Refreshing Cucumber Salad

Okay, don't be too surprised by this...

...but we're gonna talk about yet another "light" recipe today.  In honor of spring!

I know, I know.  How unlike me.

But I enjoy stretching my legs as little bit, as it were.  And it's not all about butter, is it?

Just humor me.

On Saturday, one of the dishes I made for our family barbecue was cucumber salad.  I had never attempted this simple dish before and I will probably play with it in the future.  But here's what happened this weekend:

I took two cucumbers...

...peeled them...

...and sliced them thin.

Here is an example of just how thin they were:

Now this is important.  I sprinkled a tablespoon of salt over the cucumbers, mixing them around while I did so, and left them in the fridge for well over an hour - maybe 90 minutes or so.  This really pulled the excess water out of the cukes, which I poured off.  Don't worry, the salt will not affect the taste of the dish - I could barely tell it was there.  I also pressed paper towels onto the slices to pick up any extra water.  This is all a very good thing, so your finished product isn't all watered down.

I then thinly sliced around a quarter of a large onion.  My crowd aren't huge onion fans so I went light on them - feel free to add more if you wish!

I then brought 1/2 cup of white vinegar, 1/4 cup of water, 1/2 cup of sugar and 2 teaspoons of dried dill mix to a boil...

...and poured it over the cucumbers and onions.  This sat covered in the fridge for a few hours.  When I took it out it looked like this!

This was such a refreshing treat! I think that I'll play with the vinegar/sugar ratio in the future, and perhaps leave it to sit longer before serving.  We had some leftovers the next day and the vinegar had definitely developed into a stronger flavor.  Rob didn't like it as much then, whereas I LOVED it.

So I'll leave that up to you!

Enjoy!

Sharing with:









All the Small Stuff - Tuesdays at the Table
Balancing Beauty and Bedlam - Tasty Tuesday