How hot was it? We don’t need to relive that. 🙂 But, cucumbers worked well as the star ingredient of the WFM cooking demo on July 20! And, since all our produce farmers had plenty of cukes and/or blueberries for sale, a cucumber and blueberry salad seems a good choice. Plus, I brought back the Quick and Simple Pickles recipe from last August with just a minor twist, using maple syrup from our own Ackermann’s Maple Farm as the sweetener.
First, click HERE for the link to the Quick Pickles recipe. I followed it as is except I used a scant tablespoon of maple syrup instead or the two tablespoons of honey I used last summer. The original recipe calls for up to two tablespoons of sugar, buts notes the sweetener as optional. Oh, I used pickling cukes. I tried a bite and found the peel to be bitter. It would not matter when using a heat pickling technique, but I opted to peel them for this recipe.
Now, on to the salad! So easy! I used regular cucumbers and followed this recipe except for changes noted:
Cucumber Blueberry Salad
1 cucumber (10 inches long and 2.5″ diameter or so)
2 cups (1 pint) fresh blueberries
2 tablespoons thinly sliced scallions
2 tablespoons olive oil
1+ tablespoon lime juice (I used freshly squeezed lemon juice)
1+ tablespoon rice vinegar (or type of your choice)
½ cup coarsely chopped cilantro or parsley leaves, loosely packed (I used parsley)
¼ teaspoon salt
1⁄8 teaspoon black pepper
½ cup (2 ounces) crumbled feta cheese, optional (No feta used but a great addition!)
Of course, adjust all seasonings/ingredients to taste!
Peel cucumbers if/as desired. With a sharp knife, cut the cucumber in half lengthwise. With the tip of a spoon, scrape out the seeds
Cut into thin slices. In a large bowl, toss cucumber, blueberries, scallions and. In a small bowl, whisk the olive oil, lime (or lemon) juice, parsley or cilantro , salt and pepper. Pour over the cucumber mixture and toss to combine.
Sprinkle with feta cheese, if desired (you could use a stronger vinegar if using feta). As I always say, use all recipes as a guideline. What tastes best to YOU is what matters. That and supporting our farmers and vendors, of course. Enjoy!
