I love Japanese tsukemono! Known as pickles in English. They are an essential part of a Japanese meal for me. I love them with a bowl of rice or just on their own with a cup of green tea.

Here is one version of Japanese Pickled Cucumbers I make. If you don't like them spicy just leave out the red pepper paste and flakes.

After washing the cucumbers, roughly peel them.

Then lightly flatten the cucumbers using a rolling pin. Don't mash them. Just gently break them apart. This lets them soak up the pickling sauce. This is an optional step. You can just cut them in slices or large diagonal chunks too. But if not flattening them then before cutting them roll in some salt.

After flattening them sprinkle with some salt and gently massage the cucumber. Put in a ziplock bag or bowl to soak for about 10 minutes. This takes the excess liquid out of the cucumber.

After 10 minutes, drain the liquid from the cucumbers and gently squeeze any more liquid from the cucumbers and place into a colander to drain while you make the sauce.

For the pickling sauce you need to soak the konbu in some boiling water until soft. Takes about 5 minutes or so. Then remove from the liquid and pat dry and cut in thin slices. Put in a bowl.

Now peel and slice the ginger into thin strips and add to the bowl.

In a separate bowl add the gluten-free soya sauce, rice vinegar, sugar, konbu soaking water, sesame oil, red pepper paste, red pepper flakes and sesame seeds and mix until the sugar dissolves. Then add the konbu and ginger. Put in a large ziplock bag with the cucumbers.

Take as much air as possible out of the bag and roll and close. Put in the fridge over night.

Enjoy the next day with a bowl of rice or just on their own. They go well as an addition to a salad too.

If you find you need more pickling sauce then you can double the recipe. You can adjust the sugar to your taste. If you don't want them to be sweet than the sugar can be omitted. Play around with the pickling sauce and customize it to your tastes.

Gluten-Free Japanese Cucumber Pickles (Tsukemono)

Ingredients For Step 1 - Preparing the cucumbers

• 4 cups salted then drained and cut cucumbers (I like English Cucumbers)
• About 1 tablespoons salt for removing excess liquid from the cucumbers

Ingredients For Step 2 - Pickling Sauce

• 3 tablespoons gluten-free soya sauce
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper paste
• 1/2 to 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1 - 2 teaspoons sesame seeds
• 1 inch piece of ginger, peeled and finely sliced
• 4" by 2" piece of konbu that has been soaked and finely cut
• About 1 tablespoon of konbu soaking liquid

Directions

1. Wash cucumbers.
2. Roughly peel the cucumbers, you don't need to take all the peel off.
3. Gently pound the cucumber with a rolling pin. This will let the sauce soak into the cucumber easily.
4. Salt the cucumber and mix lightly with you hands. Cut into about 2" by 1" strips. Put the cucumber into a ziplock bag or bowl and wait for about 10 minutes. Then remove from the bowl or ziplock and squeeze the cucumber to remove the excess water and let the cucumber drain in a strainer/colander while you make the pickling sauce.
5. Mix the sauce ingredients in a bowl until the sugar has dissolved.
6. Peel the ginger and slice into fine match sticks. Add to the sauce.
7. Soak the konbu if using in hot water until it is soft. Then drain off the liquid, but keep the liquid. I use about 1 tablespoon in the sauce. The rest I keep to add to miso soup or other homemade Japanese salad dressings. Rinse the softened konbu, pat dry with some paper towel and slice into small strips.
8. Add the konbu to the rest of the sauce ingredients.
9. Squeeze any remaining liquid from the cucumber, and lightly pat the cucumber dry with a paper cloth.
10. Transfer the salted cucumber to a large ziplock bag and add the sauce. Take the air out of the bag by rolling and close the ziplock bag.
11. Put the bag in the fridge over night.
12. Enjoy the next day!
13. Keeps in the fridge for a couple of weeks.

There are so many variations of pickled cucumber in Japanese cuisine. From just plain salted, to those packed in rice bran, or in a pickling sauce with or without rice vinegar. Has anyone been able to find gluten-free rice bran in Canada? I've not been able to and therefore have not tried to make that type of pickle yet. Do you have a favourite Japanese cucumber pickle?

Takuan or pickled daikon are one of my favourite Japanese pickles! I have to make sure I don't eat too many as they can be very high in sodium, but I do love them. If you would like to try making your own here is a link to my Takuan recipe. If you try it I'd love to hear what you thought about them. Do you make your own Japanese pickles? I'd love to hear about the recipes you love.

Note: These are my personal experiences and opinions. Always seek out a medical opinion for medical concerns.