Cucumber radish salad
Submitted by Eszter on July 14, 2009 - 11:22am
Servings:
6 This is a slightly altered version of the traditional Hungarian cucumber salad. My grandmother used to make it every Sunday for the whole family and I learnt it from her. Originally it is prepared with vinegar instead of lemon juice and vithout radishes, and served with a dollop of fresh sour cream on top.
I am sure it would taste great with raw sour cream; the fabulous queenfluff has a very tempting recipe here:
http://goneraw.com/node/849
Ingredients:
3 snake cucumbers (you know those really long ones)
10-12 small radishes
1 tablespoon sea salt
for the dressing:
juice of a large lemon (use the zest as well if you like - I usually do)
2 large cloves of garlic crushed
extra virgin olive oil to taste
pink Himalayan salt to taste
1 level teaspoon Hungarian sweet paprika (ground sweet red peppers)
a bit or freshly ground black pepper
a pinch of cayenne
1 teaspoon raw agave syrup to balance the taste
Preparation:
Wash the cucumbers and cut the ends down as they tend to be very bitter.
Slice them thinly (1mm thick slices) and layer the slices with sea salt in a large colander. Place it in your kitchen sink or in a larger dish and let it sit for about 1 hour (may be longer). You will see loads of liquid coming out the cukes. Rinse them thoroughly (you don't want all that salt ending up in your salad) and squeeze as much liquid out as possible.
Mix the cucumber wiht the similarly thinly sliced radishes in a bowl.
Prepare your dressing: juice the lemon and mix it with all the other ingredients. Use the lemon zest if you like - it gives a nice kick to the salad.
Mix the dressing with your greens and taste it again to see if it needs anything else.
Put it in the fridge for a few hours before serving.
Enjoy!
2 reponses to "Cucumber radish salad"
1. I guess you would need to eat
I guess you would need to eat the salad fresh in case you decide not to salt the cucumbers before.
Cucumbers tend to get very watery when standing, especially if you add some salt to the salad itself. I have tried it myself due to lack of time but did not like the results.
2. I wonder what it would taste
I wonder what it would taste like if you didn't add the salt to the cucumbers? I will try it this way. It's been so hot lately I could use all the liquid I can get. :)