Creamy Cucumber Salad

Cheap Eat Challenge, Part 2: Watch as our family of 6 eats on $10/day.

The idea of cucumber salad was new to me this summer. Although I embraced tomato cucumber salads several years ago, it never really occurred to me that one vegetable could carry a salad all by itself. And then my friend Sally gave me three large cucumbers well before my tomatoes were coming on. We ate a few with dip. And then they sat there in my refrigerator, looking too big and intimidating to do anything else with. And then I stumbled upon this recipe by Elise at Simply Recipes, and ba-da-boom, a new world opened up.

Because, you see, cucumbers are actually one of those vegetables that more than one person in this family likes. Which isn't to say that everyone in the family likes them. But Kip does. And Mark does. And some days Savannah does too. That's a really good batting average in the veggie department of this establishment.

So I took those cucumbers and made cucumber salads out of them. And they were a hit.

They're easy to make. You can keep it simple and just add some vinegar and salt and pepper. You can add any number of herbs from the garden. You can add mayo and mustard. Or mayo and Ranch powder.

My favorite is this creamy one.

Creamy Cucumber Salad
Serves 2
Prep time: 3 minutes
Cost: whatever a cucumber is--ours have been free; I'm going to say $.70

Note on skins: You can peel your cucumber or not. My advice is to taste a slice and see if the skin is tender or not. If it is, leave it on.

Note on bitterness: If your cucumber is bitter, I've heard you can chop off an end nub and rub the white of the nub against the white of the rest of the cucumber. This should bring out some whitish juice, which tends to be the bitter juice. Dab those off and your cucumber should be less bitter. I haven't had a chance to try it yet, because the cucumbers I've been getting from my garden have been great. Which brings me to a final note: If you grow a garden, just make an effort to pick the cucumbers young and they usually won't be bitter.

1 medium sized cucumber
1 Tbsp mayonnaise
a few shakes red wine vinegar
a few generous shakes salt
pepper
1/2 tsp chopped dill

Slice the cucumber into disks. (If it's really fat, cut it in halves or quarters first. If it's really seedy, cut it in quarters and slice off the seedy bit.)

Add other ingredients, mix, taste, and adjust seasonings.

PRINTABLE RECIPE