Nana’s Kitchen: Creamy Cucumber Salad

Nana’s Kitchen: Creamy Cucumber Salad

Greetings, home cooks, welcome to Nana’s Kitchen,

There have been some lovely cucumbers at the farmer’s market. The slicing cucumber and the smaller pickling one are abundant. All very nice and a pleasing shade of green. This produce brought to mind the garden my father-in-law grew. There were always cucumbers and my mother-in-law always had a cucumber salad on the table in the summer. She made a creamy one that was very good. Unfortunately she never wrote anything down. She never measured. I have tried to remember what she did but to no avail. So I have been trying to find what I thought was her recipe. Todays recipe is good, but it is not as I remembered. My memory could be wrong. 

Here are a few tid-bits about the humble cucumber. It is 95% water. Botanically speaking it is classified as a “Pepo”, a type of botanical berry. Often prepared as a vegetable.

The health benefits of the cucumber include low in calories, carbohydrates, fat, and cholesterol.
It has antioxidants. It promotes hydration due to the water content. Cucumbers may even help reduce blood sugar levels. The cucumber also contains vitamin C, potassium, magnesium, potassium, and manganese. 

In the beauty line cold cucumber slices can be placed over the eyes to help reduce puffiness and irritation. Cucumbers can be placed on a sunburn as well. Can attest to the eye puffiness, but not the sunburn.

Creamy Cucumber Salad

Ingredients:
1 1/2 pound cucumbers (can use pickling cucumber, slicing cucumber, or English cucumber)
1/2 medium red onion, thinly sliced
One tablespoon of fresh chopped dill
3/4 cup sour cream
1/2 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 large or 2 small garlic cloves, crushed
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

In a small bowl combine sour cream, lemon juice, garlic, dill, salt and pepper. Set aside.
Slice the cucumber in thin rounds. If using a larger cucumber slice the cucumber in half and slice in half rounds.
Place in a large bowl, add the onion. 
Before serving mix in the dressing.
Can refrigerate up to 2-3 hours before serving.

Hints:
Makes 6-8 servings.
I did not totally peel the cucumbers. I used the slicing cucumber. 
I thought the peel had a hint of bitterness to it.
To peel or not to peel, your choice.
Used a mandolin to uniformally slice the cucumbers, worked well.
You could dice the red onion if a smaller size if more pleasing.
Add more salt and pepper to taste and dill if you like.
This was good but still did not taste like I remember. Seemed it needed a bit of sweetness.
Tasted this at room temperature and I decided cold would be better. After 2 hours of marinating in the refrigerator the flavors did improve. 
After sitting over night the water in the cucumbers released and the mixture was a watery.
Store bought cucumbers can have a wax coating so they should be peeled as compared to fresh garden cukes. 

Have blessed Sunday.
Hope your gardens are doing well.