MONDAY RECIPE POST - THE BEST CUCUMBER SALAD

This salad was found at Nutmeg Nanny hosted by Brandy.  Lately we've been thinking about making a cucumber salad.  No doubt you've got your favorites but as I haven't made one in a very long time, we searched online and this popped up. It has no mayonnaise, no oil but does have 3 tablespoons of rice wine vinegar. There are 6 servings and only 37 calories a serving.  The original recipe is here. A very refreshing summer side-salad.

Brandy's Best Cucumber Salad – serves 6

Calories per serving 37:

From prep to table: 2 hours 15 minutes (up to 2 hours marinating the cucumber but ours was only in the marinade for 20 minutes or so.  It was delicate and delicious.)

1 lb. mini cucumbers, thinly sliced (Persian cucumbers are nice, or hot house cucumbers.  You can use regular but as the skin is thick, best to peel them.  I have bought the Persians but I can't get them that often. The packet on the ones at our local supermarket just said miniature cucumbers.  See info below recipe on related websites) 

1 small red onion, thinly sliced

3 tablespoons seasoned rice wine vinegar

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

1 teaspoon dried dill

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper

Add all ingredients to a large bowl and toss to combine.

Cover, and place in the refrigerator and let sit for at least 2 hours to help the flavors develop.

Serve cold.

We both enjoyed this.  See the original recipe for all Brandy's tips.  

I wouldn't change a thing on this one, but I did notice that I used plain rice wine vinegar and not seasoned.

We built our meal around the cucumber salad, and had the ingredients already.

A package of frozen Firecracker Shrimp from Wegmans. It comes with a tasty sweet chili sauce packet which I used on my shrimp and rice after serving.  We have had these before and thoroughly enjoy them but next time I would like to try regular steamed shrimp.

Up to a cup of Frozen Trader Joe's Jasmine Rice, cooked to package directions.  There are three packets to a box and we use 1 box that we place in the microwave for three minutes.  It is nice on busy days.

Crudités consisting of slices of 1 sweet pepper (prefer red, orange or yellow), thinly sliced radishes, and stuffed celery with a commercial pimiento cheese.  Also whipped cream cheese goes well.  I stuff the celery stick and cut into bite sized pieces and they are a tasty treat.  This is old school so you probably do this yourself.  I used to use peanut butter for our son when packing his school lunches.

My plate looks like it has an orange crab on top!  Ah well, you win some, you lose some.  All that being said, the veggies suited our taste, and the combination was what we would choose again. Very yummy!

The full address of the salad is below:

https://www.nutmegnanny.com/the-best-cucumber-salad/

I found an interesting website on the different kinds of cucumbers at this address here.

Another website with good information here but there are a lot of pop-ups.

Thanks for looking, 

and have a great week!