Cucumber Ribbon Salad

I haven’t peeled the cucumbers for this recipe. For me, it brings a little extra color to the ribbon salad. Cucumber that is peeled loses some nutrients, so there’s another reason for you.

Still… hey, if you’re not a fan of cucumber skin, peel away!

By far the easiest way to make ribbons out of your cucumbers is to use a spiralizer. It will take less than a minute to make all the ribbons you need for this salad.

Cucumber ribbon is also great to use in place of pasta or noodles, especially if you’re on a low-carb or keto diet.

If you don’t have a spiralizer, do yourself a favor and get one. If you’re thinking “no, I don’t want one”... fair enough. You can use a vegetable peeler and get the same effect. It will take you longer and will be a lot more fiddly though.

Cucumbers contain a lot of water. In fact, with a water content of around 96%, they contain more water than any other food.

So, when added to a salad, they can have the unintended effect of making the salad very watery.

The best way to prevent this is to sprinkle them with salt, then leave them to stand in a bowl for 30 minutes. The salt draws the water out of the cucumber.

Then, once you’ve drained the cucumbers, you can assemble your salad, free from worrying about it turning into a soggy mess.

Believe it or not, there are actually quite a few different varieties of cucumber. They can all be broken down into three distinct categories: pickling, slicing and specialty cucumbers.

For this salad, we want a slicing cucumber. Some of the most popular types include diva cucumbers, sweet success cucumbers and straight eight cucumbers.

The best when it comes to salads are English cucumbers. They are long and straight with a particularly thin skin. This makes them perfect for slicing and throwing into salads with the skin still on.

They also have a sweeter flavor than most other cucumbers and their seeds are far smaller than the standard type. This means they don’t need to be deseeded before eating.

One of the great things about cucumber is just how many flavors it complements. As it’s a fairly neutral flavor, it sits well with flavors that are a little more intense.

In terms of spices, coriander, cumin, dried chili, turmeric and fenugreek all go well with cucumber. On the herb side of things, basil, chervil, dill, mint, oregano, parsley, sage, tarragon and thyme are all a great match.

If pecan nuts aren’t your nut of choice, there’s plenty of opportunity to play around. The idea is to bring a crunch to the cucumber ribbon salad, so really anything will do, as long as it doesn’t overpower the other flavors.

Pine nuts, macadamia nuts and walnuts would work well. You could also plump for seeds, such as sesame seeds, to get that desired crunch.

Yes, I recommend that you dive straight in! You can keep it in the fridge for up to 4 hours, but after that time it’s going to start to get soggy and won’t be very appetizing.