Cucumber

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Flavour Profile

Clean, fresh and mildly sweet with a crisp, juicy crunch. Cucumber is subtle, which is exactly why it works so well with stronger flavours like chilli, citrus, vinegar, herbs and salty dressings.

Health Benefits

Cucumbers are around 95% water, so they contribute to your daily fluid intake.

And when something is 95% water, there's only so much nutrition you can squeeze into the other 5%. Cucumber does contain some vitamin K and small amounts of potassium and other vitamins and minerals, but let's not pretend it's a nutritional powerhouse.

Keep the skin on when it suits the dish. There's some fibre and nutrition in there, and most of the time there's absolutely no reason to peel the whole thing.

Buying Tips

Pick it up.

A good cucumber should feel firm and heavy for its size, with tight, fresh-looking skin.

Avoid soft spots, shrivelling and yellowing. If it's bendy, it's already losing water, and that lovely crunch is disappearing with it.

Storage

Keep cucumbers in the fridge, but don't shove them into the coldest part.

Keep them dry and whole until you need them. Once cut, cover and refrigerate.

Cooking Uses

Salads, pickles, sandwiches, cold soups, yoghurt sauces, relishes, dips and smashed cucumber salads.

The good stuff

Forkin Food Theory

Cucumber is basically a crunchy water tank.

That's brilliant when you want freshness. Not so brilliant when you've made a cracking dressing and five minutes later there's a puddle at the bottom of the bowl.

Salt changes that.

Salt sliced cucumber and leave it for a short time and water starts moving out of the cucumber. Drain that away before dressing it and there's less water around to dilute all that flavour.

You're not trying to dry the cucumber out. You're controlling the water before the water controls your salad.

Wild & Wonderful

That watery, seedy middle isn't always your friend.

With larger cucumbers, I'll sometimes scoop it out when I want a salad to stay crisp and don't want all that extra water diluting the dressing. Cut the cucumber lengthways and run a teaspoon down the middle. Takes seconds.

But don't just chuck the middle in the bin. It's perfectly edible. Blitz it into a yoghurt dressing, cold soup or another dressing where the extra moisture isn't a problem.

And don't automatically peel the cucumber either. The skin brings colour, texture and some extra fibre. If it's particularly thick or tough, peel strips off rather than taking the lot.

One last thing: smash it.

Smashed cucumber isn't just restaurant theatre. Breaking it creates rough, irregular surfaces instead of the smooth face you get from slicing it with a knife.