I Love Cucumbers and 5 Recipes

I love cucumbers plain and simple and have found 5 delicious recipes to tempt you! I've been loving cucumbers since I was knee high to a grasshopper in Cleveland in Northeastern Ohio. That's a long time, you know, to be professing love for this green vegetable-like-fruit known as cucumber!

My favorite recipe for cucumbers involved either sour cream, vinegar, or onions! Ah, the delicious taste of cucumber salad. My grandmother, Julia Nagy, always seemed to make cucumbers the best. Then mom learned how, from grandma ... and then mom taught me how to prepare delicious cucumber recipes. Oh how I love cucumbers!

Would you believe? When my hubby [oh gosh, now the ex!] and I traveled to Hungary and Romania a couple of years ago, we were delighted to see cucumbers served so frequently with our meals!

Cucumbers also have a lot of other applications other than food; e.g., to reduce eyelid swelling or as a soothing facial mask, among other great uses! Get it all here! Recipes for delicious cucumbers and cucumber products to make you cool as a cucumber!

I love cucumbers you all. Did you know that 'cool as a cucumber' isn't just a catchy phrase as the inner temperature of a cucumber can be up to 20 degrees cooler than the outside air! Cool your jets and try some cucumbers today. I sure do love cucumbers; you know? Check the url of this page for further proof on the cucumber love of JaguarJulie!

Photo Credit: Cucumbers Fresh Splash by Steve Gadomski.

Do You Love Cucumbers Too?
How do you honestly feel about them? Either or ... there's no gray area with cucumbers!

• Love 'em
• Hate 'em

My Confession : I Sincerely Love Cucumbers

I love cucumbers prepared a number of ways! "I've been loving cucumbers thanks to my grandma Julia Nagy! She made the very best cucumber salad, Hungarian style. I love that I got to try Hungarian style cucumber salad when we traveled to Hungary. Try it; you'll like cucumbers too!"

Cucumbers are great by themselves, all dolled up, in a salad. Or, cucumbers can be a garnish on a tossed salad or in a cucumber sandwich for tea time! Don't forget pickling little cucumbers! There's also cucumber slices to place on your tired eyes and lots of other cucumber beauty products! Ah, I like that!

P.S. I just created a new recipe for my sliced cucumbers with onions and a little Asiago Peppercorn Dressing as the cream sauce. Check out my recipe from my blog! --The Brand Ambassador for Cucumbers, JaguarJulie!

Cucumbers : Cucurbitaceae
Cucumbers are in the gourd family Cucurbitaceae, which includes squash! Oh My!


#1 Cucumbers in Sour Cream Recipe

 Yumm yumm ... definitely my favorite cucumber recipe!

1 tbsp. sugar or splenda
1 cup sour cream
2 tbsp. vinegar
1-1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 large onion
2 cucumbers and onions

Blend together the sugar or splenda with salt, vinegar and sour cream. Finely chop the onion. Peel and thinly slice the cucumbers. Add cucumbers and onions to the sour cream mixture. Refrigerate for one hour and serve.

#2 Creamy Dill Cucumber Recipe: without Sour Cream

3 tablespoons mayonnaise or Kraft miracle whip
2 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon vinegar

1/2 teaspoon sugar or splenda
1/4 teaspoon salt
Dash of dill
1 cucumber

Blend together the mayonnaise or Kraft miracle whip, milk, vinegar, sugar or splenda and salt in a small mixing bowl. If using miracle whip, you won't necessarily need sugar. Blend until smooth. Peel and thinly slice the cucumbers. Add the cucumbers to the sauce mix. Add a dash of dill to suit your taste. Refrigerate for one hour and serve.

#3 Chilled Cucumber Soup Recipe

5 large cucumbers, peeled, seeded and quartered
1/2 cup finely chopped mild onion
1-2 cloves minced garlic
3 cups nonfat buttermilk
1 cup nonfat plain yogurt
1/3 cup fresh dil
2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste
dash of cayenne pepper

Add the onion, garlic and dill to 1/2  cup of buttermilk. Blend until you have a smooth puree. Pour into large container that will hold the entire mixture. Blend the remaining ingredients together until a thicker puree. Mix with the first batch. Add your salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper to taste. Refrigerate 2-3 hours and serve. Good the next day too!

#4 MaryJose's Recipe: Chicken salad with Cucumber -- Part 1

Get the rest of the recipe! MaryJose's Recipe: Chicken salad with cucumber part 2.

Cucumber Pickling History

First pickled a really long time ago ... Some 4400 years ago in Mesopotamia! Cucumbers were probably first pickled 4400 years ago in Mesopotamia. In India, pickles were well known by the Vedic period.

The pickling process was also known to the Ancient Greeks. Aristotle is reported to have praised pickled cucumbers for their healing effects. Julius Caesar's soldiers ate pickled cucumbers as health aids; many other brine-soaked foods were part of daily life in Ancient Rome. Cucumber pickling remained widespread across the Levant and Maghreb regions, where it is still very popular today.

Pickled cucumbers became popular in the United States due to the influence of the cuisine of Eastern European immigrants.

Pickled Cucumbers Poll

How do you take your pickled cucumbers? Got a preference? Why not try some Cucumber Boston Pickling Great Heirloom Vegetable 300 Seeds Packed By Seed Kingdom!

• Hot
• Dill
• Sweet

#5 Cucumber Avocado Facial Mask Recipe

1/2 cup chopped cucumber
1/2 cup chopped avocado
1 egg white
2 teaspoons powdered milk

Peel the cucumber and cut into pieces. Add to the chopped avocado, egg white and powdered milk in a blender and puree into a smooth paste. Refrigerate for one hour before use. Makes a great face and neck mask. Use as you normally use your face mask. Let dry and wash with tepid water to remove.

Grow Your Own Cucumbers!

Check out the wide array of cucumber seeds for planting at Amazon.

Do you LOVE Cucumbers?

Do you love cucumbers as much as I do? Got a favorite recipe? Love 'em with sour cream? How long have you been eating cucumbers? Had them in Eastern Europe yet??

History: I Love Cucumbers : 5 Delicious Recipes was originally created on Squidoo by JaguarJulie on January 12, 2008. On July 24, 2013 this lens earned the Purple Star Award for quality content. Highest lensrank ever achieved: #1,121 overall. Lens #239 in the quest for Giant Squid 300 Club.

Cucumbers in Asiago Peppercorn Dressing

Since I was a wee lass, I have been enjoying sliced cucumbers prepared a number of ways. I seriously love cucumbers. Undoubtedly, my favorite sliced cucumbers recipe is with some sort of cream sauce.

My grandma used to prepare her cucumbers in sour cream with some vinegar. It was a simple recipe and usually no cucumbers ever were left on the plate!

Recently, I was experimenting with Marie's Asiago Peppercorn Dressing. I sliced my cucumbers and added some chopped onions along with salt and pepper to taste. I then added some of that Asiago Peppercorn Dressing.

Sliced Cucumbers in Marie's Asiago Peppercorn Dressing

Holy smokes, but what a fabulous taste! My time is precious, so anytime I can come up with fast and easy recipes, it works for me.

Cucumbers in Asiago Peppercorn Dressing Recipe

1 medium cucumber - sliced
1/3 cup of chopped onions
3 tablespoons of Marie's Asiago Peppercorn Dressing
salt and pepper to taste

Peel your cucumber - I have always used a traditional stainless steel peeler like Brabantia Profile Stainless Steel Vegetable Peeler. After peeling, slice your cucumber. For slicing, you can use a traditional Stainless Steel Box Grater or a OXO Good Grips Hand-Held Mandoline Slicer. I personally use a steak knive.

For this recipe, my cucumber measured approximately 8 inches in length.

Finely chop an onion to 1/8" to 1/4" in size. Depending upon how much you like onions, you might add a little more or a little less. I use a healthy 1/3 cup amount.

Put the sliced cucumbers and onions on a plate and mix them together. Add salt and pepper to your taste. Generally sliced cucumbers benefit from a little more salt.

A tip when using Marie's Asiago Peppercorn Dressing: I find that the dressing out of the jar is quite thick so I like to dilute it with a little water to give it a looser consistency. That also helps to dilute some of the calories!

After I have diluted the dressing, I add 3 tablespoons of it to my sliced cucumbers and chopped onions. Blend your ingredients together until the sauce is nicely distributed.

You are ready to serve this fast and easy side dish!

Sliced Cucumbers in Marie's Asiago Peppercorn Dressing

I will bet that you will be dreaming up new side dishes using Marie's Asiago Peppercorn Dressing! It has got such a delicious taste. You know, I've also tried Marzetti's Asiago Peppercorn Dressing, but am not as impressed with the taste. I keep coming back to Marie's version.

It's amazing how some salad dressings make the perfect sauces for other dishes. People are using them in many creative recipes. I've used a variety of creamy salad dressings when preparing fish - on grilled salmon and on deep fried white fish or cod.

Oh, I've also prepared my sliced cucumbers using Ken's Steak House Red Wine Vinegar & Olive Oil Salad Dressing - that puts a tasty twist on using just vinegar.

By the way, that plate is actually from the Corelle Bamboo Leaf Square Round 16-Piece Dinnerware Set, Service for 4. A few years back, I bought one of these dinnerware sets from Amazon. When it arrived, I was so taken with the design and style that I quickly ordered a second set. I'm happy to report that I claimed these in the divorce agreement! Yeah. Oh, the plate in our recipe is actually the smaller luncheon plate. I find I will use the dinner plates more often as serving plates because of their bigger size.

P.S. Something I haven't tried since I was a wee lass is to grow my own from cucumber seeds. Now, I think that can kick the taste of this recipe up a notch on the freshness scale! P.P.S. I seriously love cucumbers!