I so want to love seaweed salad. Someday I’ll probably love seaweed salad, but for now…
For now this Kale Cucumber “Seaweed” Salad will do very, very nicely. Especially if I can find a way to smuggle it into the sushi restaurants in my purse. This salad is so delicious, but it’s missing one very important element of a traditional Wakame salad – seaweed.
When I dislike a food I make it my mission in life to learn to like it. Mushrooms? My Mom would always try to hide them in things like chiIi and spaghetti sauce by mincing them to microscopic sizes and I would pick them out like your dog finds his pill in a block of cheese. Olives? Once were evil come to life and now are absolute heaven (but maybe that goes hand in hand with my love of martinis??). Currently? Working on seaweed salad. I’ve tried it. I keep trying it. I like the look of it, the sound of it, the idea of it, but I just don’t… like it.
So this salad is my gateway salad. It has all the usual flavours of your favourite sushi restaurant salad but no seaweed. And let me tell you, it is SO good. My daughter (a kale salad disliker btw) inhaled a huge bowl of this and I’m sure it’s gotten me one step closer to the sushi restaurant experience I’m striving for.
Kale and Cucumber “Seaweed” Salad, the details.
Probably the best thing about this salad is how easy it is to make. It takes than 10 minutes to throw it together and you can even make it ahead of time.
How you cut the vegetables does matter here if we’re trying to simulate the real thing. I bunch together leaves of kale and slice them into thin ribbons. Then, I use a julienne peeler (like this) to cut the cucumber. If you don’t have one of those go buy one and I promise you will use it all the time. If you don’t have time to go buy one then just cut your cucumber into the longest, thinnest pieces you can. Toss these veggies in a bowl and then mix all the dressing ingredients together and whisk well.
Top the salad with the dressing and then add your Furikake. This is a pretty important ingredient in this dish because the nori gives you that seaweed vibe. You can usually find Furikake in the asian section of your grocery store or you can easily make your own. Here’s my recipe for Furikake.
Tips, tricks, substitutions
- Kale – I always use curly kale. I like it better. I know the chefs all say differently, but they’re wrong.
- Cucumber- you just need one baby cucumber for this, which turns out to be roughly 1/2 cup of cucumber strips.
- Avocado Oil – any neutral oil works, avocado is just my go-to if I don’t want the flavour of olive oil.
- Storing – you can easily make this salad a few hours ahead of time and it will keep very well. It’s still good if made the day before, but it won’t retain the little bit of crunch it has.
FAQs?
I don’t think I can explain this as well as this article, which tells you literally everything you ever wanted to know about this delicious, sprinkly topping.
Recipe-ish…
Let me know what you think!
Kale Cucumber “Seaweed” Salad
Ingredients
- 2 Tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tsp rice vinegar
- 2 tsp mirin
- 1/2 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp fresh ginger finely grated
- 1/2 garlic clove minced
- 1 tsp toasted sesame oil
- 1 Tbsp avocado oil
- Pinch red pepper flakes
- 5 cups kale sliced into ribbons
- 1 baby cucumber julienned
- 1 Tbsp Furikake recipe here
Instructions
- To make the dressing whisk together the soy sauce, vinegar, mirin, sugar, ginger, garlic, sesame oil, avocado oil and red pepper flakes.
- Combine the kale and cucumber in a bowl.
- Toss with the dressing.
- Add the Furikake and toss lightly.
If you like this Recipe for Kale and Cucumber “Seaweed” Salad please go try my Recipe for Miso Fried Rice with Brown Butter, Crispy Kale and Mushrooms. I think you’ll like it!
