Cucumber salads

How do you feel about cucumbers?  I'm always kind of shocked when someone tells me they don't like them, but then I realize that maybe those cucumber-adverse people have only had grocery store cucumbers.  Those overly large waxy creatures are a poor substitute for garden cucumbers, which are loaded with a delicate flavor that I just love.

Cucumber mint spicy Thai salad:

This recipe from Kalyn' s kitchen blog contains a balance of spicy, sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and savory flavors. I love how the many flavors work together so well in this cucumber salad with a spicy Thai-inspired dressing, even if some of the ingredients are not authentically Thai. This light cucumber salad is a perfect side dish for grilled meat, seafood, or tofu, but I probably eat this most often as a quick main-dish salad for a very flavorful summer lunch.

Cucumber tomato Tabbouleh:

This salad recipe has many ingredients found in Tabbouleh, but the amount of tomato and cucumber and the addition of green onion gives this salad a slightly different attitude. This is a delightful way to use some tomatoes, cucumbers, mint, and parsley from the garden. I'm also thinking there are lots of interesting things that could be added to this.

Hungarian cucumber salad:

I haven't eaten that much authentic Hungarian food, but it's definitely on my list of places to visit, and I love the combination of sweet paprika and sour cream that's used in so many dishes in that part of the world.  Another recipe from Kalyn's kitchen blog

Peppers plus

This year there are 3 types of peppers in the veggie boxes: sweet Bell, mild Anaheim, and med Hungarian.  It's my first time with any success growing them and I will be adding more sweet types next year.  The Bell are short and squat. The Anaheim are long and green.  The Hungarian are slender and yellow/red.

Stuffed Anaheim Peppers:

This recipe is baked and the peppers are stuffed with cheese and bread crumbs. By removing the pith and seeds, you take out most of the heat as well.  Anaheim peppers are quite mild to begin with.

Grilled Bacon Pepper Wraps:

This recipe uses Jalapenos, but you can use the Hugarian peppers instead, which are very similar, although not as hot.  Tons of reviews from allrecipes.com - it is very highly rated as well.  The peppers are stuffed with cream cheese, wrapped in bacon, and then grilled.  Crispy on the outside and soft/cheesy goodness on the inside :))

Zucchini gratin:

Fresh basil and zucchini beckon, make a gratin.  This recipe is gluten free and uses vegan cheese, but could be sub'd for dairy cheese.

Zucchini Tomato Rice Gratin:

This recipe makes me very hungry just looking at it!  It also uses some eggs.

Zucchini Ratatouille

Great recipe which uses zucchini, pattypan, string beans, tomatoes, and green peppers.  I added in some extra large carrots that needed to be cooked.

This is from the green man blog at the Vancouver Sun - My ratatouille recipe does NOT include eggplant because my wife doesn’t like it and chances are good you aren’t growing it. You won’t miss it. This is my riff on the French classic, one that should dovetail very nicely with what your garden is giving you right now.