Everyone in my family knows that I don't like cucumber...actually I hate FRESH cucumber. Sorry to FRESH cucumber lovers, but I'm not the only one who hates it. Once I went to a restaurant with two other friends. We got side salads and since I don't eat cucumbers I asked if any of them wanted my gigantic cucumber slices. Usually people look at me weird and gladly take it away from me...but that time both of my friends said they never eat cucumber!! So you see, I'm not alone.
However, as ironic as it may sound...I do LOVE pickles and this spicy cucumber salad! Yummmm!!
In fact, this banchan is my FAVORITE!!!!!! I can eat so much rice with just this alone.
Like I told you before, I hate FRESH cucumber because of that FRESH seed smell, which cucumber lovers like it FRESH... as for me, pickles are 'pickled' and this recipe actually doesn't use the seed part (Keep this in mind to just throw away! or eat it if you must....)
No seeds, spicy, sweet, and fresh crunchy...Mmmmmmmmm...I want some!
Why should you eat this?
1. Eat more vegetables in different ways: In fact, that's the beauty of Korean food! You get to eat vegetables in many tasty ways! Not just regular old salad anymore!
2. Healthy diet and weight loss: more veggies, more benefits your and less greasy stuff means lose weight! Yay!
3. Spicy foods promote and protects health and possibly weight loss too: If you can't take the heat, please don't over do it.
So cucumber lovers or not, as long as you are not allergic to it...
Shall we start?
Ingredients:
5 cucumbers (You know those big fat juicy kind?)
OR 10 small cucumbers
1tbsp salt
1tsp ground garlic
1tsp sesame oil
2tbsp hot red pepper paste
2tsp sugar
OR skip the sugar if you are diabetic like my dad
1tsp roasted sesame seeds (OPTIONAL)
And some chopped green onions!
First, clean and peel the skin off.
Then, cut around the seed center part by cutting one side and turn it to cut the other side, thus making a rectangular remain of the center seed part (Very left one in the pic). DON'T use the seed center part and slice others thinly.
Now, put all the cucumber slices in a mixing bowl and sprinkle salt all around and mix it so all the slices will be 'pickled' briefly. Let it sit for 15 minutes.We are not making Kimchi, so we don't need to let it sit too long. Just enough that it's flexible or soft but still fresh and crunchy.
After 15 minutes, wash them thoroughly. We don't want it to get too salty.
When you are done rinsing it out we need to squeeze out the excess water out. But gently please. If you are too strong...it would all get mushy and lifeless. So gentle firm squeeze will be good. We just need to get enough water out...not to completely dry it out, so don't worry too much.
Add garlic, hot pepper paste, sesame oil, and sugar.
Now, mix it well. You will end up having watery sauce. Don't throw it away. It's part of banchan. You used juicy cucumber after all!
You are done! Serve with rice. You can even eat the extra sauce (watery part) with rice too.
*If red pepper paste is too spicy for you, just add less and vice versa.*
Enjoy!
Other Banchan/Sidedish Recipe:
Korean style Pickl (Oiji)
Fresh Tofu Salad
Stir Fried Eggplant
Mini Ground Turkey Pancake
Zucchini Jun
Kimchi Recipes:
Traditional Whole Napa Cabbage Kimchi
Quick 'n Easy version Kimchi
Non Spicy American Cabbage Kimchi
Kimchi Fried Rice
Young Radish Water (YeoulMoo Mul) Kimchi
White Non-Spicy Kimchi
Kimchi Facts:
About Kimchi
Different Tastes of Kimchi
Korean Homemade Kimchi Part I-Most Popular
Homemade Kimchi vs Store Bought Kimchi
Popularity: 31%
do you use vinegar for this? I think my mom does…
I love soaking the juice in the rice and wrapping it with nori…yummm
euni,
Oh? I love vinegar.
Although this recipe doesn’t include vinegar it still tastes very fresh and nice.
If you love vinegary? taste adding vinegar sounds good!
Try both ways to see which style you like the best!
I never tried with nori. I’ll keep that in mind and try~ooooo sounds good! Thanks for the idea!
It looks like you put green onions in there based on the picture, but I don’t see that in the ingredient list. either way, I’m glad you put an illustration on how to make these dishes. I love Korean food since I’m half korean, and my mom cooked dishes similar to yours all the time when I was growing up. Unfortunately, she never showed me how to make them. Now that I’ve moved out and am on my own, I miss Korean food alot! So, Thank you for sharing your Korean recipes! I want to make more of these delicious dishes and incorporate more fun way to have veggies into my diet. (Salad is getting old)
Oh you’re right! LOL thanks for pointing that out!
you can skip it but I like it WITH green onion. I’ll revise that. ^^
We’re glad this is helping you. I don’t get to update too often but will post as much as possible. I, too, love Korean food and I wanted to preserve my mom’s recipe and share with everybody at the same time!
Let me know what you miss and we’ll get it up on here!
Enjoy!