Cucumber Mango Salsa

This salsa is perfect for a beach day. Sweet and crunchy, it's a good use of the cucumbers piling up in your veggie drawer.

You need:
2 mangos seeded & diced
Red onion diced
Cilantro
3 lemon cucumbers diced
1 jalapeño chopped finely
Juice from a lime
Salt to taste

Mix. Dip. Ahhhh yeahhh!


Posted by Mister Gardner

Watermelon Gazpacho

This recipe was found in Food and Wine.  I've been patiently saving it for when the watermelon is finally ripe. We've arrived!

Watermelon Gazpacho

CONTRIBUTED BY AMANDA LYDON AND GABRIEL FRASCA

• ACTIVE: 40 MIN
• TOTAL TIME: 1 HR 40 MIN
• SERVINGS: 12

This cool, sweet-tangy riff on the Spanish staple was inspired by an abundance of watermelons from a farm

  More Gazpachos

1. 6 1/2 pounds tomatoes, cored
2. 2 pounds seedless watermelon, peeled—2 cups coarsely chopped, 2 cups diced
3. 2 pounds cucumbers, peeled and seeded—2 cups coarsely chopped, 2 cups diced
4. 1/4 cup sherry vinegar
5. 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
6. Salt and freshly ground pepper
7. 6 scallions, thinly sliced
8. 2 jalapeños, seeded and minced
9. 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
10. 1/4 cup fresh lime juice
11. 1/2 cup minced chives, for garnish

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the tomatoes and blanch until the skins are loosened, about 30 seconds. Transfer the tomatoes to a large rimmed baking sheet and let cool.
2. Peel the tomatoes and halve them crosswise. Working over a coarse sieve set over a large bowl, squeeze the tomato halves to release the seeds and juices. Press on the seeds; you should have about 2 cups of tomato juices in the bowl. Coarsely chop enough of the tomatoes to make 4 cups. Cut the remaining tomatoes into 1/2-inch dice.
3. In a food processor, puree the coarsely chopped tomatoes with the reserved tomato juice and the 2 cups each of chopped watermelon and cucumber. Transfer the soup to a large bowl. Stir in the diced tomato, watermelon and cucumber, the vinegar and 1 tablespoon of the olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Refrigerate until chilled, at least 1 hour.
4. In a small bowl, mix the scallions, jalapeños, cilantro and lime juice; season with salt and pepper. Ladle the soup into bowls, drizzle with the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil and sprinkle the chives on top. Pass the scallion relish at the table.

MAKE AHEAD The watermelon gazpacho can be refrigerated overnight.

• FROM , RECIPE OF THE DAY: AUGUST 2011, NANTUCKET CHEFS' CLAMBAKE,THE BEST GAZPACHO RECIPES
• PUBLISHED AUGUST 2007

Drink your Cucumbers

After the last few weeks of cucumbers in the CSA box you might need a new strategy.  Drink your cucumbers. Juicing cucumbers or blending them and straining the puree is a great way to cool down for the summer and offer an interesting beverage while waiting for the grill to get hot at your mid summer barbecue.

Triple Lemon Refresher

How to Make It:


Slice one lemon cucumber thinly and put into a cocktail shaker.  In the shaker combine equal parts gin (Hendrick's) and fresh lemon juice.  I usually squeeze one lemon per person and eyeball the gin to match.  Add lemon basil simple syrup to taste.  Add ice and shake well.

Put a slice or two of the boozy lemon cucumber into each cocktail glass, add fresh ice and strain cocktail into the glasses.  If you still have fresh lemon basil, a leaf or two crushed into the glass is nice.

You could stretch it out with some seltzer if you like.

Lemon Basil simple syrup


How to Make It:


Put one bunch lemon basil in a small heavy pot with one part sugar and two parts water.  Heat until the sugar dissolves.  Cover and steep, the longer the better, at least ten minutes.  Decant into a jar and keep in the fridge.  Use it to flavor seltzer water, hot or iced tea, cocktails, brush on pound cake or fruit pies and tarts, drizzle over plain yogurt, sliced fresh peaches, strawberries, plums...

Thyme and rosemary also make good simple syrup, but the lemon basil syrup is so special and addictive.





or try  

Cucumber Lemonade Mocktail

from Food and Wine

click here

Purslane Pico

This salad/ pico de gallo is reminiscent of a nopales salad, except a
little less like Slimer from the Ghostbusters hit it.

You need:
Purslane 1 bunch stems discarded, minced
2 onions Diced
2 jalapeños minced
4 cucumbers diced
5 tomatoes diced
Juice from 1 lemon
Salt

Chop.  Mix.  Squeeze. Serve.

Add cilantro if you want more of a salsa-y salad. Enjoy. 
I had mine for our 4th of July BBQ. Boom.

Cool Cucumber Salad

Hot days?  Cool salad.

Ingredients:


a few Cucumbers (lemon or otherwise) sliced
one or two Rocket onions (or regular if you're not a baller) sliced thin
half a cup of Cilantro
6 tbsp of rice vinegar
a couple squirts of Sriracha (or fresh jalepenos, I just didn't have any)
a tbsp or 2 of water
Tbsp of sugar.

combine the sugar, water, vinegar and hot sauce
layer your onions, cukes, and cilantro in a bowl.  Mix, cool in fridge for about 30 minutes and serve.  


Easy like Sunday morning.

Cucumber, Mint, and Borage Soup

This soup caught my eye because it uses the Persian Cucumber. We grow it, find it as a frequent visitor in the CSA box this season along with chocolate mint and borage.

Recipe: Chilled Cucumber Soup

(found in July's Food and Wine, originated by Eric Skokan of Boulder Colorado's Black Cat farm table bistro)

four 4 oz. Persian cucumbers

(3 coarsely chopped, 1 peeled and diced)

1/2 cup ice cubes

1/4 cup cold water

1/4 cup grapeseed oil

1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

1 small jalapeño, seeded and minced

2 tablespoons shredded mint leaves

Salt

1/2 cup borage leaves (or substitute celery leaves)

/14 cup plain Greek yogurt

olive oil, for drizzling

Instructions:

1. In a blender, combine the chopped cucumbers, ice, water, grapeseed oil, lemon juice and half each of the jalapeño and mint and puree. Season with salt and refrigerate until cold.

2. Meanwhile, blanch the borage in boiling salted water for 5 seconds. Drain, rinse and squeeze dry. Finely chop the borage.

3. Pour the cucumber soup into bowls and garnish with the diced cucumber, borage, yogurt and the remaining jalapeño and mint. Drizzle the soup with olive oil and serve.

Cucumber Salad Part 2

Here's another very simple Cucumber salad, with an Egyptian twist. You'll be amazed how easy this is and how much excellent flavor it has!

8 oz Feta

1/2 C EVOO

2 - 3 Tbs lemon juice

1 Tbs water

salt and pepper

1 large cucumber, peeled, seeded, and cut into dice

1 small red onion, cut into dice

1 Tbs chopped mint

1 Tbs chopped parsley

1 Tbs chopped dill

Pita bread for serving

Crumble feta into a bowl, and mash with EVOO, lemon juice, water, salt, and pepper. Stir in cucumbers, onions, mint, parsley, and dill. Serve with pita.

Cucumbers

I've taken exactly one cooking class in my life - a class called Rural Chinese Cooking. I know the name of the class sounds alarming, but the premise was that most actual Chinese people never make deep fried breaded chicken, then roll it around in sugar syrup, toss in pineapple from a can, and serve it over rice. Sweet and sour chicken may be served in Chinese restaurants, but it is a totally American creation.

In this class we were supposed to learn how real Chinese people cooked. Fair enough. Our teacher started the class by giving us little servings of cucumber salad. And pretty much that's all I remember because I spent the rest of the class scheming to get my hands on more of the cucumber salad. It's dead simple, but the total is wayyyy more than the sum of its parts.

2 cucumbers, sliced thin
1/4 C rice vinegar
1 tbs toasted sesame oil
1 tsp brown sugar
red pepper flakes

I dare you not to eat a whole bowl.

- Christiana