On Dana Vento today, in this chapter of Lavishly Living Life Out Loud my topic of choice is one of my favorite summertime veggies. I love cucumbers. They are mostly water and I do not eat them with skin(call that the lavish part if you want). Small, pickling cucs are at their freshest during the summertime and these are the perfect item to pick up at your local farmers market, or grocery store. Cucumbers are not fattening, offer a crisp crunch for the palate and they add a great look to any plate that you slice one up on and serve. Get ready to cool down, while munching on cucumbers and the combos I can offer you are easy to make.
Cucumber Love
First and foremost I do not like the regular cucumbers that you can buy cheaply in the grocery store year round. These are the traditional cucumbers with big seeds and the dark green skin that are served in restaurants, salad bars, etc. The skin is tough, it makes you burp(hardly lady-like, lol) and the seeds on the inside are enough to plant a small garden in your stomach, so these are NOT the cucumbers of topic. The cucumbers I am discussing are those small little pickling cucs, the size of your hand, and very thin like a banana. I don’t like the ones that come in backs and are mini cucs, they always taste like plastic, but these may even have some dirt on them.
My suggestion is to always peel a cucumber’s skin off of it. If you have digestion issues, the smart money is guessing that the skin will contribute to it, just peel it off, you are losing nothing. Always make sure to wash your produce and dry before attempting to peel so that it does not slip out of your hand.
Never buy a pickling cuc that is really round in the middle because it will be full of seeds. You want a small pickling cucumber that is about the size of a Snickers bar. This size of cucumber will be tender, sweet, not bitter and not filled with seeds, so perfectly delectable. If you want a bunch of great cucumber inspired recipes, join my on my Pinterest cooking board. Today, I am going to share my latest cucumber salad that my family has been enjoying to kick off cucumber salad season!
This is a simple to create salad
1) Red Onion Sliced
2) Cucumbers Sliced
3) Fresh Mint Leaves (cleaned and chopped)
4) Salt
5) Lemon Juice
6) Olive Oil
7) Toss and Serve
I add less lemon than oil, but I taste as I go, sorry there are no exact measurements for this, but I also don’t drown the salad!
Want a little crunch in your cucumber salad, just add some croutons. How about a Greek Variation? Simply add some cucumbers, feta, red onion, olive oil, salt and lemon. The season of cucumber love is upon us right now and these are a perfect way to munch, crunch and not pack on the calories, allowing me to lavishly live life out loud, crunching and munching on a healthy snack.
