With Labor Day behind us and the Autumnal Equinox a few weeks away (September 23), there’s still plenty of time left to stock up on your favorite summer ingredients. Some of the foods I long for as soon as they are gone include peaches, melons, corn and cucumbers.
My Grandmother’s Cucumber Salad
While you may be thinking–cucumbers grow year-round, you are right, they do. But the peak cucumber season at the farmers market is coming to a close. Look for lemon cucumbers, pickling cucumbers and persian-like cucumbers with few seeds. All of these varieties make a sensational cucumber salad.
During the summer months, my grandmother would make this vinegary cucumber salad that I can still taste when I close my eyes. She combined cucumbers, white onion and vinegar for a salad that combined well with everything–and she often added fresh dill. Crisp, cold and punchy from the white vinegar, I could eat the entire bowl–though I never did.
Contemporary Cucumber Salad
Fast forward 35 years and I still crave her cucumber salad, though I have given it my own spin. While I have maintained the essence of my grandmother’s version, I have added additional colors, textures and red wine vinegar to make this salad pop.
I like a variety of cucumbers, such as lemon cucumbers and I prefer the burpless cucumbers without seeds, like Persian or English cucumbers. To the diced cucumbers, I add salt, julienned radishes, diced red onion, a handful of cherry tomatoes cut in half, flat-leaf parsley, lemon juice, olive oil and red wine vinegar.
This healthy side dish comes together in less than 15 minutes and you can eat it immediately or let it sit for a while and snack on it for a few days. Fresh, crisp, colorful and vinegary, this cucumber salad will help you squeeze the last bit of summer out of the season before everything around us becomes flavored with pumpkin spice!
Buen provecho!
Cucumber Salad
Crisp cucumbers pair well with red wine vinegar, red onions, tomatoes, radishes and parsley for a sensational summer salad. This salad is good eaten al momento and it's good as leftovers which makes this good for the long haul.
Ingredients
- 2 large cucumbers I use two different cucumbers such as lemon and persian or English
- 1 teaspoon kosher or sea salt
- 4 radishes julienned
- 1/2 cup cherry tomatoes cut in half
- 1/2 red onion diced
- 1/2 lemon juiced
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 1/3 cup flat-leaf parsley chopped
Instructions
-
In a big bowl, add diced cucumbers and salt.
-
Continue chopping the remaining ingredients--radishes, red onion, cherry tomatoes and parsley--and add into the bowl with the cucumbers. Stir well to combine and let sit for a few minutes so the flavors meld.
-
Add the juice of half a lemon, olive oil and red wine vinegar and toss to coat all of the ingredients.
-
Add the chopped parsley and stir again.
-
Refrigerate until ready to serve or serve immediately. Any leftover salad will keep in the fridge for up to three days.