Activity:
Cucumber Salad
This recipe is a variation on a Japanese salad - sunomono - traditionally made with rice vinegar. Sunomono usually contains cucumber and can also contain a variety of ingredients such as wakame seaweed, seafood, or daikon radish. Here, we toss in carrots, red bell peppers and cilantro. This refreshing salad is tasty and chock full of fresh veggies! Your child will hone her slicing skills as she makes this delicious dish.
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What You Need:
- 1 Hothouse cucumber, thinly sliced (see directions below)
- 1 large carrot, shredded
- ½ red bell pepper, thinly sliced
- 3 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
- 1 ½ tablespoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup fresh cilantro, chopped
- 2 tablespoons black sesame seeds or toasted sesame seeds
- Fresh lime
What You Do:
- Have your older child thinly slice or dice the cucumber. To eliminate some of the excess moisture after slicing the cucumber, simply sprinkle with salt, let stand for several minutes and then squeeze the extra juices out.
- If you want your littler helpers to get involved without the use of a sharp knife, show your child how to grate the cucumber using a box grater. Hold the grater steady while your child runs the cucumber up and down. Watch that those little fingers don’t get too close to the blade! It will become quite juicy and messy so squeeze any excess liquid out with your hands before putting it into a small serving bowl. Thinly slicing or chopping works best, as grating makes it much softer and wetter, so if you prefer your salad crunchy, let your older kids do the knife work.
- To the serving bowl, add the shredded carrot, sliced bell pepper, rice wine vinegar, sugar, sesame oil and salt. Using a spoon, mix the ingredients well.
- Sprinkle the cilantro on top as well as the sesame seeds.
- Serve with slices of fresh lime along side your Asian Salmon!
