Easy Japanese Pickled Cucumber Recipe - Explore Cook Eat (2024)

FAQs

What are the benefits of Japanese pickled cucumber? ›

Japanese cucumbers are an excellent source of vitamins K, A, and C, folic acid, potassium, and silica, which is a trace mineral that helps strengthen connective tissue. Japanese cucumbers in pickled form are an essential component in Japanese cuisine.

Toss cucumbers with 3 tablespoons salt, and place in a colander set over a bowl. Refrigerate for 1 to 2 hours. Drain, rinse, and drain again. Divide cucumbers, garlic, and dill among jars.

A pickled cucumber – commonly known as a pickle in the United States and Canada and a gherkin (/ɡərkɪn/) in Britain, Ireland, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand – is a usually small or miniature cucumber that has been pickled in a brine, vinegar, or other solution and left to ferment.

The Japanese eat them with plain rice, mix it into onigiri rice balls, or pack it in their bento boxes. The ingredients used for tsukemono can include a wide range of vegetables such as cucumbers, radishes, turnips, carrots, ginger, lotus root, and eggplant.

Sodium in pickled cucumbers

Too much salt in the diet can raise blood pressure, which in turn increases the risk of heart attack, stroke, diabetes, and kidney disease. Sodium can also strip calcium from bones. That can weaken bones and increase the risk of fractures.

Pickles are also high in particular types of fibre that feed beneficial gut bacteria, acting as prebiotics – food for the probiotic gut bacteria. Studies have shown that adding fermented vegetables to your diet may help with digestion and manage symptoms of constipation and diarrhoea³.

Most pickle recipes call for distilled white vinegar. This is the clear, colorless vinegar made by fermenting grains. It has a mellow aroma, tart acid flavor and does not affect the color of light-colored vegetables or fruits.

I recommend using the more natural apple cider vinegar, which is from apples, instead of other vinegars. Add enough liquid for half the number of jars you have. This is because the pickle brine will fill in the space where the packed pickles are in the jars.

For a quick and easy way to help ensure crisp pickles: soak cucumbers in ice water for 4 to 5 hours before pickling. This is a safer method for making crisp pickles. Using lime, or calcium hydroxide, in solution for soaking cucumbers changes the amount of acid in the cucumber tissue.

Therefore, most of the time, the combination of cucumber and tomato is advised to be avoided. Additionally, they both have a completely different way of digestion, so this combination must be avoided as it can lead to stomach upset."

Which is the best vinegar for pickling? ›

Distilled white vinegar

Because of its clarity, it maintains colour and flavour of the produce being pickled. This makes it ideal for pale produce you don't want to discolour like fruits and white vegetables like cauliflower or onions.

Because apple cider vinegar is made from apples rather than barley, corn rice or wine, it gives pickles a mellower taste. Using a white distilled vinegar, for example, will create a harsher flavour. But as well as being gentler on your palate, using apple cider vinegar also adds health benefits to pickles.

Japanese pickled cucumber is a quick and easy side dish that is extremely healthy and bursting with flavor!

Unlike many Western pickles, Tsukemono are pickled in some combination of salt, soy sauce, miso, sake lees, or rice bran and don't include any vinegar. Any tartness in the pickle is a result of lacto-fermentation, which converts the sugars in the vegetables into lactic acid, giving them a sour taste.

Kyurizuke. How it's made: Japanese cucumbers are brined in a mix of soy sauce, salt, and sugar for one to two weeks until they have shrunk considerably and have a firm crunch.

It depends on the base ingredients of course, but fermented and pickled foods are generally high in many vitamins and minerals and excellent for your gut health. Many Japanese pickled products are less “pickle”-ish than their Western counterparts, so are often brighter and fresher tasting.

Tsukemono uses an age-old preservation process that can take many forms and they're known to provide numerous health benefits such as vitamins, fibre and antioxidants. Tsukemono is a cornerstone of Japanese cuisine and a healthy diet wouldn't be the same without them.

These pickles are resistant to gastric acid in your stomach and allow the probiotic to reach your intestine, where it can have the most benefit. This is yet another way in which Japanese pickled vegetables may help improve your digestive system. Another of the main benefits is an abundance of vitamins and minerals.

Pickled beets are a staple across many Eastern European countries, where they're served in salads or as a side dish, but they're also particularly popular in the US. They can be fermented or quick-pickled with vinegar, and they're a great source of fiber, antioxidants, vitamin C, folate, and B vitamins.