Hey Healthy and Wealthy friends. Hope you are having a wonderful hump day. I wanted to "dish" today about a wonderful new find I was introduced to a a local farmer's market. It's this remarkable, delicious cucumber pictured here to the right.
I must admit, I was a bit intimidated when I first came across it. While it looked like a huge squash, I was drawn to it's celery green color - something I'd never seen before in this category of vegetables. The nice men who sold it to me said it is very popular, tastes similar to a regular cucumber and can be used in a variety of recipes or eaten as is. Well, I dabbled around in the kitchen a couple of days, did a little research on the Internet and came up with a delightful, tasty and colorful creation which I think you will enjoy. It's easy to put together too.
Here's what you'll need:
serves 4 as a side dish
1 large or medium Asian cucumber (check your local farmer's market)
- slice to your preferred thickness and then quarter it - should have at least 2 cups.
2 Tbsp red onion - diced
1/4 cup Tbsp red bell pepper - diced
2 Tbsp yellow bell pepper - diced
1 small cove of garlic, crushed
1 tsp dried dill weed
1/2 tsp black mustard seeds (optional)
Dressing
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup water
1T sugar
healthy pinch of salt
Combine cider vinegar, water, sugar and garlic in a small sauce pan and bring to a boil. Stir and remove from the heat when the sugar is fully dissolved. Add a pinch of salt and let cool.
Meanwhile, toss all the remaining ingredients together in a medium sized bowl. When the dressing is cool, pour over the vegetables; you may not want to use all the dressing if you prefer a drier salad. Toss and serve right away. Also, since the salad improves with sitting, it’s fine to do this up to several hours ahead of time.
Presto!! Here's the final product....
Didn't I tell you it was colorful?!?!? If you'd like to spice things up a bit, add a couple of dashes of your favorite hot sauce. I used Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce- you can find it in most supermarkets or Asian food stores. And if you don't have black mustard seed, skip it. Use fresh cracked pepper. I omitted the salt, just because I'm always careful of my salt intake. The salad didn't need it. And instead of sugar, I used liquid stevia - sweetened to taste.
I really enjoyed this salad. It was light and refreshing and best of all, easy breezy! Best of all, a 1/2 serving is less than 30 calories, especially if you use stevia to sweeten it!!!! Try it you'll like it.
If you have other recipes for this Asian cucumber send them to me. I'd like to try a few more before the end of summer/fall. Otherwise, I'll probably have to wait til next year when the farmers markets are in full swing.
Let me hear your thoughts on this latest healthy and wealthy recipe.
Smooches!
Here's what you'll need:
serves 4 as a side dish
1 large or medium Asian cucumber (check your local farmer's market)
- slice to your preferred thickness and then quarter it - should have at least 2 cups.
2 Tbsp red onion - diced
1/4 cup Tbsp red bell pepper - diced
2 Tbsp yellow bell pepper - diced
1 small cove of garlic, crushed
1 tsp dried dill weed
1/2 tsp black mustard seeds (optional)
Dressing
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup water
1T sugar
healthy pinch of salt
Combine cider vinegar, water, sugar and garlic in a small sauce pan and bring to a boil. Stir and remove from the heat when the sugar is fully dissolved. Add a pinch of salt and let cool.
Meanwhile, toss all the remaining ingredients together in a medium sized bowl. When the dressing is cool, pour over the vegetables; you may not want to use all the dressing if you prefer a drier salad. Toss and serve right away. Also, since the salad improves with sitting, it’s fine to do this up to several hours ahead of time.
Presto!! Here's the final product....
Didn't I tell you it was colorful?!?!? If you'd like to spice things up a bit, add a couple of dashes of your favorite hot sauce. I used Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce- you can find it in most supermarkets or Asian food stores. And if you don't have black mustard seed, skip it. Use fresh cracked pepper. I omitted the salt, just because I'm always careful of my salt intake. The salad didn't need it. And instead of sugar, I used liquid stevia - sweetened to taste.
I really enjoyed this salad. It was light and refreshing and best of all, easy breezy! Best of all, a 1/2 serving is less than 30 calories, especially if you use stevia to sweeten it!!!! Try it you'll like it.
If you have other recipes for this Asian cucumber send them to me. I'd like to try a few more before the end of summer/fall. Otherwise, I'll probably have to wait til next year when the farmers markets are in full swing.
Let me hear your thoughts on this latest healthy and wealthy recipe.
Smooches!
