Japanese Cucumber Salad Recipe (Easy 10-Minute Sunomono)

If you’ve ever ordered sunomono at a sushi restaurant and wondered why your homemade version never tastes quite as crisp or balanced, you’re not alone. Most home cooks either skip a key step or use the wrong vinegar, and the salad turns out watery, flat, or too sharp.

The good news: a proper Japanese cucumber salad recipe takes about 10 minutes of hands-on work, uses six ingredients you probably already have, and needs nothing more than a sharp knife and a little patience. Below is the exact method we use at EatLikeFit, plus the small details — like why you salt the cucumbers first — that separate a soggy salad from a genuinely refreshing one.

What Is Japanese Cucumber Salad?

Japanese cucumber salad, or sunomono (which roughly translates to “vinegared thing”), is a classic side dish built around thin cucumber slices and a simple sweet-and-tangy dressing. It’s one of the most common items on a Japanese dinner table, right alongside miso soup and rice, because it’s light, quick to make, and works with almost anything else being served.

Traditional sunomono uses rice vinegar, a small amount of sugar, and salt, sometimes with sesame seeds or wakame seaweed folded in. Unlike heavier Western-style cucumber salads made with sour cream or mayonnaise, this version stays light and clean-tasting, which is part of why it pairs so well with rich or fried foods.

If you enjoy bright, vinegar-forward salads like this one, you might also like our Thai cucumber salad recipe, which uses a similar technique with a slightly spicier, herbier profile.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Many people don’t realize how much a properly salted cucumber changes the final texture. Once you try the technique below, plain cucumber salad starts to feel like an entirely different dish.

Here’s what makes this version worth keeping in your regular rotation:

• It’s fast. Ten minutes of prep, no cooking required.
• It’s genuinely light. A serving lands around 40–50 calories, mostly from the small amount of sugar and sesame seeds.
• It’s flexible. You can make it spicy, add soy sauce, or keep it strictly traditional.
• It holds up in the fridge. It’s one of the few salads that actually tastes better after 30 minutes of chilling.
• It’s naturally hydrating. Cucumbers are roughly 95 percent water, according to USDA nutrition data, which is part of why this salad feels so refreshing on a hot day.

Ingredients

• 2 medium cucumbers (English or Persian cucumbers work best)
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar (white vinegar can be substituted in a pinch)
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon sesame seeds, ideally toasted
• ¼ teaspoon red chili flakes (optional)

Ingredient Notes

Cucumbers. Fresh, firm cucumbers with minimal seeds give the best crunch. English or Persian varieties are ideal since they have thin skin and few seeds, so you can skip peeling.

Vinegar. Rice vinegar gives sunomono its authentic, slightly sweet tang. It’s milder than white vinegar — if you substitute, start with less and adjust to taste.

Sugar. Not meant to make the salad sweet, just to round out the vinegar’s acidity so the dressing tastes balanced rather than puckery.

Sesame seeds. Toasting them for a minute or two in a dry pan adds a noticeably deeper, nuttier flavor for almost no extra effort.

Chili flakes. Optional — a small pinch adds gentle warmth without making the dish spicy.

Related: Korean Cucumber Salad Recipe

Kitchen Tools You’ll Need

• A sharp knife or mandoline slicer
• A cutting board
• A mixing bowl
• A spoon for stirring the dressing
• Measuring spoons

A mandoline isn’t required, but it makes getting thin, even slices much easier — and that consistency matters more than you’d expect.

How to Make Japanese Cucumber Salad (Step-by-Step)

1. Wash the cucumbers thoroughly and pat them dry.
2. Slice them very thin — about 1/16 to 1/8 inch. A mandoline makes this fast and even, but a steady hand with a sharp knife works fine too.
3. Salt the slices with the teaspoon of salt, toss gently, and let them sit for about 10 minutes. This draws excess water out of the cucumber.
4. Squeeze out the liquid. Place the slices in a clean kitchen towel or paper towel and gently press to remove as much water as possible. This is the step that keeps your salad crisp instead of watery.
5. Mix the dressing by combining the rice vinegar and sugar in a small bowl, stirring until the sugar dissolves.
6. Pour the dressing over the cucumbers and toss to coat evenly.
7. Add the sesame seeds (and chili flakes, if using) and toss once more.
8. Chill and serve. Refrigerate for at least 10–20 minutes before serving for the best flavor and texture.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Even a simple recipe like this one has a few spots where things can go wrong. Here’s what tends to trip people up:

• Skipping the salting step. This is the most common mistake — without it, cucumbers release water into the dressing and everything turns watery within an hour.
• Slicing too thick. Thick slices don’t absorb the dressing well and taste more like plain cucumber than sunomono.
• Dressing too early. If prepping ahead, keep the dressing separate until closer to serving time.
• Forgetting to squeeze. Salting without squeezing only gets you halfway there — the squeeze is what actually removes the water.

Expert Tips

• Use toasted sesame seeds. A minute or two in a dry skillet brings out a much deeper, nuttier flavor than raw seeds.
• Buy the freshest cucumbers you can find. Older cucumbers are softer and more watery, which works against the crunch you’re going for.
• Taste before adding extra salt or sugar. Vinegar brands vary in acidity, so adjust to your palate rather than following the measurements blindly.

Related: Cucumber Tomato Onion Salad

Variations

Once you know the base technique, it’s easy to adapt:

• Spicy. Add extra chili flakes or a drizzle of chili oil (rayu).
• Soy sauce version. Add a splash of soy sauce (or tamari, gluten-free) with a few drops of toasted sesame oil for a deeper, savory flavor.
• Vegan. Already naturally vegan — for more plant-based sides, see our vegan salad recipes.
• Low sugar. Cut the sugar in half or swap in a little monk fruit sweetener. The dressing will taste sharper but still works.

What to Serve With Japanese Cucumber Salad

Sunomono works as a light, cool counterpoint, especially alongside rich, savory, or fried foods:

• Grilled or teriyaki chicken
• Sushi or rice bowls
• Grilled salmon
• BBQ dishes of almost any kind
• A protein-forward dish like our 5-ingredient chicken salad for a full, balanced meal

Who This Recipe Is Great For

This salad tends to fit naturally into a lot of different eating patterns, which is part of why it’s stayed a staple for so long:

• Anyone wanting a low-calorie side that doesn’t feel like “diet food”
• Low-carb or keto eaters, since cucumbers are naturally low in carbohydrates
• Vegan and vegetarian eaters
• People watching portion sizes, since it adds volume without much energy — more on that approach in our guide to high-volume, low-calorie foods
• Gluten-free eaters (just confirm your soy sauce or tamari if trying the soy variation)

A Quick Note on Sodium and Specific Diets

This salad is naturally low in sodium compared to most bottled or restaurant dressings, since the only added salt is the teaspoon used to draw water out of the cucumbers. Even so, if you’re on a strict sodium-restricted diet — for example, due to kidney disease or heart failure — it’s worth reducing the salt further or rinsing the cucumbers well after salting.

For context, the CDC notes that most American adults consume well above the recommended daily sodium limit, so small choices like controlling how much salt goes into a homemade dressing do add up over a week.

There’s also early, mixed evidence that vinegar eaten alongside a carb-heavy meal may modestly blunt the post-meal blood sugar spike, though the research is still considered preliminary. If you’re managing diabetes or kidney disease, it’s worth running dietary changes like this past your doctor or a registered dietitian rather than relying on one recipe to move the needle.

Storage Instructions

This salad is best eaten fresh, within a few hours if possible, since the cucumbers keep releasing water the longer they sit in the dressing.

To prep ahead, salt and squeeze the cucumbers in advance, then store them separately from the dressing and combine right before serving.

Practical Daily Habits

A few small habits make it easier to keep this on hand regularly:

• Batch-slice cucumbers at the start of the week for a five-minute salad on busier days.
• Keep the dressing pre-mixed in a small jar in the fridge, ready whenever you need it.
• Work it into meal prep alongside proteins and grains — see our salad meal prep ideas for more on building that kind of routine.

Helpful EatLikeFit Tools

A few free tools on our site can make cooking and planning easier:

Recipe Converter Calculator. Doubling this for a party or halving it for one? Our recipe converter calculator scales every ingredient automatically.

Recipe Cost Calculator. Our recipe cost calculator breaks down ingredient costs per serving — genuinely useful if you’re eating well on a budget.

BMI Calculator. If lighter sides like this fit into a broader health goal, our BMI calculator offers a general starting point — one data point, not the full picture.

FAQs

Final Thoughts

Japanese cucumber salad proves simple food doesn’t have to be boring. Once the salting-and-squeezing step becomes second nature, you’ll notice a real difference from any cucumber salad you’ve made before — crisp, cold, and balanced instead of watery or flat.

It’s a small dish, but it’s the kind that earns a regular spot in rotation: fast enough for a weeknight, light enough to pair with almost anything, and easy to adjust to whatever flavor you’re craving that day.

Japanese Cucumber Salad (Sunomono)

A quick, refreshing Japanese cucumber salad made with thin cucumber slices, a light rice vinegar dressing, and toasted sesame seeds — ready in about 25 minutes.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 10 minutes mins

15 minutes mins

Total Time 25 minutes mins

Course Salad, Side Dish

Cuisine Asian, Japanese

Servings 4 people

Calories 45 kcal

Equipment

• Chef's Knife or Mandoline Slicer
• Cutting board
• Mixing Bowl
• Kitchen Towel or Paper Towels

Ingredients

  

• 2 medium cucumbers English or Persian preferred
• 2 tbsp rice vinegar white vinegar can be substituted
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt for drawing out water
• 1 tbsp sesame seeds toasted preferred
• 1/4 tsp red chili flakes optional

Instructions

 

• Wash the cucumbers thoroughly and pat dry. Slice very thin, about 1/16 to 1/8 inch thick.
• Toss the cucumber slices with the salt and let sit for about 10 minutes to draw out excess water.
• Squeeze the cucumbers gently in a clean kitchen towel or paper towel to remove as much liquid as possible.
• In a small bowl, whisk together the rice vinegar and sugar until the sugar dissolves.
• Pour the dressing over the cucumbers and toss to coat evenly.
• Fold in the sesame seeds and chili flakes, if using.
• Chill for at least 10 minutes before serving.

Notes

Best eaten within a few hours for maximum crunch. Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 24 hours — do not freeze. For a spicy version, add extra chili flakes or a drizzle of chili oil. For a soy sauce version, add a splash of soy sauce or tamari with a few drops of toasted sesame oil.

 

 

 

 

Keyword cucumber salad, Japanese cucumber salad, sunomono

Muhammad Ahtsham

Muhammad Ahtsham is the founder of EatLikeFit.com and a nutrition researcher dedicated to healthy weight management. He provides practical, science-backed advice on high-protein diets and affordable meal planning to help readers achieve their fitness goals simply and effectively.