.................. Cooking with Barry & Meta: cucumber

Showing posts with label cucumber. Show all posts

Greek Summer Salad

Light, refreshing and a recipe that allows us to use garden produce. I halved this recipe and serviced it with sandwiches for a light summer supper.

Assembed salad, ready to refrigerate.

Salad Dressing mixture.

Greek Summer Salad

Vegetables:

1 English cucumber

1 orange, yellow or red bell pepper, diced

1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved

1/2 red onion, thinly sliced

1/2 cup pitted kalamata olives

A few torn pieces of fresh oregano, optional

Salad Dressing:

1/2 cup olive oil

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

1 lemon, juiced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

2 to 3 teaspoons fresh oregano, chopped or 1 tsp. dried

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon cracked pepper

Vegetables: Slice the cucumber in half lengthwise and then into chunks.
Add the cucumber to a mixing bowl along with the diced peppers, cherry tomatoes, sliced onion, olives, and oregano leaves.
Dressing: Whisk together all of the ingredients for the dressing and taste for flavor. Adjust seasonings to taste.
Assemble: Pour dressing over the vegetables and toss to combine.
Cover and refrigerate for one hour or longer to allow flavors to develop.
Serve cold or at room temperature.

Even though Facebook now sees fit to flood my feed with reels, I rarely pay attention to them. Their food videos are often juvenile, weird or downright disgusting! However, one caught my eye recently. I didn’t get the name of the cook or the recipe . . . and it is nearly impossible (at least for me) to ever find the video again. Anyway, this is my take on the salad reel that I watched. It is simply DELICIOUS! Full of crunch with a punch from the garlic & ginger dressing, and it also just happens to use the ingredients that I usually have on hand. Barry also gave it rave reviews!

We serve the salad with Smoked Ribs (Gates BBQ Rub & Sauce)
and Roasted Potatoes

Veg-Out Salad (I cut the salad in half and it made 4 serving for us)

Veggie Base

About half of a green cabbage, finely chopped

A large handful of baby kale, torn into bite-sized pieces

4 mini Persian cucumbers, diced

1 red or yellow bell pepper or use a mini red & yellow, chopped into small pieces

A handful of fresh cilantro, optional

Crunchy Addition

Salted and roasted pumpkin seeds – a handful or so

Combine veggie base in a bowl or dish (I added to the serving dish). Sprinkle with pumpkin seeds.
Right before serving, drizzle with dressing and toss.

Dressing

1 heaping tablespoon+ freshly minced ginger

3 to 4 cloves fresh garlic, fined chopped or minced

4 tablespoons (1/4 cup) mayonnaise (I used olive oil mayo)

5 tablespoons rice vinegar

1 tablespoon sesame oil + 2 tablespoons avocado or extra-virgin olive oil

Salt & pepper to taste.

Combine all ingredients and blend until well combined.

Recipe without photos . . . Veg-Out Salad (I cut the salad in half and it made 4 serving for us)

Veggie Base

About half of a green cabbage, finely chopped

A large handful of baby kale, torn into bite-sized pieces

4 mini Persian cucumbers, diced

1 red or yellow bell pepper or use a mini red & yellow, chopped into small pieces

A handful of fresh cilantro, optional

Crunchy Addition

Salted and roasted pumpkin seeds – a handful or so

Combine veggie base in a bowl or dish (I added to the serving dish). Sprinkle with pumpkin seeds.
Right before serving, drizzle with dressing and toss.

Dressing

1 heaping tablespoon+ freshly minced ginger

3 to 4 cloves fresh garlic, fined chopped or minced

4 tablespoons (1/4 cup) mayonnaise (I used olive oil mayo)

5 tablespoons rice vinegar

1 tablespoon sesame oil + 2 tablespoons avocado or extra-virgin olive oil

Salt & pepper to taste.

Combine all ingredients and blend until well combined.

Cucumber Salsa/Salad

This recipe popped up on Facebook and I had to give it a try. However, with a counter full of ripe tomatoes and spicy peppers, I opted to use those instead of the can of RoTel tomatoes called for in the original recipe. Ranch dressing mix is definitely the secret flavor ingredient. I had Barry taste it even before it had a chance to marinate and meld flavors. He thought it was full of flavor and a great use of our garden produce. This is definitely a recipe where ingredients can be adjusted according to preference or what's on hand!

SALSA OR SALAD? Although this is good chips, we think it is a great summer salad!

Cucumber Salsa/Salad

1 medium to large cucumber, finely diced

1/2 medium onion, finely diced (I used red)

2 ripe tomatoes, cored & finely diced

2 jalapeño, seeded & finely diced

2 tablespoons cider vinegar

1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons Ranch dressing mix

Kosher salt & coarse pepper to taste

Mix the veggies together.
Add the vinegar and dry ranch dressing mix; mix well.
Chill.

Recipe without photos . . .

Cucumber Salsa/Salad

1 medium to large cucumber, finely diced

1/2 medium onion, finely diced (I used red)

2 ripe tomatoes, cored & finely diced

2 jalapeño, seeded & finely diced

2 tablespoons cider vinegar

1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons Ranch dressing mix

Kosher salt & coarse pepper to taste

Mix the veggies together.
Add the vinegar and dry ranch dressing mix; mix well.
Chill.

Salad-in-a-Jar, Italian-style

Instead of our usual sandwiches, I assembled salads in jars for our backroad Saturday outing. There are so many ideas and variations but I used an Italian theme simply because of the ingredients I had on hand. The ideas are limitless. The ingredient list is vague as I just added the amounts we wanted and assembled them in the order I preferred—there are no rules except to start with the dressing and then to place a durable food ingredient on top, one that can marinate without becoming soggy.

Note: I first made these salads-in-a-jar in quart jars but that is a lot of food. Now we make them in wide-mouth pint jars.

Salad-in-a-Jar, Italian-style 2 quart-sized servings / cut amounts in half for pint jar

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup Creamy Italian Salad Dressing –homemade or commercial version with added chopped fresh herbs: rosemary, parsley, basil & oregano (or used dried Italian seasoning)

Chopped cucumbers with salt & pepper added (about 1 small)

Chopped tomatoes with salt & pepper added (about 2 medium)

Cannelini white beans, drained (about half of a 14.5 oz. can )

2 handfuls of baby spinach leaves

About 3/4 cup cooked pasta (a smaller sized variety; I used small shells)—after cooking marinate in several tablespoons of extra Italian Salad Dressed

About 1/4 to 1/2 cup uncured hard salami cut into halves or quartered

About 1/4 to 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

About 16 pitted kalamata olives

Additional baby spinach leaves

Sprinkling of additional Parmesan cheese

DIRECTIONS:

Advance Preparation: Make the salad dressing and cook the pasta and allow it to marinate in some of the salad dressing. Chop tomatoes and cucumbers and season with salt and pepper.

Salad assembly: Assemble jars in the order of the ingredients listed above, dividing ingredients among 2 jars.

Storage: Store jars in refrigerator until ready to eat. May be assembled the day before eating.

Final Preparation: Before eating, shake jars to distribute dressing.

We took our Salad-in-a-Jar to one of our Saturday outing—this one to Wilson Lake. Here's Barry shaking the salad to distribute the dressing on our picnic.

Scenic pics from our hike at Lucas Park, Wilson Lake

Recipe without photos: