ready. To make the more pickled version, marinate the cucumbers overnight in the refrigerator. The pickles also taste great after a few days in the vinegar. Garnish with sesame seeds before serving.

Lazy Pickles, Kiku Corner 5

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2 Replies to “Lazy Pickles, or Japanese Cucumber Salad”

  1. My husband would really like these! Thanks for linking up to Creative K Kid’s Tasty Tuesdays Linky Party. I’ve pinned your post to the Tasty Tuesday’s Pinterest board.

  2. […] you ever been to a Japanese restaurant and had some of those really yummy thinly sliced cucumber salads?  Well these Lazy Pickles are just that!  And I am loving […]

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