Cucumber is a vegetable most often consumed fresh. In the hot season, it perfectly quenches thirst and is used to prepare all kinds of salads. This will not take much time, the main actions are peeling and slicing vegetables.
Cucumber Salad - Preparation
First of all, you need to trim the ends of the cucumber with a knife, and then peel it. Greenhouse vegetables can not be cleaned, because they have a thin peel and no bitterness. Next, the cucumber is cut into round or thin longitudinal slices. If you cut each slice into strips, you get a straw, and the straw can already be chopped into small cubes. To get a crescent cut, you need to cut the cucumber in half lengthwise, remove the pulp and seeds from it with a teaspoon, and then cut into transverse slices.
Cucumber Salad - The Best Recipes
Recipe 1: Cucumber and Tomato Salad
Cucumbers and tomatoes are some of the most popular vegetables. Their combination gives salads both a wonderful taste and an external appeal. They are wonderful combined with meat, herbs, onions and bell peppers.
Ingredients
Big cucumber - 1 pc.;
tomatoes - 2 pcs.;
onions - 2 pcs.;
cream 20% fat - 100 g;
French mustard - 1 table. lies .;
dill - 1 bunch;
sugar - 1 tea lies .;
salt - 1 table. lies .;
vinegar 3% - 3 tables. lies .;
vegetable oil - 2 tables. lies.
Cooking method
Cut the prepared cucumber with a crescent (as described above). Cut the washed tomatoes crosswise, place for 10 seconds. in boiling water, remove, peel. Extract seeds from tomatoes and cut them into medium-sized cubes. Finely chop the onion. Stir all the vegetables, salt and set aside for half an hour.
Prepare dressing by mixing vegetable oil with mustard, cream and vinegar. Season it with sugar, salt, and pepper.
Drain the juice from vegetables and pour them with dressing. Mix everything well, sprinkle the salad with chopped dill.
Recipe 2: Fresh Cucumber Salad
Fresh and spicy cucumber salad. Having simplified the recipe a little, it can be easily cooked even on a picnic. In any case, this is a wonderful dish that is easily combined with meat and fish.
Ingredients
Short-fruited cucumbers - 4 pcs.;
small red onion - 1 pc.;
ground black pepper, salt to taste;
dill - a few branches.
Acetic dressing:
sugar - 1/2 tea lies .;
wine white vinegar - 1/2 table. lies.
Yogurt dressing:
yogurt or thick sour cream - 1 table. lies .;
garlic - 1 clove;
olive oil - 2 tables. lies.
Cooking method
Cut cucumbers into thin crescents, and onions into half rings. Put the vegetables in a colander, salt them, mix and leave for 20 minutes until excess fluid is released.
At this time, you can prepare a dressing to your liking, or both. For the first, you need to dissolve the sugar in vinegar, and for the second - dilute the yogurt with olive oil to the desired consistency, add the garlic and dill passed through the garlic press.
Serve like this: on one plate, cucumbers with onions, and on the other - dressings. Everyone will choose the right one and pour salad from above. Separately put the pepper shaker and salt shaker for those who wish to season the dish at their discretion.
Recipe 3: Cucumber Salad for the Winter
A wonderful recipe, the convenience of which is that in winter you just need to drain the marinade, put the salad on a plate and mix. If you still season it with mayonnaise, it will be generally fine.
Ingredients
For one half liter jar:
cucumbers
carrots - 1 pc.;
onions - 2-3 pcs.;
dry dill seeds - 1 teaspoon. lies .;
garlic - 1 clove;
allspice or black peas;
Lavrushka - 1 pc.
Marinade (for 8 half-liter cans):
water - one and a half liters;
sugar - 150 g;
table vinegar - 1 glass;
salt - 75 g.
Cooking method
Wash fresh cucumbers thoroughly and soak in water for 4 hours to get rid of possible bitterness and excess air. After this procedure, they will become more dense. Next, cucumbers should be cut across into large rings (about 1 cm thick). We also chop the onion, but a little thinner. Grind carrots on a coarse grater.
Wash the jars well, put in them a clove of garlic, chopped into thin plates, a teaspoon of dill seeds and peppercorns. Spread in layers: a centimeter of onions, a centimeter of carrots, 2 cm of cucumbers. So alternate until the jars are full.
For marinade, dissolve salt, sugar in boiling water and add vinegar. Pour the cans with the resulting boiling liquid, cover with metal lids and sterilize for 35 minutes. In order for the layers in the jars not to mix, it is better not to turn them over then, but simply wrap them with a thick blanket for the night.
Recipe 4: Garlic Cucumber Salad
Garlic flavor gives even more appetite to this salad. Refills can vary to your liking.
Ingredients
Cucumbers - 4 pcs.;
garlic - 3 cloves;
salt;
dill;
vegetable oil (sour cream) - 2 tables. lies.
Cooking method
Peel the cucumbers, free from the pulp and cut into medium-sized cubes. Pass the garlic through the garlic press. Wash greens, dry slightly and chop finely. Mix cucumbers, garlic and sour cream (vegetable oil). Salt, put in a salad bowl, sprinkle with dill. Insist 15 minutes and serve.
Cucumber Salad - Tips from Experienced Cooks
The cucumber skin contains many useful substances, so if you are confident in the quality of the cucumbers and the peel is not thick, then it is better not to peel them. It is also advisable to soak the vegetables so that nitrates come out of them.
