Pickled cucumbers.

• 1 cucumber
• Salt
• Japanese rice vinegar
• Bit of sugar.

1. Quarter the cucumber longways and cut out the seeds.
2. Cut the cucumber up into slices – thin or chunky, depending upon choice.
3. Cover with a good sprinkling of salt and leave for no more than 5 minutes.  This draws out a bit of water and will make the cucumber more crunchy.
4. Rinse off the salt.
5. Put the cucumber in a bowl or jar and pour over some rice vinegar and a bit of sugar.
6. Stir it all about, cover and put in fridge.
7. Eat it next day.  Utterly scrumptious, and I’m not a great cucumber lover.

When in Vegas recently, one night I ate in an oriental restaurant and chose some pickled cucumbers.  They were a revelation and since being home, I have been fiddling about trying to reproduce that tastiness.  The important part is the short time covered with salt.  As well as the rice vinegar, we can also add a bit of soy sauce – Japanese Tamari (gluten free) tastes nice, mirin and/or sesame oil.  Another nice touch is a tiny sprinkle of dried hot peppers.

Raw pickled vegetables are not only delicious, but also fantastically good for us.  Raw veggies contain digestive enzymes and the vinegar lowers the GI of the meal; raw veg has good volume, so fills up the tummy.  We need to chew raw veg very well to break down the vegetable wall and therefore give our guts access to all the goodness.