Dukan Japanese Style Cucumber Sesame Salad (it's Paleo too!)

Cucumber Sesame Salad

Help!  We've fallen and we can't get up!  Actually, we fell off the wagon, gained a couple pounds, but are back on track.  The short story - work has been incredibly busy -- working VERY long hours = not much time or energy to meal plan or cook.  We ended up eating what we could while trying to make better choices.  Didn't work.  Last week we decided we gotta get back on track.  Went back to a Cruise-like Consolidation while trying to apply Paleo rules and lost a couple pounds.  Also got back on track with our cardio workouts 5 times per week.

What does a Cruise-like Consolidation Phase with Paleo rules equal to?  Low fat, almost no dairy, no grains, lots of fresh veggies, and trying to choose food items that are close to being natural.  Oh and we're trying to do this while lowering our food budget.  I'm still trying to get a hold on our new way of eating and our new budget.

Cucumbers were on sale the other week (on sale here they are about $1.99 per pound) and we decided to throw together a Japanese style cucumber salad I grew up on.  It is a VERY EASY recipe, tasty and refreshing.   The male half of this couple loves cucumbers and he loved this salad.

This is a Consolidation Phase recipe, although eaten in moderation it worked just fine during Cruise for us.  It's up to you.

RECIPE:

Serves - depends on the size of your cucumber (ours served us 2 times, plus a snack size amount for the male half of this couple)

Prep Time: Approx 20 minutes (part of this time you are letting your cucumbers sit in the fridge)

1 cucumber (approx 3/4 lb.), 1/4" slices (or halves, or cubed, whichever you way you like it)

1 T. ground sesame

1/2 T. sesame oil

1 t. kosher salt (or pure sea salt)

1 T. Tamari (wheat free low sodium soy sauce - I would start with 1/2 T. if you're watching your sodium intake)

Massage salt into cucumbers.  Place bowl of cucumbers into the refrigerator for approximately 10 minutes.  Remove the bowl from the fridge and drain liquid.  Add ground sesame, sesame oil and tamari, mix well and place bowl back in the fridge for a few minutes or until you are ready to eat.  

NOTE: We added cubed konnyaku to our salad because we had half a cube left over, it tastes great either way.   We also made a double order of this which was way too much for us.  We like variety when it comes to our weekly food intake.  We made one order this past weekend and it was just perfect as a side dish for the two of us, plus a snack size portion for the male half the next day.

The following day the cucumbers didn't look as crisp, but they still had a nice crunch to them.

Enjoy...we sure did!