Recipe category is: crunchy hydration.
Some produce gets prized for fleeting seasonality. Summer berries, stonefruit and asparagus are ephemeral treats with time-sensitive access that prompt an almost gorging style of eating – get your fill while you can.
Hot house growing practices mean cucumbers are more of a shelf staple. Turn your attention away from fluctuating prices and you could pick one up from the market every week of the year. But that’s not to say they’re excluded from seasonality. Right now, summer cucumber crops are picking and eating their best, quality is high and prices are low.
Add one or two to your basket this week – as the recipes below show, they won’t go to waste.
Sure these crunchy corn tortillas were devised as a fresh way to start the day, but they have a customisable nature hinged on fresh ingredients that make them a good throw-together meal at any time of the day.
Warm weather and chilled soup go hand in hand. So do avocado and cucumber. All four converge in this heat-busting winner of a recipe.
Not just great stress relief. By giving cucumbers a bit of a bust-up you create lots of organic craggy edges that will trap pockets of, in this case, fish sauce and sesame-forward dressing.
Take the time to carefully and thinly slice rounds of cucumbers before giving them a sweet and sour pickling bath and the crunchy coins will transform into supple and piquant circles.
Grated ginger elevates this versatile pickle recipe that is ready in just two days and will last in the fridge for up to three months.
Wispy fennel fronds deliver wispy pepperiness through a crunchy tangled salad of cucumbers, courgette, carrot and celery.
You could be forgiven for thinking poke bowls are a hard-to-muck-up assemblage job where anything goes, but recipe developer Angela Casley points out the simplicity means there’s nowhere to hide. “Imperative to any poke bowl is the freshest of ingredients; fish that will melt in your mouth and a vegetable selection that is bright and crisp.” A great option for peak season cucumbers then.
Typically denser than other breads, rye is typified by its pleasant chewiness and slightly sour flavour. In this open-faced sandwich the heartiness gets rounded out by the classic pairing of cucumber and smoked salmon.
Drink your greens. This verdant smoothie is a nifty use of the odds and ends of your cucumbers. Blended with sweet banana, creamy avocado and energising matcha, it’s not an issue if they’ve gone a bit limp.
On a balmy evening this cool dessert, blended from juicy berries and quenching cucumber offers refreshment with each spoonful. And then there’s the tequila.