Wakame Cucumber Salad with Blood Oranges Recipe

an refreshing recipe

This refreshing salad balances the heat of summer with its cooling, Yin-tonifying properties.

  • 1/4 cup wakame       

  • Filtered water for soaking       

  • 2 Japanese cucumbers (peeled, scored, and thinly sliced)*

  • Sea salt to taste   

  • 1 blood orange, supremed**

  • 1 juice orange, supremed    

  • 1/4 cup rice vinegar   

  • 1 1/2 Tbsp maple syrup   

  • 1/4 cup mirin

  • 1/2 cup dashi (kombu stock)***

  • 2 Tbsp shoyu

  • 1/4 bunch cilantro, chopped                       

Soak the wakame in water for 5-10 minutes. Mix cucumbers with sea salt, and press by covering with a weighted plate. Lift the wakame from the water, remove its rib and chop the remainder.
 

Prepare the dressing by combining the rice vinegar, maple syrup, mirin, dashi, and shoyu.

Add oranges to the cucumbers and wakame. Toss with cilantro and serve with dressing.   
 

* Japanese cucumbers are somewhat sweet and do not have any mature seeds inside. English or Persian cucumbers can be substituted.
 

**Supreming is a method that cuts away both the rind and bitter white pith, as well as the membranes between the segments of citrus fruits.
 

*** Dashi can be made by placing a strip of kombu and water in a medium pot and letting it simmer (never boil) for 15 minutes.

Patrica Lopez