Cucumbers are a healthy and versatile vegetable

by Mary Ryder   –   Daily Commercial

The cucumber is one of those vegetables that’s easy to ignore.

I’ve never met anyone who overtly disliked cucumbers — after all, it’s rather difficult to dislike anything so lacking in character.

The cucumber has a pleasant enough flavor, although, it’s a flavor that hovers barely above absolute blandness. It can’t be accused of being labor-intensive, because it’s normally eaten raw, and preparation consists mostly of peeling and slicing. Consisting primarily of water, it has only 8 calories to a 1/2-cup serving. It can’t be accused of being fattening, and while the texture is crisp, it doesn’t cross the line into hard crunchiness.

In my youth, I thought of cucumbers simply as raw material for pickles. At one time or another, I’ve helped make sour pickles, sweet pickles, dill pickles and bread and butter pickles. Of course, there’s also pickle relish, an absolute necessity when hotdogs are on the menu.

After pickles — a long way after pickles — come salads. I considered cucumbers something to be casually sliced up and tossed into a garden salad, or used as an extender when tuna or chicken salad sandwiches were on the menu and unexpected company showed up.

I was surprised to find they can actually assume a starring role in salads, soups and appetizers. And I was downright shocked when I saw a couple of kids who were going through a “picky eater” stage enthusiastically scoffing down chilled cucumber slices dipped in ranch dressing.

When preparing cucumbers for salad, it’s perfectly acceptable to simply slice them or chop them, but it takes very little effort to achieve a more decorative effect. If you’re using cucumbers with the peel on, take a sturdy kitchen fork, and holding the points of the tines firmly against the peel, drag the fork from one end of the cucumber to the other, cutting narrow stripes into the peel. When the cucumber is sliced, indentations from the fork give each slice a nice scalloped edge.

For easy seeding, peel the cucumber and cut in half lengthwise. Hold the point of a tablespoon against the cucumber at one end of the seed bed, and drag it toward the other end, scooping out the seeds. When sliced, the seeded halves form attractive crescent shapes.

Supermarket cucumbers, incidentally, may have a wax coating to help preserve freshness, in which case they should be peeled.

Cucumber soups are usually served cold, which make them good for summer eating. Some recipes call for minimal cooking, others for simply pureeing and chilling the ingredients. Most of the recipes I’ve seen use a yogurt base, although others call for chicken or vegetable broth.

A number of different herbs may be used for seasoning, including thyme, dill, basil, lemon balm, cilantro and mint. For fresh herbs, check the refrigerated section of the vegetable department at your supermarket, and if you want to use mint in your soup, look for spearmint rather than the more pungent peppermint.

This recipe, based on one distributed by Whole Foods Market, is one of those that requires no cooking. If you’re watching the calories, you can substitute low-fat sour cream and fat-free yogurt.