Let’s talk cucumbers. I’ve got two ideas for you. One drink, one pickle (see Garlic Dill Pickles).
From “The Deen Brothers Get Fired Up: Grilling, Tailgating, Picnicking, and More” by Jamie & Bobby Deen and Melissa Clark (Ballantine Books).
Serves 6
And finally, how about one more chilled corn soup? This one will use your cucumbers, too. With all this heat, I’m searching for all the cool meals I can find. This one is no-cook, perfect for this weather and came from “Everyday Food” magazine. The avocado provides the creamy component for this soup – a fabulous raw recipe. You’ll have to rustle up your own avocado; they’re not an organic crop for this neck of the woods so we’ll never see them in our Riverview box. Unless of course global warming advances faster than we think ….
I never get tired of just eating cucumbers like an apple but maybe you’re ready for a new cucumber salad idea. Smashed cucumbers are quite the thing. This recipe’s adapted from one in the New York Times which adapted it from a recipe from Superiority Burger, a vegan burger restaurant in Manhattan.
Unfortunately, this is another one of those recipes that I’ve had around so long I don’t remember its provenance. But it’s wonderful, wonderful if you just have too many cucumbers to eat fresh. It’s lightly sweetened and enhanced with a little mint and lemon juice. It’s a take-off on the version Lisa Rochon sells at the Peachtree Road Farmers Market. You can vary the herbs – Lisa makes her cucumber water with basil.
This easy recipe is adapted from one prepared by Seth Freedman, the East Atlanta Village Farmers market chef. It’s really a quick pickle and will keep in your refrigerator for up to a week, with the cucumbers and onions softening and becoming more pickle-like the longer they sit in the brine.
This recipe is adapted from an idea I saw from Whole Foods. Squeezing out the seeds and pulp from the tomato will keep your sandwich filling from becoming soggy.
I’m sharing two dips, one of which use cucumbers in the recipe. Both would work just as well as a salad dressing, but I was thinking of them as dips for fingers of fennel and kohlrabi, and disks of summer squash and cucumber. Green Goddess Dressing is traditionally made with a mixture of herbs and anchovies, but you can adjust it to suit your household’s taste.
Adapted from a recipe by Martha Rose Shulman who writes the “Recipes for Health” series for the New York Times.
This refreshing summer salad can sit in the refrigerator for a few hours without deteriorating, so it makes a great choice for bringing to work or to a summer picnic. There was a hot pepper in my box which I will use for this recipe, or you can substitute one of the other sweeter peppers. Since the cucumbers in my garden are coming in like crazy, I’ve got everything I need for this salad. And of course you could substitute bulgur or some other grain for the quinoa.