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Konbu Cha Pickled Celery
Prep Time
5 mins
Pickling Time
30 mins
Total Time
35 mins
 

Konbu Cha Pickled Vegetables is super easy and quick. You only need to marinate half an hour. It is slightly salty and full of umami.

Don't forget to see the section 'MEAL IDEAS' below the recipe card! It gives you a list of dishes that I have already posted and this recipe that can make up a complete meal. I hope it is of help to you.

Recipe Type: Salad, Side
Cuisine: Japanese
Keyword: japanese pickles, konbu cha, pickled vegetables
Serves: 4 as a side
Author: Yumiko
Ingredients (tbsp=15ml, cup=250ml)
  • 100g / 3.5oz cucumber ends trimmed (note 1)
  • 100g / 3.5oz daikon skin peeled (note 1)
  • 100g / 3.5oz cabbage leaves (note 1)
  • 20g / 7oz Konbu Cha (note 2)
Instructions

  1. Slice cucumber diagonally into 3mm / ⅛" thick pieces.

  2. Halve (or quarter if very thick) daikon vertically, then slice it perpendicular to the first cut into 2mm / 3⁄32" thick pieces.

  3. If your cabbage has a thick stem, slice the stem portion thinly using sogi-giri cutting method. Cut the softer leaves into small bite-size pieces.

  4. Put the vegetables and Konbu Cha in a zip lock bag. Massage to ensure the vegetables are coated with Konbu Cha powder.

  5. Remove air from the bag as much as possible and seal it. Pickle it for 30 minutes (no need to refrigerate unless your kitchen is extremely hot). Some water will come out of the vegetables.

  6. Squeeze the water out of the vegetables and serve.
Recipe Notes

1. You can use different vegetables that can be eaten fresh. Other vegetables often used in this recipe are Chinese cabbage, carrot, celery.

2. Konbu Cha is a tea that is made of powdered dried kelp, often with some salt to give more flavour. See more details about Konbu Cha in the post. Use plain Konbu Cha with no additional flavours such as sour dried plum (umeboshi)

For today’s pickling dish, I aimed for 2% salt of the total weight of the vegetables, i.e. 6g / 0.21oz salt. My Konbu Cha contains 0.9g / 0.03oz of salt in 3g / 0.1 oz of Konbu Cha powder. So I needed 20g / 7oz of Konbu Cha.

You may need to adjust the amount of Konbu Cha or supplement with salt if the saltiness of your Konbu Cha is quite different from mine.

Using the formula below, you can convert the salt-equivalent quantity from the sodium in the nutrition label on the back of the packet of the Konbu Cha.

Sodium (mg) x 2.54 / 1000 = equivalent Salt (g)

3. Nutrition per serving.

serving: 80g calories: 16kcal fat: 0.1g (0%) saturated fat: 0g (0%) trans fat: 0.0g polyunsaturated fat: 0g monounsaturated fat: 0g cholesterol: 0mg (0%) sodium: 600mg (25%) potassium: 139mg (4%) carbohydrates: 3.7g (1%) dietary fibre: 1.2g (5%) sugar: 1.9g protein: 0.7g vitamin a: 1% vitamin c: 26% calcium: 2.1% iron: 2.2 %