9 Cool Things to do with a Cucumber

I’ve just realised that today is National Cucumber Day in Britain. I had no idea, why does no-one warn you?  I’ve never heard anyone say …

 “51 days to Cucumber Day” 

… or similar on the news.  

To celebrate here are all the good ideas I can think of, suddenly, for these delicate fruit – yes, it is a fruit!.

Thai Cucumber Salad with Roasted Peanuts

60ml fresh lime juice
1½ tbsp nam pla (fish sauce)
1 fresh hot red chilli
2 tsp minced garlic
1½ cucumbers – halved, seeded and thinly sliced
1 red onion – thinly sliced
3 tbsp chopped salted roasted peanuts

~   Whisk together the first 4 ingredients.
~   Toss with the cucumber and onion.
~   Put in a pretty dish and sprinkle with the peanuts.

Rasta Salad

The bright colours of this salad, red, green & gold are, of course, the signature colours of the Rastafari Movement as seen on their flag depicting the Lion of Judah.

~   Mix together 4 handfuls of tender lettuce leaves, ½ a fresh pineapple, diced,½ a cucumber, seeded and cut into julienne, 1 red pepper cut into slender julienne, 1 bunch spring onions – green parts only, sliced diagonally.
~   Squeeze over the juice of 1 lovely lime and toss to coat.
~   Taste and season bearing in mind, if you wishto be authentic, that Rastas don’t take salt!

Lightly Pickled Cucumber

1 cucumber
salt
150ml vinegar – I use cider, balsamic or sherry vinegar
3 tsp light brown sugar or to taste
a sprinkling of chilli flakes – optional

~   Top and tail the cucumber and then cut in half lengthways.
~   Remove the seeds – the easy way to do this is to score a line with a sharp knife either side of the strip of seeds then using a sharp teaspoon (!) scrape the seeds out.
~   Slice the cucumber as thinly as you can and put into a nylon sieve suspended over a bowl
~   Salt generously tossing the slices to make sure they all get some and leave for an hour or more.
~   Drain away the juice then turn the slices into the empty bowl and rinse well with cold water.
~   Re-drain.
~   Stir together the vinegar and the sugar to dissolve the sugar.  Add the chilli flakes if using.
~   Stir in the cucumbers and put in an airtight jar or container. If the vinegar does not cover the cucumber by a depth of 1 cm add more vinegar till it does. Cover and chill till needed.

This keeps a good long while in the fridge so long as it is always covered by 1 cm vinegar.  

Raita OR Tzatziki

These two sauces, Indian and Greek respectively, are very similar. Although you can just use finely chopped fresh cucumber if you use Lightly Pickled Cucumber it will stay crisp, have more flavour and won’t water down the yogurt although it might be inauthentic! 

~   Stir chopped or lightly pickled cucumber into yogurt (plain – not strawberry!)
~   For Indian Raita flavour with fresh mint, chilli powder and cumin to taste.  
~   For Greek Tzatziki add lemon, garlic, mint or dill and a little olive oil and in this case it would be rude not to use Greek yogurt!

Pennsylvanian Dutch Cucumbers

1 cucumber
1 medium onion
120ml sour cream
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
pinch of sugar
black pepper
1 tbsp chopped fresh chives

~   Prepare and salt the cucumber as for Lightly Picked Cucumer then rinse and dry well.
~   Toss together with the onion.  
~   Dressing – mix together the rest of the ingredients and season to taste.
~   Fold the dressing through the cucumber and onions just before serving.

Sugar Snap Peas and Cucumber in Mint Vinaigrette

1 thinly sliced cucumber
a good handful of sugar snap peas – topped and tailed and maybe sliced diagonally – up to you!
1 tbsp olive oil
pinch sugar
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 tbsp chopped fresh mint
salt and pepper

~   Sauté the cucumber and snap peas together in the olive oil together with the sugar till al dente (or, to put it another way, crisply tender).
~   Off the heat stir in the rest of the ingredients and season to taste.
~   Serve warm with lamb, for instance.

Cucumber and Citrus Vodka Granita

2 cucumbers – peeled, seeded, chopped and then puréed
300ml simple syrup
(simple recipe here plus how to make all sorts of flavoured syrups)
2 tbsp citrus vodka

~   Stir all together.
~ Freeze in a shallow metal pan stirring and crushing lumps with fork every 30 minutes till the mixture is firm.
~   To serve scrape into flakes with a fork and pile into pretty glasses.

Garnish a Pimms

Happy Eyes

Put a cool slice of cucumber on each eye and relax in a prone position to soothe, refresh reduce dark circles and puffiness.

How to Cheer Up your Cucumber!

They do say that you can refresh your cucumber and make it last longer by placing the stalk end in a small container of water and standing it in the fridge.

Click to Tweet …

9 Cool Things to do with a Cucumber

How to Cheer up your Cucumber and other good ideas.

UK Cucumbers vs American Cucmbers

In the UK I use this sort of cucumber …

… which, when in the West Indies, I called a “Eurocumber”, to distinguish it from the ridge cucumber …

… which is more common in the States.  This has a tougher skin than ours but if you remove that everything should be fine.

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