Last updated on September 23rd, 2024 at 08:31 pm
Japanese pickles carrots and cucumber is a Japanese-style quick pickle that is an ideal go-to pickle dish. Crunchy, sweet, refreshingly salty slices of carrots and cucumber served as a side dish and palate cleanser. Quick and easy fresh pickle ready in an hour.
This is a Japanese cuisine-inspired pickle recipe inspired by hours of watching Japanese cooking shows and trips to Japanese restaurants over the years.
My daughter and I braved to try lightly salting vegetables and left them in the fridge for an hour which to our surprise, came out as we expected them to be: crisp vegetables served with our Southeast-Asian meal.
Japanese pickles are generally known as tsukemono. There are many types of pickles in Japan.
Salt-pickling is one of the oldest styles that is used in this recipe. This is also the simplest for beginners like us to make with no special equipment or ingredients.
What kind of pickles do you make? Would you try to make Japanese-style salt-pickled vegetables and fruits?
As I learn by watching and then experimenting my knowledge in pickling especially the Japanese way is very limited.
You might want to take a look at No Recipes’ and Just One Cook Books blogs on how to make Japanese pickles.
They have a variety of pickle recipes to choose from and learn from.
Ingredients to make Japanese pickles
The ingredients are straightforward, the recipe only calls for the vegetables to be pickled and salted.
carrot – any size and type
cucumbers – large cucumber or small ones
salt
How to make Japanese pickles or salt-pickled cucumber and carrots or shiozuke
My daughter can make this better than I do so I am sharing her directions to make this pickle to you.
Peel the carrots and cucumber using a peeler. Make sure to leave one white centimeter strips of peel intact.
But if the skin is tough or hard peel the fruit completely.
Sprinkle salt on the chopping board and rub and roll the
carrot and cucumber in the salt. Put in the box, put the lid on and place in the fridge to pickle for an hour.
After an hour, the vegetables or fruit would have let the water out and have pickled. Take them out of the fridge, pat them dry, slice to bite-size pieces and serve.
Here is how I make Japanese pickles.
First, peel the carrots. Peel the cucumber. If the carrots are big, slice them in quarters, lengthwise.
Sprinkle salt on a chopping board and roll the carrots and cucumber on the salt to coat them with salt.
Place them in a container, cover and refrigerate for an hour.
And then after an hour, take them out of the fridge and then slice the pickled vegetables as desired and serve.
Which instruction do you prefer?
Recipe notes
– feel free to use any vegetables on hand like cabbage, daikon or eggplant
– this pairs wonderfully with meats, fish, seafood
– this salad offers a delightful complement to a variety of dishes and a condiment for a bowl of plain rice
Try these salads next:
Eggplant Salad or Ensaladang Talong
Radish Salad or Ensaladang Labanos
Watch this short cooking video showing how to put together this salt pickled carrots and cucumber.
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Japanese Pickles – Salt pickled carrots and cucumber
Ingredients
- 2 small carrots
- 1 medium cucumber
- 1 tsp salt
Instructions
- Peel the carrots and cucumber using a peeler. Make sure to leave one white centimetre strip of peel intact. But if the skin is tough peel the fruit completely.
- Sprinkle salt on the chopping board and rub and roll the carrot and cucumber in the salt.
- Place in a container. Put the lid on and place in the fridge to pickle for an hour.
- After an hour, the vegetables or fruit would have let the water out and have been pickled. Take them out of the fridge, pat them dry, slice into bite-size pieces and serve
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