Cucumber recipes for summer – refreshing and delicious

Enjoy these three cucumber recipes, refreshing, quick and perfect for summer:

Cucumber salad, cucumber soup, cucumber and tomato stirfry with rosemary! You can jump down to the recipes by clicking on the links.

Summer joys in the garden and kitchen

Summer is coming to an end. Wheat and other grains have been harvested, so the fields that were golden a short time ago are now brown again. The days can still get hot, but nights are cold. And for the past few days now, we have gotten up in the dark.

But summer is not quite over yet, and the time of ripening and harvesting in the garden is in full swing. Green beans and peas, salads, raspberries and plums… And, of course, cucumbers and tomatoes.

So let me give you three cucumber recipes that I think are perfect for these hot and humid days – quick and refreshing.

Refreshing cucumber recipes

In summer, my family often does not feel like having a hot meal. But we don´t want to live purely on fruit and Butterbrot, either. So what can I cook?

I recently posted a recipe for German potato salad, which is definitely a good summer dish. This time, I will give you three summer dishes with cucumbers as the main ingredient: Cucumber salad, cold cucumber and yoghurt soup, and cucumber and tomato stirfry with rosemary. All three are great cucumber recipes for summer, my children especially love the stirfry!

Cucumber and tomato stirfry with rosemary

This recipe is based on a traditional recipe from Lusatia, the region along Germany´s eastern border of Brandenburg and Saxony. I altered the traditional recipe according to my family´s taste and needs, and to what is reliably available where we live. It is best with steamed potatoes and perhaps a fried egg, but you can also have it with pasta, instead of a sauce.

Ingredients

1 cucumber; if possible, organic – otherwise, please peel it.

750 g tomatoes; any kind, but of course it is best if you can get beefsteak tomatoes.

1 big garlic clove, 2 chalottes (or one medium onion, but chalottes are better)

1 teaspoon of fresh whole rosemary leaves; you can substitute with a pinch of powdered rosemary, but fresh is much better. If you find the taste of rosemary too strong when you happen to chew on it, take a twig of rosemary and remove it after cooking!

2 tablespoons of olive oil (substitute: sunflower seed oil)

Salt and pepper.

Instructions for cucumber and tomato stirfry

1. Chop the chalottes (or onion) and garlic, dice the cucumbers and tomatoes.Do NOT remove the tomato peel and seeds.
2. Put two tablespoons of oil into a pan, heat it, add chopped chalottes/onion. Keep moving them in the pan, do not let them burn!
3. After a minute, add the cucumbers, tomatoes and garlic. Fry for about 7-10 minutes (medium to high heat, but not highest). Stir gently, at least the cucumber dice should keep their shape.
4. After about half of the frying time, add the rosemary leaves. If you are using powdered rosemary, add it after frying.
5. Add salt and pepper.

This is usually eaten with steamed potatoes (wash potatoes, put them in cold water, bring to a boil, boil for about 20 minutes, remove water, eat with peel, serve with a slice of cold butter and a bit of salt). It goes well with pasta, too.

Cold cucumber soup

Cold cucumber soup must be the easiest recipe ever, and is also great when you don´t want to heat your kitchen up on a hot day. The stove is not needed at all! You do need a mixer or a blender.

This soup is more filling than you would think, because of its high fat content, However, you can have it with some toasted bread and a salad, of course. If you still have a need for “more”, you could add steamed potatoes or some tuna or chicken meat to your salad. The cold cucumber soup is also a great starter for any summer meal or an addition to a barbecue.

Ingredients

Two cucumbers

1-2 cloves of garlic, not too small

750 g Greek or Turkish yoghurt (full fat)

100 ml of cold vegetable stock (you can prepare it from dried vegetable stock; in this case be very careful with additional salt!) – if you don´t have any, water will do.

Two tablespoons of frozen dill, or a little less fresh dill, chopped – some people prefer mint leaves instead, in that case take only one tablespoon of fresh mint leaves..

Salt, pepper, a pinch of cumin (optional: a little bit of vinegar)

Instructions for cold cucumber soup

1. Dice cucumbers (if they are not organic, peel them beforehand. Also do that if you find cucumber peel too bitter. The color gets nicer and the taste stronger if you leave it on).
2. chop garlic.
3. Put the cucumbers, garlic, and dill in the mixer and add the vegetable stock/water together with some of the yoghurt, depending on how much liquid your mixer needs to work well. Mix until the texture is smooth.
4. Pour into a bowl and stir in the rest of the yoghurt, season with sallt, pepper, cumin and with a little bit of vinegar /try a teaspoon, add more if necessary).

That´s it, enjoy your soup!

Cucumber salad with dill

Of course you can add cucumber to any fresh salad – for example, lettuce, tomatoes and vinaigrette. But cucumbers on their own make a good salad, too. This salad is very common in Germany and is frequently eaten as a side dish to fish or to a simple Butterbrot (sourdough rye bread with butter and any topping).

Ingredients

2 cucumbers

1-2 tablespoons of frozen dill or a little less fresh dill, finely chopped

250 ml cream

3 tablespoons of vinegar (white wine or apple cider vinegar)

1 chalotte, finely chopped

1 teaspoon of salt, a pinch of black pepper

Instructions for cucumber salad with dill

1. stir vinegar, salt and pepper with cream, adding the cream bit by bit. Then stir in the dill.
2. Slice cucumber as finely as possible. Ideally,it should be see-through. If the cucumber is not organic, you should peel it or wash it really well (rub dry thoroughly with a clean tea towel). The texture of the salad is nicer if you leave the peel on.
3. Put the cucumber slices in a salad bowl, pour the cream sauce over it and stir gently, but thoroughly.

If you think the cream sauce contains too much fat, you can replace up to 1/3 of the cream with water. On the other hand, if you find the salad too bitter, you can add a teaspoon of sugar to the sauce before adding it to the cucumber slices.