Description: Easy and quick to prepare, yet it gives you a nice punch of hotness. It is low in calories and this can be a refreshing appetizer, side dish or snack. Why don’t you try when you are a bit bored of just eating plain celery or carrot sticks. It is the best dish to cook when you feel like releasing your stress. You can beat the food while preparing. What a good way to release your stress.
Serves: 2
Cooking time: 10 minutes

Ingredients

• Cucumber – beaten then torn, 1 piece or 200g
• Sesame oil – ½ tablespoon
• Sesame seeds- ½ tablespoon
• Soy sauce – ½ tablespoon
• Dry chilli – chopped, 1/2 piece (according to personal taste)
• Garlic – pureed, 1 clove

Method

1. Mix all the seasonings well in a small bowl.
2. Beat the cucumber with a rolling pin until it gets cracked then tear it into bite-size pieces. (Do not beat too much to the point the cucumber is completely crushed)
3. Soak the cucumber in the sauce and mix well.

Nutritional Values Per Serving

Kcal	Protein	Fat	Carbs	Fibre	Sugars	Salt	Saturated Fat
66.3	1.5g	5.0g	5.0g	0.9g	1.8g	0.6g	0.7g
3.3%	2.9%	7.2%	1.9%	3.0%	2.0%	9.3%	3.7%

Nutritional Tips

Cucumbers are well known for “cucumber diet”, “cucumber stick”, etc. As most of you probably know, they are really low calories (15 kcal per 100g), low carbs, protein, sodium, fat and cholesterol. They provide small amounts of vitamin C, vitamin K, magnesium and potassium. Due to the water content in cucumbers (95%), they help stay hydrated, especially during summer. A cup of sliced cucumber is almost equal to a glass of water !

Cucumbers also help remove waste from the body and reduce skin irritation (Mukherjee et al,  Fitoterapia. 2013 Jan;84:227-3) and they may promote anti-wrinkling and anti-ageing activity (Hooda, Journal of Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry. 2015; 4(4): 277-281.). No wonder some esthetic salons provide the cucumber face mask treatment !

I would like to introduce one more thing about cucumbers. You may have seen some cucumber dish named “Kappa Maki (roll)”. “Kappa” is an amphibious Japanese demon in Japanese mythology. They are usually described as green, human-like creatures, child-size, limbs are webbed and the back is turtle-like, plate on top of its head, living in a pond or river, and they like cucumber. Therefore some dishes are named Kappa for cucumber. Kappa does not mean cucumber originally, however, it is associated with this story.