It's August and the garden is overflowing with cucumbers, tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant and corn. Well that is my dream garden however, I lack the green thumb so it's off to the Farmer's Market for me.
This week I'm sharing some cucumber salad recipes. The refreshing crunch is perfect for a hot summer day.
Not only do they make a great side salad cucumbers are a perfect addition to kick up a simple sandwiches or burgers.
Give yourself a spa treat and add slices of cucumber to your water glass with/without lemon, strawberry or orange. It's a lot cheaper then purchasing bottles of flavored water.
Fun facts about Cucumbers ...
Cucumbers are part of the gourd family, originally from South-East Asia, and are over 94% water. There are 3 variety of cucumbers
Pickling, Slicing and Seedless.
- Pickling cucumbers tend to be shorter (3 - 4 inches long), thicker, less regularly shaped, and have bumpy skin.
- Slicing Cucumbers - the standard conventional variety. The skin can be tough, slightly bitter with large seeds. Peeling and seeding these cucumbers maybe necessary depending on the time of year and the recipe you are making.
- Seedless Cucumbers - have a more tender skin, less bitter and do not need to be peeled or seeded. The English variety is the long individually wrapped cucumber found in the grocery shelves. Also try the small Persian cucumbers which are becoming more prevalent in conventional grocery stores.
Salting Cucumbers -
it may be necessary to draw some of the water out of the cucumber so it does not water down the dressing and ruin the salad. This is a key step when blending with yogurt or sour cream. Other times the liquid from the cucumber becomes part of the dressing/marinade recipe which needs to be drained when serving.
Cut the cucumber, sprinkle liberally with salt, let it sit at about 10 - 12 minutes, rinsed and pad dry.
Happy Cooking!!
Becky
