Cucumber Recipes

Summer cucumber crisps: refrigerator quick pickles with cloves, cinnamon, allspice, and mustard seed. Sweet-tart spiced pickle chips, no canning, ready overnight.

Thai pad Thai-style fried rice noodles with shrimp three ways (fresh, dried, and paste), scrambled egg, and a sweet-sour-salty sauce of fish sauce, vinegar, and brown sugar. Topped with crushed peanuts and lime.

Old-fashioned sweet pickles brined in salt and vinegar, then soaked in a spiced sugar syrup with cinnamon, cloves, and allspice. Crisp, tangy, and warmly spiced.

Classic tabbouleh salad with bulgur wheat, fresh tomatoes, cucumber, mint, parsley, and a lemon-olive oil dressing. A no-cook Middle Eastern grain salad that improves as it chills.

Whole chicken steamed then wok-smoked over tea leaves, cassia bark, star anise, and rice for deeply aromatic, mahogany-skinned Chinese smoked chicken. A showstopper Hunan technique with layers of warm spice and sesame.

Jumbo prawns butterflied and stuffed with a garlic-coriander-chicken paste, then grilled on skewers until bright orange. Served with a tangy sweet-sour cucumber salad on the side.

Grilled filet mignon sliced thin and marinated in chili paste, fish sauce, and vinegar, then served over crisp lettuce with cucumber-papaya rolls and a zesty lime dressing.

Charcoal-grilled pork loin marinated in oyster sauce, soy, and whiskey, sliced thin and piled over steamed sticky rice with fresh cilantro and chilies. A Thai street food feast worth the wait.

Cool cucumber, roasted peanuts, fresh basil, jalapeño, honey, and sesame oil make this no-cook Thai salsa a crunchy, sweet-spicy condiment for grilled meats, fish, or chips.

Crisp mixed greens meet crunchy vegetables in a creamy sesame-peanut dressing spiked with lime and ginger. Roasted peanuts add texture while brown rice syrup brings subtle sweetness to balance the tangy, garlicky Asian-inspired flavors.

A bright Moroccan salad from Essaouira with smoky grilled green peppers, ripe tomatoes, cool cucumber, and hot chilies dressed in olive oil, lemon, and cumin. Refreshing, bold, and unmistakably North African.

Open-faced tuna Danish stacked on toast with crunchy cabbage, grated carrot, cool cucumber slices, and a tangy yogurt-ketchup dressing. No-cook, 15 minutes, and diabetic friendly.

Crispy pantry tuna patties with celery, scallions, and soft breadcrumbs, pan-fried golden and served with a quick lemon sour cream sauce. Pantry dinner that doubles as next-day cold lunch.

Uunissa paistettu hauki, the Finnish whole baked pike stuffed with rice, cucumber, hard-cooked eggs, chives and parsley, browned in butter and finished in the oven until firm and flaky.

Veal chops in spicy sauce: braised with cumin, saffron, coriander, and cayenne, then finished with a cool cucumber-yogurt spoon sauce. Warm spice meets bright tang in one Dutch oven.

Garlicky gazpacho blended cold with six cloves of garlic, ripe tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers and onions, sharpened with balsamic vinegar and tomato-vegetable juice. A bold, no-cook summer soup served chilled.