Pretty much every weekday morning right now we’re mindlessly chunking up cucumber and throwing it into the box with salad leaves, peppers, spring onions, cashews, and mushrooms for lunch. Add a bit of black pepper, a splash of balsamic or even a tin of tuna and some mayo and I can be pretty sure we’ve saved ourselves from the pot noodle for another day!
But is there more to cucumber than salad? Is there more to cucumber even than tsatsiki? Cucumber side effects? And is it possible that it can be cooked?!
Hrm …
In Season in the UK:Cucumber are in season in the UK in July, August, September and October.
Buy:
Look for firm and vibrantly green cucumbers, and check there are no mushy spots. Buy whole, not halves, with firm, plump skin.
Store:
Up to one week, in the salad compartment of the fridge – we suggest wrapping them in a paper bag, rather than leaving them uncovered. Once cut, keep the cut end covered with foil or clingfilm to deter drying and shrivelling.
Cucumber Curiosities:
- Cucumbers have been cultivated since around 8,000BC, making them one of the oldest vegetables to be deliberately cultivated.
- We have read that the outside of a cucumber can be up to 20̊F warmer than the inside! Perhaps that’s where the expression comes from – as cool as a cucumber…
- The chemical cucubitacin is thought to be responsible for the bitterness in the skin, and another infamous cucumber obstacle is their “burping potential”. Lots of people find they get “burpy” after eating cucumber. But the good news is that there are now “burpless” varieties out there!
- An email has been doing the rounds for years listing ‘Amazing Cucumber’ facts, attributed to a New York Times article that can’t be traced. In the article, the following claims are made.
What do you think? True or False?
1. Cucumbers are a good source of B Vitamins and Carbohydrates that can provide that quick pick-me-up that can last for hours.
2. Rubbing a cucumber slice along bathroom mirrors eliminates fogging.
3. Placing a few slices of cucumber in a small pie tin will leave your garden free of pests because the chemicals in the cucumber react with the aluminum to give off a scent undetectable to humans but drive garden pests crazy.
4. Rubbing a slice or two of cucumber along problem cellulite areas for a few minutes causes the collagen in your skin to tighten, firming up the outer layer and reducing the visibility of cellulite.
5. If you drink too much, eat a few cucumber slices before going to bed and wake up refreshed and headache free.
6. Rubbing a freshly cut cucumber over your shoes provides a quick and durable shine that not only looks great but also repels water. And our favourite:
7. Rubbing a cucumber slice along a squeaky hinge will stop the squeaking.
!!!
Preparing Cucumbers
Cucumbers don’t usually require any special treatment. However, they do lose water once cut. So if you’re serving them with a sauce or dressing and plan to store the dish for a while before serving, your sauce / dressing could get very runny. One solution is to “draw out” the water from the cucumber before adding any sauces.
To draw out the water, cut the cucumber as required by the recipe, e.g. diced, sliced, grated.
Put the cucumber into a colander or sieve and sprinkle it with salt.
Put a bowl / dish / plate on top of the cucumber and weigh it down, so it pushes the cucumber towards the holes in the sieve / colander.
(Note: cans of food are useful for this)
Leave for about half an hour.
You might want to stir the cucumber part way through, to get out more liquid.
Continue with your recipe, after washing off the salt.
Cooking with Cucumbers:
If you are ready to experiment with using cucumber in hot meals, try dipping cucumber slices in batter and frying them, or stuffing and baking them!
Some folks used peeled cucumber chunks in really quick stir-fries.
And one idea for using cucumbers alongside a hot dish is to mix shredded cucumber with dill and low fat sour cream to go with wild salmon.
VegBox regular, Evette L in Florida, recommends using cucumber to make a refreshing drink by combining it with ginger or lime juice.
And if you’ve not yet made your own tsatsiki … maybe this is the summer to give it a go.
Other Cucumber Recipes:
Vegetarian Burritos with Fresh Cucumber and Tomato Salsa
Over to You:
So, cucumbers … tasteless waste of digesting energy or essential to your summer season?
Categories: food, seasonal eating, vegetarian
