Cucumbers are tremendous versatile. We pickle them, flip them into basic salads, combine them with tequila, stack them in sandwiches and typically even swap them in for bread. However has it ever crossed your thoughts to cook dinner a cucumber? In case you're like most of us, that's a no.
Contemplating how commonplace cukes are in our eating regimen, it's stunning we haven't thought to ask this earlier than. Whether or not or not you've ever puzzled if cucumbers will be cooked (like after harvesting a bumper crop out of your yard backyard, maybe), we're right here with the intriguing solutions.
Associated: Retailer Cucumbers
Are you able to cook dinner cucumbers?
Seems, sure, you may truly cook dinner cucumbers. You'll uncover cooked cucumbers in numerous meals cultures together with Vietnamese, Korean, Thai and regional Indian cuisines, the place they're included into stir-fries, steaming soups and curries. Whereas many people haven't cooked a cucumber in our lifetime, it's time to begin. Overlook what you thought you knew in regards to the humble cuke and think about them honest sport on your subsequent veg stir-fry.
cook dinner cucumbers
Nevertheless you intend to cook dinner cucumbers, it's greatest to take away the seeds first (until you're cooking with a seedless cuke). This important step will reduce down on the quantity of water launched throughout cooking (and decrease considerably unappetizing seed floaters). Halve the cucumber lengthwise, then use a small spoon to scoop out the seeds. Subsequent, reduce the cucumbers into ½-inch-thick slices crosswise. They'll appear like crescent moons.
Whereas it's completely non-obligatory, salting the sliced cucumber earlier than cooking will assist to attract out extra moisture, lowering the chance that your closing dish is watery. Switch the sliced cucumber to a colander set over a bowl and toss with salt, about ¼ teaspoon salt per pound of cucumbers. Enable them to sit down for 20 to half-hour, then rinse the cucumbers properly below chilly working water. Make sure to pat them dry utilizing paper towels or a clear dish towel, or give them a wholesome whirl in a salad spinner earlier than including them to a scorching pan with oil.
To forestall cucumbers from turning into mushy when cooked, stick to quick-cooking strategies like sautéing and stir-frying, tossing them with oil in a scorching skillet or wok. (Cook dinner time is much less of a priority if you happen to plan to puree them into soups.) Sliced cucumbers can have related cook dinner instances to summer season squash like zucchini, just some minutes till tender and the specified stage of char is achieved—if you happen to're going for that look and barely smoky taste.
What do cooked cucumbers style like?
The flavour of cooked cucumbers is greatest described as that of uncooked cucumbers … besides, properly, cooked. They're nonetheless gentle and barely candy, however the greatest distinction between the 2 is texture (no shock). Cooking cucumbers will decrease their trademark crunch, however we promise that's not a nasty factor. Sautéed and stir-fried cucumbers grow to be tender whereas one way or the other nonetheless sustaining their chunk. Suppose crisp-tender in the easiest way. They pair properly with any variety of flavors, together with garlic, ginger, soy and toasted sesame, to call just some.
Including cucumbers to cooked dishes
You may truly cook dinner cucumbers by making use of warmth as we've revealed above, however cucumbers additionally shine when included recent into cooked recipes so as to add refreshing crunch and a cool temperature distinction. Don't overlook this humble vegetable for making herby raitas and brilliant salsas to steadiness the warmth of spicy dishes and Tex-Mex favorites, or for topping all the pieces from noodle bowls to grilled rooster to lettuce wraps for satisfying texture.
Are you able to cook dinner Persian cucumbers?
Persian cucumbers, a range much like English cucumbers, are thin-skinned with few seeds. They differ in dimension and pores and skin texture, and are much less watery than garden-variety cukes. They're excellent to be used in cooking and require much less prep. There's no have to take away their seeds earlier than dicing or slicing into rounds and tossing right into a pan. Kirby cucumbers, these mini cukes with knobby pores and skin, will be handled the identical means as Persian and English cucumbers.
Backside line
It's time to begin cooking cucumbers. Consider the greens we regularly eat uncooked that likewise shine when cooked. We roast radishes, grill watermelon, and wouldn't make rooster noodle soup with out celery, in any case. Don't assume cucumbers are a one-trick salad veg relegated to topping chopped lettuce and adorning crudité platters—though we nonetheless love them like that, too.
Associated: 32 Cucumber Recipes You'll Wish to Make All Summer season Lengthy
