As summer approaches, I thought I’d share one of my favorite, most crunchy and highly-nutritious salad recipes! The Refreshing Cucumber and Hijiki Salad is a delicious alternative to the traditional seaweed salad. It contains hijiki, which is black seaweed that is used in many Japanese soups and salads. When this vegetable of the sea is reconstituted it tastes slightly like anise. Hijiki is revered in Japan as a food that enhances beauty and adds strength and shine to your hair. It’s the most mineral-dense of all seaweeds, and highest in iron and calcium. In fact, hijiki has more calcium than the same amount of milk!
Enjoy this recipe, which is sure to become a summertime go-to in your kitchen.
Ingredients:
- 1 T dried hijiki
- 1 large cucumber (or 2-3 small Persian cucumbers)
- ½ red bell pepper
- 2 T green onions
Dressing:
- 3 T rice vinegar
- 2 T soy sauce
- ½ T finely minced ginger
- ½-1 T Olive oil
- ½ T red pepper flakes
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 2 T sesame seeds
Directions:
- Soak hijiki in warm water as you prepare other ingredients.
- Peel cucumber and slice in half, length-wise. Scoop out seeds and slice thin.
- Remove stem and seeds of pepper. Cut the pepper in half and slice thinly (about 1/8 inch).
- Thinly chop green onions.
- Whisk together all ingredients in dressing except the sesame seeds.
- Take hijiki out of the water, rinse and drain excess water. The hijiki may require slight chopping to get it into bite-size pieces.
- Toss together all ingredients, sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve.
Prep time: 15 minutes
Yield: about 4 servings
Did you know?
- Hijiki is revered in Japan as a food that enhances beauty and adds strength and shine to one’s hair
- Cucumbers are made up of mostly water, 90% to be exact
- Red bell peppers are fully mature green peppers and the sweetest of all the bells
- Hijiki is the most mineral-dense of all seaweeds, highest in iron and calcium. In fact, hijiki has more calcium than the same amount of milk!
