Make this recipe even easier: Serve with a pouch of microwave rice if you don’t fancy cooking your own. I love those little pots of sticky rice or sushi rice you can put in the microwave - in the UK the brand is Veetee, and I’m sure you can get the equivalent everywhere. My husband is half Japanese and so we of course have a rice cooker at home and I can highly recommend! If you do cook rice a lot, it is a really useful gadget to invest in. They come in different sizes and the small ones don’t take up much space.

Sushi rice: you do really need to rinse it WELL. If you don’t rinse it, you will end up with a sticky gummy mess. Rinse, rinse then rinse again!

If you don’t like tahini: It could be the brand you’re using. I’ve tried some and thought they tasted awful and tried others and could literally drizzle them on everything. But saying that, if you really don’t like it, no problem, you can double the dressing amounts for the sushi rice and use that to dress the cucumber salad as a little quick pickle situation. Or switch the tahini for a smooth peanut butter.

Tuna: I know some people can find cooking tuna a bit faffy and scary - you don’t want to overcook it, does it need to be sushi grade, whatever else - but it is really simple. It doesn’t need to be sushi grade here as you are cooking it, and this can still be pink in the centre so just you can buy tuna steaks from the supermarket. The fishmonger will give you the best quality ones but I know this isn’t always so accessible so the supermarket is just fine! You could do this recipe with salmon, it will just take a little longer to cook, but I would encourage you to try with tuna if you haven’t before. It’s so good and so quick!

Sesame seeds: You can buy both black and white sesame seeds from most places but if you can only find one, that’s fine, don’t stress. I love the combination of both and it also looks really pretty but it will also be good just with one or the other. Seasoning the sesame seeds is important as you want the crust to be flavoursome and delicious. If you are doing lots of tuna at a time, I tend not to do more than two at a time so I can keep an eye on how long each side has been cooking for. The sesame seeds do have a tendency to burn quite easily so you might need to wipe the pan out with some kitchen paper before you start again with the next batch. That’s very normal so don’t panic if you have to do that.

Make it veggie: Sesame-crusted tofu would be good! Cut the firm tofu into planks and then dip in the sesame seeds and go on as usual. I would air fry the tofu if you have one as I find it gets it the crispiest! Try 200c in the airfryer for 10 mins, flipping half way. If doing in the oven, it’ll take closer to 20 minutes.

How to get your children to eat it too: Tuna and rice, they love but I just do plain cucumber on the side rather than the dressed cucumber.

Make it spicy: add some chilli flakes, chilli crisp or fresh chilli to the cucumber salad.

If you want to double the recipe: just double everything and on you go.

What to do with leftovers: leftovers actually keep really well for a lunch the next day, even the tuna. The cucumber salad especially is a good one to have in the fridge and I often make double because I could literally eat a huge bowl of it to myself.