Cucumber
Cucumbers have been cultivated for over 3000 years. Despite the fact that cucumbers are over 90% water, my Grannie was allergic to them!
Something in the skin brought her out in a rash. It could have been the chemical cucubitacin, which is also said to be responsible for the bitterness in the skin.
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Another infamous side effect of cucumbers is their "burping potential". Lots of people find they get "burpy" after eating cucumber. But the good news is that there are now "burpless" varieties out there!
Cucumbers don't usually require any special treatment. However, they do lose water once cut. So if you're serving them with a sauce or dressing and plan to store the dish for a while before serving, your sauce / dressing could get very running.
One solution is to draw out the water from a cucumber , before adding the sauce.
Go straight to cucumber recipes.
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How To Store |
| Cucumbers are best stored in the fridge. They'll usually keep for up to a week. We have had best results by storing them wrapped in a paper bag in the salad compartment, rather than leaving them uncovered. |
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How To Use |
Most people prefer to use cucumber raw, for example, sliced in a salad.
Or you can chop it to make a relish.
Sometimes people cook it. If you have an interesting cucumber recipe, please send your cucumber recipe to us!
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How To Draw Out Excess Liquid |
Cucumbers don't normally need any special treatment for normal salad-style use.
However, if you're making a dish like Tsatsiki, which needs to marinade, the dressing will get very watery, unless you draw out the excess liquid first.
- Cut the cucumber as required by the recipe, e.g. diced, sliced, grated.
- Put the cucumber into a colander or sieve and sprinkle it with salt.
- Put a bowl / dish / plate on top of the cucumber and weigh it down, so it pushes the cucumber towards the holes in the sieve / colander.
(Note: cans of food are useful for this)
- Leave for about half an hour.
You might want to stir the cucumber part way through, to get out more liquid.
- Continue with your recipe.
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Suggested Recipes | |
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| Tsatsiki |
Tsatsiki is delicious when prepared with fresh ingredients - and it's an easy organic recipe. Once you've experience the flavours of home-made tsatsiki, we suspect you'll never want to go back to the supermarket version.
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Got one? Send us your cucumber recipe!
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