"C" is for Cucumbers

The feature ingredient for week 3 is cucumbers…not chickpeas.  L LOL  Just kidding, I’m cool with cucumbers.  Cucumbers are long, cylindrical shaped fruits and belong to the gourd family.   They have edible seeds and skin (if it’s not coated in wax) and the flesh is sweet and crisp.  There are many varieties of cucumbers cultivated for different purposes such as pickling and slicing.  Smaller kirby cucumbers are a popular variety of cucumbers that are pickled, whereas English or hothouse cucumbers, the most expensive cucumbers, are good for slicing.  English cucumbers have a much thinner skin than many other varieties, and they’re also said to be seedless because they’re cultivated to have very few if any seeds at all.  Cucumbers are available year round, but are at their peak between May and August.

The Humble Cucumber

One great thing about cucumbers is that on just about every diet plan I know of (ones that allow you to eat fruits and veggies), cucumbers are considered to be a “free food” right up there with lettuce.  Cucumbers have a high water content which can help make you feel full, and has very few calories.  They’re also high in Vitamin K, have a good amount of Vitamin C and have powerful antioxidants.

This week I hope to show you that there’s a lot more that we can do with cucumbers than just tossing them into a regular, old iceberg lettuce and tomato salad.  Yes, I definitely will make a salad out of these guys, but hopefully, it’ll be a salad that’s a bit of a departure from the norm.  I'm hoping to elevate this humble ingredient.  Be sure to pop in later this week to see what I’ve come up with.