Thursday, July 24, 2008

Cucumber Salad, Eating In-Season

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In the middle of the hot Oklahoma summer, garden salads can be scarce.  It's just too hot to grow decent lettuce and my salad mesclun mix was too popular with the bugs to keep going.  But one cool summer vegetable I do have a steady supply of is cucumber.

I have always loved cucumber tomato salads, but I started searching for a simple cucumber salad today and turned up this wonderful dish on Recipezaar.  Somewhere between salad and slaw, it was a hit at dinner.  Below is the recipe (with a couple notes on my variation).

Cucumber Salad

  • 2 cucumbers, very thinly sliced (I scooped out the seeds first.)
  • 1 red onion, very thinly sliced (I used scallions.)
  • 2 tablespoons vinegar or lemon juice (Apple vinegar was great!)
  • 2 tablespoons sour cream
  • salt and pepper, to taste
  • 1/2 teaspoon sugar (I opted for granular Splenda.)
  • 1 teaspoon chopped fresh dill (I had dried dill and used 1/2 tsp.)
  1. Mix cucumbers and onions together.
  2. Mix rest of ingredients together in a closed bowl and give a shake.
  3. Add to cucumbers, chill till very cold & serve.

(I just threw all of the ingredients in with the cucumbers and onions and mixed it well, instead of shaking before mixing.)

See?  Eating in season is all about a little creativity.

4 comments:

~Laurie said...

Wow looks tasty. Thanks for the recipe! I will be making this!

hwall said...

This sounds really delicious. I found you blog by following a link offered in a May 2008 story in the Oklahoma Gazette about urban gardens. I try to shot at farmer's markets whenever possible, and I'd never really thought about gardening until I rad that story, and now I'm kind of hooked on the idea. I have some questions, though, and I hope you can either answer them or point me to someone who can.

Is it too late in the season for me to begin gardening? What are some good things to start with this time of year?

Also, I have a weimaraner, and I feel like, no matter where I plant my garden, he's bound to pee on it. Do you have any thoughts/advice on that?

I really appreciate any help you can offer or sources you can recommend. My e-mail address is hollyx19@yahoo.com.

Thank you!!
Holly

Elizabeth said...

Laurie, no prob! It's a tasty recipe, indeed.

Holly, I'll email this too, in case you don't check back. You could definitely start a garden for the fall at this point. You probably won 't have a harvest as big as in a spring garden, but there are actually some veggies that grow better in the fall. Broccoli, for example. Here is a great document for planning an Oklahoma fall garden: http://pods.dasnr.okstate.edu/docushare/dsweb/Get/Document-1114/F-6009web.pdf

You might want to check garden centers for plants, but you may need to order seeds off the internet at this point. I personally love http://www.victoryseeds.com/ .

Hope this helps!

Eve said...

We make this a lot without the sour cream. I also add sliced tomatoes to it and let it sit overnight. It taste really good on a smoked brisket sandwich.