Wordy's Strawberries and Cucumbers

There are combinations of foods that I would never think of going together, and this particular recipe is one of those. I wrote about this on my last blog (before it was accidentally deleted), and want to share it again.

A friend from IRC – Wordsmith – knows of my penchant for trying new and different recipes and one day, about 1 1/2 years ago, I was hungry and not in the mood for anything. He told me to try strawberries and cucumbers. At first, I was like..what the heck kind of combination is that!?! But.. I ended up trying it, and falling in love with the tangy/sweet flavors.

Since then, I’ve found there are a lot of recipes for strawberries and cucumbers out there in the world — from salads and soups, to grilling and stir-frying. Who knew?!

I took the concept of this recipe from Wordsmith, and played around with it. I added the sugar and lemon juice, which seem to balance out the flavors once the vinegar is added. I used warm water to dissolve the sugar, though it isn’t necessary if you are not going to serve this immediately.

Strawberries and Cucumbers

1 pint of strawberries, cored and sliced
1 English cucumber, sliced – peel if it is a bitter peel.
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons warm water
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Combine the sugar, lemon juice and vinegar in the warm water. Peel the cucumber if necessary — I usually only do this if the peel is bitter. And even then, I like to leave a little on. I peel the cucumber so it is, in essence, striped. Looks pretty that way, ya know. Pour the sugar/lemon/vinegar juice mixture over the cucumbers and allow to sit for about 15 minutes or so.

Meanwhile, core and slice the strawberries. I like to slice them, you may just want to quarter them. Up to you.

Add the strawberries to the cucumbers and toss to mix. Serve.

Notes:

• If you are going to serve this later, you don’t need to use the warm water to dissolve the sugar — just mix it with the lemon juice and vinegar, and you are good to go.
• This salad is so good with left over chicken, or salmon. It’s also great with poached salmon. It’s also great with broiled salmon. Okay…..it’s just really really good with salmon, already ;)
• I’ve seen some recipes that add mint, use brown sugar, soy sauce, cider vinegar, add spinach..there are endless variations to this recipe.