Pages

Cucumber Salad

I’m knee deep in sugar. Literally! I’ve been testing and re-testing and dreaming about and sampling many, many DESSERT recipes for the “Sweet Treats” chapter of The Recipe Girl Cookbook. The past few weeks have been delicious and full of some pretty major gym workouts to manage all of those “tasting” calories. This Cucumber Salad recipe was a welcome, healthy reprieve, for sure.





The recipe comes from a new cookbook by Bee Yin Low, the writer behind the popular food blog: Rasa Malaysia. The cookbook is called, “Easy Chinese Recipes: Family Favorites from Dim Sum to Kung Pao.”  It’s a collection of Low’s all-time favorite dishes that are simple and easy to cook and eat at home.  Low says there is a general misconception that Chinese food is unhealthy, greasy, and mostly deep-fried.  In reality, Low says, there are many fresh and healthy Chinese recipes, such as this Cucumber Salad.  I’m giving away a copy of Easy Chinese Recipes today- see the end of this post for details!
Here’s how you make it:

You’ll need a cucumber… about 8 to 10-inches long.  Chop off the ends.

Cut it in fourths- lengthwise.

Slice off the seeds.

Cut each piece diagonally into 1/2-inch pieces.

Sprinkle the cucumber with salt.

Let the cucumber sit at room temperature for 30 minutes (to draw out the moisture in the cucumber). Then drain the liquid from the dish.  I actually rinsed it at this point too since I didn’t want an overwhelming salty flavor.

At this point, transfer the cucumber to a plastic bowl with a lid.  Add sugar…

…and rice vinegar.

Put the lid on the bowl, shake it up to coat the cucumbers, and refrigerate it for an hour.  This will give it a chance to soak up those flavors.  The vinegar helps add crunch to the cucumber.

Serve this up as an appetizer or a side dish, or as a salad too.

It makes just two servings- and each serving is 35 calories and only 1 Weight Watchers Points Plus (if you need to know that sort of thing).

0 comments:

Post a Comment